Bootable backup won’t boot on new Mac [Solved]

Short version: in order to solve the problem, I installed Mac OS X on to the bootable backup, with the Mac OS X Install DVD which comes with the new Mac.

And yeah, I got my new MBP.

Update: A few days later after the initial post, I found the exactly same XCode 4 Archive/IPA Error: “The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory”. Uninstalling and reinstalling XCode worked!

Here is the long version:

I use SuperDuper! to make a bootable copy every week. Using SuperDuper!’s “Smart Update”, it normally takes 10 to 15 minutes to update an existing clone.

Last week, I retired my old Macbook Pro. So I used SuperDuper! to make the last and latest bootable backup, copied it to the new MBP and tried to boot it. After waiting a while, it failed. The bootable backup wouldn’t boot on the new MBP: the Apple logo was frozen on the gray screen.

What happened? To know exactly which step choked the starting up, I rebooted the system in verbose mode (pressing Command-S), the output stopped at:

Loading System\Library\Caches\com.apple.kext.caches\Startup\Extensions.mkext…

The file extension mkext stands for kernel extension. I guessed it could be the hardware differences between the old MBP and new one (Cure Duo 2 vs. Core i7), which failed the kernel extension loading. I ended up installing Mac OS X on to the bootable backup, with the Mac OS X Install DVD which comes with the new Mac. The installation process took about 30 to 45 minutes to complete. The problem was solved and my original data was all retained. Otherwise I would have had to reinstall all the applications and then reconfigure them; a nightmare and waste of time.

Hope my experience can be of help.