Is there a way to get a PowerPC Mac to boot off of an external USB hard drive?
September 5, 2006 6:58 PM Subscribe
Is there a way to get a PowerPC Mac to boot off of an external USB hard drive?
If I clone a PPC Mac's OS X installation to a USB external drive, It will not allow me to boot from it. (Doesn't show up in the Startup Disk prefpane) Can it somehow be tricked into doing so, or are there third party apps/hacks/whatever that can allow such a thing?
(I know I can boot from a firewire ext. drive, btw, and barring a good answer to the above, can I, as a very very distant second place option, just get a firewire enclosure, crack the USB enclosure and transfer the drive itself to it?)
If I clone a PPC Mac's OS X installation to a USB external drive, It will not allow me to boot from it. (Doesn't show up in the Startup Disk prefpane) Can it somehow be tricked into doing so, or are there third party apps/hacks/whatever that can allow such a thing?
(I know I can boot from a firewire ext. drive, btw, and barring a good answer to the above, can I, as a very very distant second place option, just get a firewire enclosure, crack the USB enclosure and transfer the drive itself to it?)
You'll probably have to run that as root, btw. So from an admin account, it'd be more like:
sudo bless --folder "/Volumes/My Drive/System"
posted by sbutler at 7:05 PM on September 5, 2006
sudo bless --folder "/Volumes/My Drive/System"
posted by sbutler at 7:05 PM on September 5, 2006
Did you clone to the external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner? It should work then, I think.
posted by umbú at 7:09 PM on September 5, 2006
posted by umbú at 7:09 PM on September 5, 2006
I think it won't work on most PPC macs. As to your second question: yes, switching the enclosure will work.
posted by rbs at 7:25 PM on September 5, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by rbs at 7:25 PM on September 5, 2006 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I did use, CCC, yeah, no dice yet. Same on blessing it I'm afraid (Haven't heard that term since OS 9 ;-)
Doesn't auto-show on option-boot, for the record, nor does the advice at this site work. Since it seems to have some significance, is an old 867mhz 12inch PB, with USB 1.1 (which means, I know it'll be so so slow if it works. I can live with that)
on preview: that's what I'm afraid of, rbs, yeah.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:27 PM on September 5, 2006
Doesn't auto-show on option-boot, for the record, nor does the advice at this site work. Since it seems to have some significance, is an old 867mhz 12inch PB, with USB 1.1 (which means, I know it'll be so so slow if it works. I can live with that)
on preview: that's what I'm afraid of, rbs, yeah.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:27 PM on September 5, 2006
If I clone a PPC Mac's OS X installation to a USB external drive, It will not allow me to boot from it. (Doesn't show up in the Startup Disk prefpane) Can it somehow be tricked into doing so, or are there third party apps/hacks/whatever that can allow such a thing?
No. No. Wish there was a better answer for non-Intel Macs, but the answer is no.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:05 PM on September 5, 2006 [1 favorite]
No. No. Wish there was a better answer for non-Intel Macs, but the answer is no.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:05 PM on September 5, 2006 [1 favorite]
I don't believe newer PPC or Intel Macs can boot from a USB drive. Firewire, yes. USB, no.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:28 AM on September 6, 2006
posted by Thorzdad at 6:28 AM on September 6, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
bless --folder "/Volumes/My Drive/System"
?
posted by sbutler at 7:04 PM on September 5, 2006