external FW drive won't boot

In article <1gf85a0.1noz9uaskdycwN%nomail@please.invalid>, Johan W.
Elzenga <nomail.RemoveThis@please.invalid> wrote:

 > Richard Pini <rpini.RemoveThis@elfquest.com> wrote:
 >
  > > I bought a pocket firewire drive to carry around with my G4 Powerbook
  > > on travel and jobs; on the external drive I installed 10.2.6 (which was
  > > current at the time) along with some fixit utilities like Diskwarrior
  > > and TechTool. On the Powerbook I have 10.2.8.
  > >
  > > Memory says that I used to be able to hook up the external drive and
  > > boot from it, either by setting it as the startup disk in system prefs,
  > > or by holding cmd-opt-shift-delete on startup. Lately, however, I can't
  > > seem to get the external drive to boot no matter what I do. Startup
  > > prefs "sees" both disks, but setting to the external doesn't work.
  > > Holding down "option" upon startup does NOT see both disks.
  > >
  > > Like Watson describing the starry night sky (as Holmes fumes about the
  > > missing tent), I suspect I'm missing something right before my eyes.
  > > But what?
 >
 > Is it a new Powerbook and an older drive? The latest Powerbooks need
 > 10.2.7. minimum, so they can't boot off your 10.2.6. external drive.

That made sense, as it got me to recall that indeed, I had had an older
15" G4 Powerbook. I went to the Apple site, downloaded the 10.2.8
updater, and applied it to the partition on the pocket drive - all
indications were that it went on fine.

Unfortunately, that didn't affect a thing. Startup disk in System Prefs
still "sees" the pocket drive as a boot disk, but choosing it doesn't
work, nor does holding the option key (does not "see" drive), nor does
holding cmd-opt-shift-delete (a "?" folder blinks on the desktop until
I let go the keys, at which point the PBook's own hard drive kicks in).

I've looked all over the Apple support site, no luck. The only other
clue, if such it is, is that there are differences in what's actually
in the PBook and pocket drive volumes: On the PBook, for example, I see
a document "gmon.out" and the OS 9 System Folder, both absent from the
pocket drive. On the pocket drive, however, I see "mach_kernel" and
"mach_sym" as well as a couple of aliases to folders, that I don't see
on the PBook. ?!?

I suppose I could wipe the partition and reinstall up to 10.2.8... but
it'd be nice to know what's gone wrong, if there's an answer to be
had...

Richard Pini<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: external FW drive won't boot 

In article <140620042018121768%rpini@elfquest.com>, Richard Pini
<rpini RemoveThis @elfquest.com> wrote:

 > In article <1gf85a0.1noz9uaskdycwN%nomail@please.invalid>, Johan W.
 > Elzenga <nomail RemoveThis @please.invalid> wrote:
 >
  > > Richard Pini <rpini RemoveThis @elfquest.com> wrote:
  > >
   > > > I bought a pocket firewire drive to carry around with my G4 Powerbook
   > > > on travel and jobs; on the external drive I installed 10.2.6 (which was
   > > > current at the time) along with some fixit utilities like Diskwarrior
   > > > and TechTool. On the Powerbook I have 10.2.8.
   > > >
   > > > Memory says that I used to be able to hook up the external drive and
   > > > boot from it, either by setting it as the startup disk in system prefs,
   > > > or by holding cmd-opt-shift-delete on startup. Lately, however, I can't
   > > > seem to get the external drive to boot no matter what I do. Startup
   > > > prefs "sees" both disks, but setting to the external doesn't work.
   > > > Holding down "option" upon startup does NOT see both disks.
   > > >
   > > > Like Watson describing the starry night sky (as Holmes fumes about the
   > > > missing tent), I suspect I'm missing something right before my eyes.
   > > > But what?
  > >
  > > Is it a new Powerbook and an older drive? The latest Powerbooks need
  > > 10.2.7. minimum, so they can't boot off your 10.2.6. external drive.
 >
 > That made sense, as it got me to recall that indeed, I had had an older
 > 15" G4 Powerbook. I went to the Apple site, downloaded the 10.2.8
 > updater, and applied it to the partition on the pocket drive - all
 > indications were that it went on fine.
 >
 > Unfortunately, that didn't affect a thing. Startup disk in System Prefs
 > still "sees" the pocket drive as a boot disk, but choosing it doesn't
 > work, nor does holding the option key (does not "see" drive), nor does
 > holding cmd-opt-shift-delete (a "?" folder blinks on the desktop until
 > I let go the keys, at which point the PBook's own hard drive kicks in).
 >
 > I've looked all over the Apple support site, no luck. The only other
 > clue, if such it is, is that there are differences in what's actually
 > in the PBook and pocket drive volumes: On the PBook, for example, I see
 > a document "gmon.out" and the OS 9 System Folder, both absent from the
 > pocket drive. On the pocket drive, however, I see "mach_kernel" and
 > "mach_sym" as well as a couple of aliases to folders, that I don't see
 > on the PBook. ?!?
 >
 > I suppose I could wipe the partition and reinstall up to 10.2.8... but
 > it'd be nice to know what's gone wrong, if there's an answer to be
 > had...
 >
 > Richard Pini

Update/addendum (for anyone's information):

It appears that the newer Powerbook is fussier than I knew; none of the
utility CDs that worked on the previous one (other than Diskwarrior
3.0.1) would boot. I finally took the 10.3 install disks I've been
sitting on (an early adapter I am not!) and put Panther onto the
external drive. It boots the Powerbook just fine. Moving up to the
latest versions of DiskWarrior and TechTool solved those issues as
well.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: external FW drive won't boot