Quick question about booting from flash drives

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Can it be done?



I want to make a boom box pretty soon out of an old mac, and I'd like to have a hard drive with no moving parts, at least to boot from (I can spin up a big cheap drive with the media on it later).



We're talking a G4 450 AGP (blueish box, I think they call it a sawtooth) if that makes a difference.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by slughead

    Can it be done?



    I want to make a boom box pretty soon out of an old mac, and I'd like to have a hard drive with no moving parts, at least to boot from (I can spin up a big cheap drive with the media on it later).



    We're talking a G4 450 AGP (blueish box, I think they call it a sawtooth) if that makes a difference.




    i think os x has problem booting from USB flash drives. firewire hard disks, possibly firewire flash drives, may be better. but you need 2gb at least... so firewire-to-ide buspowered 2.5" drive thing is probably the best



    just throwing out some ideas here...
  • Reply 2 of 3
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    i think os x has problem booting from USB flash drives. firewire hard disks, possibly firewire flash drives, may be better. but you need 2gb at least... so firewire-to-ide buspowered 2.5" drive thing is probably the best



    just throwing out some ideas here...




    Good call, I just need something shock resistant.. flash is usually cheapest though



    If 2.5" HD is the only option, I'm cool with that.. my bank account may not be though
  • Reply 3 of 3
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    FireWire is bootable.

    (go for 6 pin if you want it to draw power from the Mac...

    4 pin FW external devices usually require a separate power supply)



    USB and/or Flash drives are not currently bootable.
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