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<blockquote data-quote="blackhawk-451" data-source="post: 1019484" data-attributes="member: 147825">Not aloneI feel your frustration. I have pretty much the same setup as you're describing and the same issue.My mac is a Powerbook 17&quot; from early 2005, one of the cursed models with the screen that fills up with hideous vertical lines. It's hard drive failed a few days ago. I figured I'd follow some internet instructions and ripped apart a new USB 2.5&quot; drive - tore apart the mac, then noticed the mac was IDE and the new drive was SATA (as the instructions said to get &gt;.&lt;)Before incurring more expense I decided to try booting off my 1TB WD USB/Firewire/E-SATA drive. It took a day to get all the stuff off it, format it, install OS X...and then find it doesn't boot.I've followed all the instructions that Orinoco has pointed out above. The install CD is a retail copy. The drive model is known to be good for purpose. I'm using it via Firewire. APM is selected for the partitioning.All I get is that stupid folder icon with a question mark. Holding option down on boot shows only the install CD, nothing else.I'm going to fork out for another internal drive in a few days and install that, but still, I'd like to know why this PB can't seem to boot from external drives.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="blackhawk-451, post: 1019484, member: 147825"] [b]Not alone[/b] I feel your frustration. I have pretty much the same setup as you're describing and the same issue. My mac is a Powerbook 17" from early 2005, one of the cursed models with the screen that fills up with hideous vertical lines. It's hard drive failed a few days ago. I figured I'd follow some internet instructions and ripped apart a new USB 2.5" drive - tore apart the mac, then noticed the mac was IDE and the new drive was SATA (as the instructions said to get >.<) Before incurring more expense I decided to try booting off my 1TB WD USB/Firewire/E-SATA drive. It took a day to get all the stuff off it, format it, install OS X...and then find it doesn't boot. I've followed all the instructions that Orinoco has pointed out above. The install CD is a retail copy. The drive model is known to be good for purpose. I'm using it via Firewire. APM is selected for the partitioning. All I get is that stupid folder icon with a question mark. Holding option down on boot shows only the install CD, nothing else. I'm going to fork out for another internal drive in a few days and install that, but still, I'd like to know why this PB can't seem to boot from external drives. [/QUOTE]

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