Hardware :: Can Boot My Ibook From An External Drive
Dec 29, 2008
My iBook hard drive suddenly refused to boot up in Fall of '07. There was (and, to some extent, still is) some data I hadn't had the chance to back up, so rather than wiping it clean and/or getting a new one from apple, I just put it in a crate and set it aside until I had time to deal with it.
Flash forward to last week, when I used target mode to rescue about a quarter of the unsaved data. Out of every 15 or 20 times I throw it into target mode, my Macbook Pro recognizes it maybe once or twice, and then freezes up about 5 minutes in.
I've used the install disk to attempt repairing the drive, but even when I get a "successful repair", boot-up still never goes past the grey apple screen (sans wheel), even though disk utility recognizes it as "bootable" and lets me view all of the contents.
My question, then, is - is it possible to install OSX on an external drive and boot from that? If so, how do I do it without first creating a disk image of the drive (disk utility won't allow me to save it to the external)?
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Dec 29, 2008
FYI - Im typing from an iPhone.
No hard drive, won't boot from external Fire Wire drive..
I've tried all key combos
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Oct 26, 2008
Broken harddrive, dont wanna get a new internal one, I need to boot from external firewire.
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Jan 29, 2008
I have an elderly Q950 with an external hard drive with everything backed up onto it. The external drive is a Micronet ADV1000E, with a sticker on the back saying it's Macintosh or PC compatible. I also have an iBook laptop, & PC Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop. As I have the 2 laptops, the Quadra hadn't been switched on for maybe one year. On the weekend I tried to get it to boot up (with & without the external drive switched on), but all it does is display a grey screen with an image of a 3.5" disk with a '?' in the middle. If I start up from a Norton 3.5" disk it still can't find the external or internal drive. If I try booting up with my finger in the shift key it doesn't want to know.
1. Any idea why the Quadra isn't seeing either the external or internal drive & what can I try to do?
2. Is there any way I can connect my external drive to either my iBook or Dell? At the moment I have no cables to connect the old & new - are cables available & if so any idea where from? I've looked high & low but so far no joy.
3. Is it possible to remove the hard drive from the Quadra or the external drive & put in an external drive enclosure, then connect that to either laptop? I see there are drive enclosures available which are Mac & pc compatible. This by the way would be a major undertaking for me. I'm by no means a computer dunce but would be wary of trying it.
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Dec 20, 2007
This is bad and old, and full of lessons about backing up. Anyway, internal boot drive crashed a week ago, and internal optical drive is busted. New external LaCie dvd burner works fine, but all attempts to start up from Tiger, Leopard and Diskwarrior installation disks just end up back in OS10.3 on my external LaCie FW drive. I've tried many things: unplugged everything; switched external LaCie to USB (wouldn't boot), unplugged power from internal optical drive so Mac wouldn't look there first (somebody suggested that). Attempts to start up installers from mounted DVDs result in installer screen with restart button, which, when clicked on, results in... you guessed it... boot back to dreaded 10.3 system. Night owls and westcoasters, I am up for hours yet, pulling hair.
Information:
G5 Dual 2GHz
Mac OS X (10.4.3)
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Mar 26, 2008
I know there are already several threads with questions on how to wipe an ibook hard drive but this one is slightly different. I can't seem to boot my computer from the install disc that came with it. I turn off the computer, hold down c and get a folder with a question mark in it. However when the computer starts I can see the disc folders. I open up disc utility and can wipe the drive but is this really wiping it? I thought I had to boot up from the CD? I ask as I am selling my machine and don't want to think I have wiped something when I have not. I have also been through the same process (from the disc just running in the drive) to install OSX Tiger. But again how do I know if it has cleared all my old settings? Do I have faulty discs if I cannot re-boot from them. All I want to do is a clean and install.
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Jul 28, 2008
About 2 weeks ago I overwrited some files on my ibook. Since I had no data recovery software for macs, i used easy recovery pro and connected the laptop hard drive to my windows box.Once I had it connected, windows asked me to initialise the hard drive and without even thinking about it I said yes. I did raw(sector by sector) recovery and managed to find a few files. The problem is that now the ibook wont boot no matter what i try. I have tried using disk warrior and repaired the file system.
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Nov 25, 2010
I have a 40g ibook from 2002, old firewire, and a mac book, 2004, with the same firewire. I'd like to use the ibook as an external drive rather than buying anything right now. Eventually I'll probably donate or sell the ibook for a hundred bucks or so. But, in the meantime, I took everything off of it except the operating system (10.4.11, I think; whatever the max is).
What is the simplest way to hook up the ibook as an external to the macbook? I'd like to leave it connected as you would any other external (I'm not using the firewire for anything else).
Do I simply connect them firewire to firewire? Will it show up as an icon on the desktop like it does if you are doing a transfer?
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Mar 8, 2012
My internal 1TB hard drive on my iMac is dead and I don't have the money to replace it at the moment. I have everything backed up on an external 1TB drive using Time Machine. As a workaround for the time being,Is there any way I can install the system on the external drive and use that as the boot drive without erasing the Time Machine Backups? It seems to me I would have to have two partitions for the external drive, one for the system, and one for Time Machine. But is there any way to add a partition without erasing the existing one with Time Machine only on it?
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Jun 9, 2007
So a friends girlfriend tossed, as in threw, her older ibook g4. You ask why? Well she was mad at it so she punched the screen and it cracked, so she gave it a quick toss because the screen cracked. So I get to be the one to try to salvage the harddrive. I have the ibook torn apart, my macbook, a macmini and an external usb IDE harddrive enclosure at my disposal.
So I tried to target it through my macbook by holding down T and booting up the ibook. Hard drive clicks and spins, but nothing mounts on my macbook. So I bought an external USB for the ibook harddrive. My macbook won't see it when connected. So does this mean a bad drive? Do the older drives have to be connected by firewire?
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Dec 16, 2009
im trying to install Mac OS X 10.5 on to an external drive. I want to run Leopard off of an External Hard Drive which will connect via Firewire of USB 2.0. I have booted up using the install DVD that i bought a couple years ago to upgrade from Tiger. However each time i install i get an error saying that it cannot be installed. It allows me to start the install and is almost complete before i get this error. I have it partitioned using the Apple Partition Map so i can boot up on a PowerPC computer.
What should i do to install 10.5 on an external drive?
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Mar 2, 2009
I have a G5 Imac and a G4 ibook. i want to use time machine, and have one external hard drive connect to both. I could get an external with more than one input (ie, usb and firewire)--does that work? Could i use a usb hub to connect the 2 computers to the HD, and set up different partitions?
And what of NAS? i do not want to set up a whole network (we already have one at my office, and i want this to be independent).
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May 27, 2012
I had a IBook G4 and an external hard drive as its back up.IBook running something like Snow Lepord, anyway I have a Intel Macbook now with Lion, Ive been told here there is a possible confliction between the AMP external harddrive and lion.I will say a few times I have for limited time been able to access the drive on the newer MacBook, but then Lion (I think) drops it.
Info:
MacBook, iOS 5.1
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Aug 13, 2010
I have a G3 iBook and just the other day the display stopped working. There were no signs of the display going bad, it's just went. Am I able to boot the iBook via Target Disk Mode on my PowerBook and run the iBook Hardware Test CD on it? Also, can I reboot my PowerBook and choose the iBook as the startup volume?
I know how to do Target Disk Mode but the latter I'm not sure about.
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Mar 11, 2009
I have a mac g4 mdd 1.25 and the power supply is fried..I also have a mac g4 mdd dual 867...that works..Question...can i take the main drive from the broken mac, put it in a box ..then reboot from that external drive on my mac that works.?
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Jul 3, 2009
The loaner computer I am using is running Tiger. My clone of my computer thats in service is Leopard, every time I hold option and try to boot from the external clone it tells me this computer needs to be restarted.... can I just not boot from an external drive?
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Mar 24, 2010
I have a 21.5" iMac, I installed Snow Leopard on a external drive, but I am unable to boot from it.. I've tried pressing the option(alt) key, and the only drive that shows up is the Macintosh HD..
How do I boot from the external USB drive?
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Mar 8, 2008
Can I boot to an .iso on a firewire drive? I've been having trouble with my disc drive lately, so this is how I'm trying to work around it
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Sep 6, 2010
I have a G4 "sawtooth running OSX 10.4.11. Is it possible to boot this mac from an external USB2.0 drive?
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Jan 11, 2009
Back on 10.5.5 and below, I was able to install Windows with Boot Camp and my External DVD Drive - My Internal SuperDrive is in the jelly and won't work. But on 10.5.6, Windows decided to give me licensing problems after I tried to use it with VMWare Fusion 2.0. So, in temper I deleted the partition in Boot Camp Assistant.
On the creation of a new, bigger partition for Windows 7 Public Beta, I found that I could no longer use my External DVD Drive to install Windows in Boot Camp.
So, now, Apple has pretty much forced me to come and get the SuperDrive fixed ($65 for a QUOTE, and Over $150 to get the thing fixed) if I want to install Windows onto my Mac.
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Mar 13, 2010
Sorry if I am in the wrong forum, as you can guess im a newbie at the forum - not at computers though (6 years experience.. )
So I have a 1TB WD Hard drive USB and I copied the Leopard Disk image and restored it onto it in a 500GB partition.
I have tried to boot it up normally by holding down Alt on start up but the drive doesn't come up. Ok.
I have tried going into the Start up Disk, it comes up and when I click on it and click restart it doesn't restart, it just does that Mac Beep thing.
I have recently just tried to boot it up manually using the Open Firmware technique. It doesn't work.
I have a PPC Mac and I know that they can't normally boot up USB Drives but the other users which I read on the thread how to boot up by the Firmware technique said they're PPC and it worked.
I just wanted to format my computer, My leopard disk is gone now but I got it copied JUST IN TIME to my Hard drive.
I formatted my computer and now i'm stuck on Tiger.
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Jun 25, 2010
I want to make a bootable clone of my iMac (PowerPC G5 running OS 10.5.8) and also backup my MacBook Pro onto an external USB hard drive so that I can restore from the external hard drive if my iMac dies (which is beginning to have startup problems).
I was planning to create 3 partitions - one for iMac's data which I'll continue to backup using TimeMachine, one for my MacBook Pro's data and one partition as a bootable clone of my iMac.
My question is.... if my iMac dies, how do I use the external hard drive to boot up from? Do I need Carbon Copy Cloner or will I be able to boot up from the external hard drive and access Apple's Disk Utility?
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Sep 5, 2009
Problem: I need to boot from an external USB optical drive with another OS's cd (linux, windows, etc) I am trying to install some other operating systems ontop of my mac, but sadly my optical drive is broken and cannot read any large DVD's, but it can read small CD's, just not blank ones. So I bought a mac compatible USB external cd/dvd drive but when I restart and hold alt, my computer does not recognize it. Extra Info: If I want to boot from OS X Snow Leopard on the external drive, it will work, but for no other cd. Including a burned version of Linux or a commercial release version of linux.
Computer Info: It is a MacBook Pro first generation, and I just reformatted and started fresh with Snow Leopard. I used the external optical drive and was hoping to have 4 OS's on it, I know how to do it, but I just cant get the install cd/dvd's to be recognized.
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Mar 15, 2012
Currently I'm upgrading from Leopard to Lion (via Snow Leopard) on both an iMac and MacBook Pro (both Intel), but before I proceed with the OSX upgrade I wanted to back everything up. Thus far I have partitioned an external firewire drive (G Drive - one that is bootable), and cloned each machine using Carbon Copy Cloner to it's own partition (both GUID). There is plenty of space left over on each partition, and is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
The issue - I can boot the OS X from the external drive on the MacBook Pro but not on the iMac.
When I restart and hold down Option on the iMac the only drive that appears is the HDD, not the other two drives that are visible if I boot up on the MacBook Pro. On the iMac in System Prefs > Startup Disc I can see all 3 drives but when I select it and restart, the machine freezes on the grey loading screen and goes no further.
Not that it should make a difference, but there is a 3rd partition on the external drive that is currently empty (for extra storage).
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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May 24, 2012
I am trying to create an external boot drive but I can not boot to an external drive.If I mount an install disk to any drive I have it will not boot to it. If I select it in startup drive or option boot it will not work.
Info:Xcode, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
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Sep 8, 2010
Can i install OSX from an external dvd drive? if yes how do i boot to an external dvd drive?
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Oct 24, 2010
I have a requirement to encrypt the whole of my boot drive and my mobile Time Machine backup drive that I shall be taking with me on travels. I know I can use FileVault, which will give me an encrypted disk image but I don't like the reliability of sparse images and need the whole of the boot drive to be encrypted. I have tried Truecrypt to encrypt the TM disk, but could not get Time Machine to see it. I've been looking at the Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption product. What I'm trying to find out is if I can encrypt a USB HD with it, but seem to be going round in loops between Checkpoint and resellers.
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Jan 24, 2007
I have a powerbook 12' 867 mghz, I know I would rather have a new one, but not ready to give up on this old gal yet! Anywhoo I thought the logic board was fried but after letting the powerbook "rest" I came back months later and sometimes it will boot but as soon as I try to do anything it freezes, so maybe the harddrive is fried? How do you get it to ignore the internal drive so it will boot from an external?
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Jun 11, 2009
I have a unibody MacBook. Is it possible to install Mac OS X on a USB external hard drive and use that to boot?
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Jul 8, 2009
My imac G5 isight's hard drive is dead. I would like to install OS X on an external hard drive and just use that as the hard drive for this machine. My questions are:
Can I boot from an external hard drive via USB and just run everything off the external hard drive? If so, how should I format the external hard drive so that it can be selected and written to when I boot from the install cd? The external hard drive I would like to use is a 75 gig Acom. I've tried booting from the install cd, and it either won't even find the external hard drive, or, when it does, it says it can't write to that external hard drive.
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