Install OS X on an external FireWire drive?

shetlineshetline
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I just picked up an external FireWire drive in hopes of being able to make it bootable. I need to rescue my father's computer using DiskWarrior, but all I have at the moment is the non-bootable web download version of DiskWarrior -- the DiskWarrior CD won't arrive for a few weeks (they aren't shipping it to me now because I'll need an upgrade that isn't quite ready yet).



If my father wasn't 1500 miles away, I'd just boot his computer into Target Disk mode and plug it into my PowerBook and rescue his computer that way. But I need to either send him a bootable enternal rescue drive, or perhaps a bootable DVD created from a rescue drive image.



I knew that installing OS X on an iPod didn't work, but I didn't realize that all FireWire drives were ruled out.



Is there a work-around to get Panther to accept an external drive as a target?



Is the problem perhaps that I'm using the Software Restore Disk that came with my PowerBook, and that a full stand-alone copy of Panther would allow installation to an external drive?



I'd hate returning this drive just because I stupidly didn't know that it wouldn't do what I want it to do, but I don't really need the extra storage, and my PowerBook does a pretty good job for giving me portability of large amounts of data. The only way this drive will be useful is if I can install OS X on it.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    vandewaalsvandewaals Posts: 450member
    Install Panther on it...plug it in your dad's comp. When you boot, hold down Option and pick the firewire drive. Should work just like dat.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by VanDeWaals

    Install Panther on it...plug it in your dad's comp. When you boot, hold down Option and pick the firewire drive. Should work just like dat.



    Step 1 above is the problem... I can't install Panther on the external drive. The icon for the drive has a red stop sign with an exclamation mark on it -- that drive cannot be selected as an installation target.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    cakecake Posts: 1,010member
    You need OS X install discs.

    I don't believe that Software Install/Restore discs will work.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cake

    Did you format the external drive?

    Use Disk Utility to format it, then you should be able to install anything you want on it.



    The drive came preformatted. I didn't reformat, as in a complete low-level format of the entire 80GB, but I did erase the drive using Disk Utility for good measure.



    The more I think about this, the more likely it seems that the problem I'm having might be that I only have Panther on the Software Restore discs that came with my PowerBook, or on the $20 Panther update discs that I got shortly after buying my G5. Neither of these sets of discs is the full equivalent of an off-the-shelf boxed set of Panther discs, and they could well be deliberately crippled.



    I'd sure like a work-around... I'm not trying to use Panther on any computer for which I don't have a legit copy of Panther -- my father's eMac came with Panther too. I sure hope that installing Panther on an external drive doesn't require buying another copy of Panther.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cake

    You need OS X install discs.

    I don't believe that Software Install/Restore discs will work.



    Looks like you sent the above message just as I was reinterating the same doubt. I might be able to do something round-about here using someone else's older eMac, some boxed-set Jaguar discs, and THEN the Panther Update -- oh, joy.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    jwri004jwri004 Posts: 626member
    Can you clone your OS onto the HD?



    I was going to do an clean install, but when I saw the size of the updates (56k modem pleb), I just went for the clone option.



    It works for me!



  • Reply 7 of 10
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jwri004

    Can you clone your OS onto the HD?



    I was going to do an clean install, but when I saw the size of the updates (56k modem pleb), I just went for the clone option.



    It works for me!







    Cloning the same copy of the OS that you're running from doesn't work very well I don't think, so wouldn't this mean hooking up a Mac in Target Disk Mode to another Mac, along with the external FireWire drive, and cloning from one to the other?



    There'd be a lot of clean-up to do after since what I'd be going for would be something close to a clean OS install.



    At any rate, I couldn't get my old Jaguar CDs to install to this drive either, nor have a number of other tricks that I've tried worked.



    I even created a disk image with BootCD, put that image on the FW drive, and gotten as far as selecting that drive as my start-up drive (with the BootCD image, the FW drive is treated as a valid selection in the Startup Disk pref panel) -- but booting from the FW drive fails, and my Mac starts up from its internal drive instead.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    jwri004jwri004 Posts: 626member
    Basically if you are happy with how your system is running you could just use a cloner. I used SilverKeeper (it came with my lacie, but you can download it for free), to clone it onto the external HD.



    By the sounds of it you just want to repair an internal drive on your fathers machine, and are wanting to use the external to run DW off it.



    Once the errors are hopefully corrected then your father can just go through the OS install process.



    This is what I have with my backup system. I just want something in place that I can use in case my laptop turns to custard so I can extract any pertinent files. I also have both Jag and Panther install CD's which does give me a few more options and backups all over the place, as you can never be to careful.



  • Reply 9 of 10
    dmgeistdmgeist Posts: 153member
    If you use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your install onto the firewire drive you should be able to boot into it. Make sure you format it first, and in CCC make sure it corrects privileges, and to make it boot-able.



    I use the same thing with my ibook, but i also have a boot cd made up but loading that takes longer.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    jlljll Posts: 2,713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by shetline

    Cloning the same copy of the OS that you're running from doesn't work very well I don't think.



    It works very well.



    You can clone your startup disk to the FireWire disk using Restore in Disk Utility.
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