Cloned drive works OK on original iMac but not on MBP

[timeshifter]

Strange happenings with an external hard drive and my MacBook Pro Retina.

I decided that I would make an archive of my old iMac 27" 2009 model so I bought a 2TB Seagate BarraCuda ST2000Dm006 hard drive. I use Super Duper! to clone each of the partitions from my old iMac. The drive was connected with a newer technolgy Voyager Q dock that I've used with great success on many systems. Making the clones completed without issue (but took a long time to clone one 1TB hard drive and one 500GB SSD) over USB 2.0. Note that the Voyager Q is USB 3.0, but of course the old iMac is only USB 2.0, no biggie.

When I connect the dock with the Seagate drive in it to my MacBook Pro Retina it's not a pretty site. The first time I connected it a few months ago it took a really long time for the drive to show up on the desktop and even longer to read the folders and browse. Eventually I could find what I needed, but it was SLOW. Just hooked it up again yesterday and couldn't even get the drive to mount. I'd get some messages about the drive not being ejected properly, but I never pulled it without a proper eject anyway. I'm thinking the drive is toast.

I hook it up to my PC and run SeaTools quick tests on it. Passed with flying colors. Hmm.

So, I connect it to the old iMac. Works like a charm. Drives mount and appear on desktop almost immediately. I can browse and copy files no problem.

Move it back to my MacBook Pro Retina laptop and it sill won't mount to save it's life.

In between all of this I made a new archive to a Seagate portable 2.5" 2TB drive. Again, it took a long time to create. But it works fine on my laptop.

I'm really scratching my head on this one. The Voyager Q drive dock works OK on this laptop (I'm pretty sure). Mostly use it on my server, but move it around from time to time.

I'd like to figure this out, but before I go trying a bunch of stuff I thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas? Thanks!

 

[timeshifter]

OK, it works fine with a different SATA to USB adapter, one made by Anker called USB 3.0 to SATA Adapter. Even works with the Anker adapter and the USB cable that was connected to the Voyager Q dock. Weird, huh? I guess I just write off that Voyager Q dock as somehow incompatible? Might be time to get a new dock, had that one a while.

It's a Voyager Q, Quad Interface SATA Hard Drive Docking Station. It has USB 3.0, e-SATA, 1394a and two 1394b ports.

 

[timeshifter]

The Voyager Q dock works fine with the e-SATA connection, the 1394a and the 1394b connections. But as soon as I go back to the USB 3.0 it will behave the same and not mount the partitions, etc.

 

[cyabro]

What version of OS X did you clone?
A Mac won't boot any version of OS X/ macOS that is older than what it was originally supplied with.
This includes point updates as well.
EG: We just got in a fairly new MacBook Pro running macOS Sierra 10.12.4.
Our USB bootable macOS Sierra was only on 10.12.1 so this MacBook Pro wouldn't boot from it because it originally came with 10.12.2.
Had to update our USB stick first on another Mac.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I think he is not booting from it but rather simply viewing contents.

There may be a firmware update for that enclosure. Macs are notorious for being very picky about hardware. I wouldn't say it's toast, it's just more "vintage" and Apple doesn't like Vintage.