Super Duper: cannot find the bootable drive upon startup

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Level 1

8 points

Super Duper: cannot find the bootable drive upon startup

I have been using Super Duper for many years. Recently, when I try to use a bootable close upon startup, my iMac does not find any bootable clones. They reside on a Thunderbolt drive connected directly to my IMac. I have recently upgraded to High Sierra. So I made a clean bootable clone, erase drive then copy. Stilll when I do a restart, Hold the "Option" key upon restart, no bootable drives are found. any suggestions?

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 11, 2017 6:33 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

141,060 points

Nov 11, 2017 7:51 PM in response to glengill

Other than the firmware password, that's all I can think of. I could ask when and under which macOS version those Time Machine backups were created but it's probably not worth pursuing. If they don't appear it won't help.

If external drives are not being recognized at all, an SMC Reset has been known to fix that: How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support. Try it.

From How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support:

In OS X Lion v10.7.3 or later, you can start up from your Time Machine disk, if necessary. Hold down the Option key as your Mac starts up. When you see the Startup Manager screen, choose “EFI Boot” as the startup disk.

However, mine are appearing with the name of the drive e.g. "Backup01" etc. I haven't seen "EFI Boot" for a while. Perhaps that changed in HS.

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Answer 2

glengill Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 11, 2017 6:58 PM in response to John Galt

Question: When I restart and hold the 'Option" key. I see no bootable drives. Should I see my 2 time machine copies?

The iMac does the normal startup with no pauses or choices for another startup drive.

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

141,060 points

Nov 11, 2017 7:24 PM in response to glengill

Yes. Time Machine creates a bootable Recovery Partition on the TM backup disk. Booting from it (using Startup Manager) results in the same macOS Utilities screen as booting any other startup volume’s RP, or Internet Recovery.

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Answer 4

glengill Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 11, 2017 7:43 PM in response to John Galt

I do not think so. However, I will follow the steps and check.

What bothers me is that the Time Machine volumes do not show up either on a restart when holding down the Option Key. Nor does the SuperDuper volume.

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Answer 5

glengill Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 11, 2017 8:03 PM in response to John Galt

I think I found the issue.

I plugged the lighting cable into my iMac keyboard. Restarted and everything works as it should, TM and Super Duper appear as bootable options.

So the problem must be in the iMac recognizing the wireless keyboard upon startup. It could not see the 'option' key depressed before I attached the lightning cable.

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Answer 6

John Galt

Level 10

141,060 points

Nov 11, 2017 7:39 PM in response to glengill

By the way setting a Firmware Password prevents the ability to use Startup Manager: How to set a firmware password on your Mac - Apple Support. Might that be a factor?

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