Install Tiger from a FireWire HD

[rberteau]

Does anyone know if this can be done? And if so, have you tried it?

[The Ghost]

Does anyone know if this can be done? And if so, have you tried it?

Yes, and yes. I installed Tiger each way on different partitions of my external (cloned 10.3.9 to 2 of them first). All installs worked perfectly. I cloned the erase and install/Migration-Assistant import version to my internal. I had no reason to choose this version except that I predicted that it was least likely to reveal problems given extended use.

[fryke]

I guess he meant _from_ FireWire HD, i.e. to clone a DVD image file to the drive. I personally think that it would simply refuse to boot. But IIRC something similar was done to install Jaguar and later on unsupported machines (G2 PCI PowerMacs). Some files must be edited/removed for the HD to boot the installer.

What you _can_ do, however, is to simply mount the disk image and run (DVD)/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg ... You can't install onto the booted system, though. So you might have to create an interim system to boot from on the external drive. Once you've booted into that one, you can mount the disk image, run the installer mpkg and install onto the internal drive.

[The Ghost]

Right. Maybe I don't know what he meant. Maybe he's thinking, for example, clone one's internal to a firewire. Install Tiger (a legal copy) from another Mac on the firewire. Then, clone the new Tiger installation back to the original internal. That's, what I did except there was no intervening computer. But, then one could always use firewire target-disk mode if another firewire computer is available. Oh well.

[rberteau]

Okay, this is what I am trying to do. You want to install Tiger, but you don't have a DVD reader on an older Apple machine. Instead of sending it off to Apple along with your DVD to get CD's to install, you want to copy the installer to an External FW HD (or create a .dmg of the DVD??) and run the installation from their. That was the plan.

Well, it didn't work. After creating a .dmg of the DVD and then unpacking and running the intaller, my Apple G3 iMac reboots and says it will install after reboot but nothing really happens.

Any thoughts on this.....the last post mentioned booting to an external HD and then running the installer from their but installing it to the internal HD????

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yeah -- you can't boot from a DMG file. You initially mount the DMG then try to install, so your computer reboots -- which unmounts the DMG. Since you can't automount the DMG at startup, the computer now does not have a startup device to boot from!

Short answer, you need a real, tangible device to boot from -- not a virtual one (like a disk image).

Try this (it may take some time):
1) Completely wipe/erase the FireWire disk
2) Insert your Tiger install DVD
3) Open Disk Utility and create a new disk image of the Tiger DVD by:
a. Highlight the Tiger install volume in the left-hand sidebar
b. Click "New Image" at the top of the Disk Utility window
c. Name it anything, and select "Image Format: DVD/CD Master" and "Encryption: none"
d. Click Save and save it to your local hard drive (not the FireWire drive)
4) Connect the FireWire drive and mount it if it isn't already
5) In Disk Utility, click the "Restore" tab (next to "First Aid," "Erase," etc.)
6) Drag the disk image you just created into the "Source:" and drag the FireWire volume into the "Detination:" fields
7) Click "Restore"

Alternatively, you may be able to skip the whole disk image making process, and instead drag the actual Tiger DVD into the "Source:" field and the FireWire device into the "Destination:" field.

Then, select the FireWire device in the Startup Disk preference pane, and it should boot from the FireWire drive as though it were booting from the installation DVD.

I haven't tested this myself, since I can't boot from a FireWire device, but I think it may work... if you've got the time (as disk image making is rather time consuming).

I hope that helps!

[The Ghost]

Okay, ... you want to copy the installer to an External FW HD (or create a .dmg of the DVD??) and run the installation from their. That was the plan.

Well, it didn't work. After creating a .dmg of the DVD and then unpacking and running the intaller, my Apple G3 iMac reboots and says it will install after reboot but nothing really happens.

Install Tiger on a partition on the external firewall. Then, clone the external to your internal.

And, from my message 2,

Yes, and yes. I installed Tiger each way on different partitions of my external (cloned 10.3.9 to 2 of them first). All installs worked perfectly. I cloned the erase and install/Migration-Assistant import version to my internal. I had no reason to choose this version except that I predicted that it was least likely to reveal problems given extended use.

[rberteau]

Thanks for the ideas and replies....I wonder if I create the dmg and store it on my FWHD, then boot to the FWHD and run the installer and have my target install be the internal HD???

Will that work?