Big Sur newbie

[jwboyd]

I finally installed Big Sur (Version 11.5.2) today, and I now have two major issues:
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I cannot start up from an external drive. I made the mistake of cloning my internal drive to both of my externals without checking first to see if everything works. (I know, dumb thing to do!)

When I go to System Preferences>Startup Disk, it says “Select the system you want to use to start up your computer” just as always.

But it shows only the internal drive, no external drives.

How can I start up from an external?
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I use Microsoft Office extensively (Subscription Version 16.52).

When I check for updates, it says “You do not have permission to open the application ‘Microsoft AutoUpdate’.”

How can I check for MS updates?
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Any and all suggestions are welcome!

[Xairbusdriver]

1. In DU, make sure you have the Side Bar visible. 2. Then, select View>Show All Devices. The default is "Show Only Volumes".

Do you already have an OS installed on the external drive?

If you still don't see a bootable drive, you may need to Erase one of those drives and try installing an OS. Note that will delete any/all data or backups on that drive.

What OS do you want on an external drive?
What types of drives are they (USB/SSD/mechanical)?

[jchuzi]

Which cloning app did you use? ASIK, SuperDuper can't make a bootable clone of Big Sur. However, Carbon Copy Cloner can. See Creating legacy bootable backups of macOS Big Sur

[jwboyd]

Both of my issues are now resolved.

1. I made myself a bootable backup (Thanks, Jon!) to use in case I ever need to use TechTool Pro on my internal drive.

2. I reinstalled MS office and it now allows me to check for updates.

TeeEss rocks!