Backup Plus and Seagate Slim

[jeff-4982]

A new MacBook Pro running Lion 10.7.4, fully updated.

The Seagage Backup Plus 3TB, STCA3000101 drive was partitioned into 3 partitions using Disk Utility (Mac OS Journaled).

The Backup Plus 3TB drive is attached to a Seagate STAE122 Thunderbolt adapter which is connected to the Mac via an Apple Thunderbolt cable, and all three partitions work fine for normal data use.  So far so good.

Now, one partition had a bootable Lion system installed on it.

When restarting the Mac with the Option key down, the external bootable partition does NOT show up as a bootable volume (only the internal SDD shows up.)

When going to the Preferences "Startup" panel, the bootable external partition DOES show as a bootable volume, yet selecting it and rebooting does NOT boot from the selected external bootable partition, but only boots to the internal SDD.

Now here's the kicker -- if I remove that Backup Plus drive from the Thunderbolt adapter and install it on the Seagate USB3 adapter and connect it to the Mac via USB, the external bootable partition DOES show up when restarting with the Option key held down, and DOES boot as it should!

Therefore, it seems that the Thunderbird adapter is not working correctly with the Mac startup sequence.

Can someone at Seagate please address this?

[AlanM]

Honestly, look, I doubt this is something Seagate can support, but let me inquire and see if I can get back to you.

[DavyB]

I agree thats not how I would expect any Thunderbolt interface to work, the drive should be bootable when connected by USB or Thunderbolt.

The problem could lie with either Apple or Seagate. Now that Moutain Lion 10.8.1 is out - have you tried again and does this work as everyone would expect yet?

or were you just checking out Moutain Lion prior to actually updating the OS, at lest with the interchangeable interface the seagate range looks much more flexible. 

The whole point of thunderbolt is to get faster access so if the interface does not work, it would be no use

Dont have one but its on my wishlist when I upgrade my Mac

[jeff-4982]

So far, this drive remains unbootable using Thunderbolt under OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.1.  My response to a Seagate support ticket was, basically, 'it should work - talk to Apple.'  Of course you know what Apple said.

Bottom line --  for me, this drive is bootable using the USB 3 adapter but not the Tunderbolt adapter :-(

If anyone else has experience sucessfully booting via Thunderbolt I'd be interested.

[syklui]

I have the similar problem except that I am using Backup Plus 4TB STCA4000300 with STAE129 Thunderbolt Adapter. 

I feel the problem lies more on the Seagate side becuase my other Thunderbolt external disk can be booted without any problem.

[Halibut]

I'm having the same issue with 10.8.3. Has this problem been addressed?