# re-install mac osx from lacie external usb dvd drive



## lagref (Jul 15, 2009)

Hi I'm trying to re-install mac osx from lacie external usb dvd drive. But I've realised it can't be done. Is there a way around this. At the moment I'm trying to copy the contents of the 2 mac osx install cds on to my HD using Disk Utility. Any advice, help etc?


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jul 15, 2009)

Is there some reason you cannot simply boot from the OS X Install/Restore DVD and install that way?


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## lagref (Jul 15, 2009)

Yes. My internal DVD/CD drive is broke so I bought a Lacie external dvd drive which connects by USB. I've realised that one can't boot from an external dvd drive through USB but you can through firewire which I don't have. I'm just wondering is there a way to copy the contents of the install disks to my computer and re install through that or is there another way?


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jul 15, 2009)

On a PowerPC-based Macintosh, you cannot boot from a USB device -- unless you're booting Leopard.  If you have Tiger or earlier, it won't work -- but Leopard should.

Without a way to boot from the install CD/DVD initially, I think you're out of luck.  You can play around with Disk Utility's "Restore" function, which would allow you to "clone" the install CD/DVD to a hard drive or partition on a hard drive and boot from that, but again, you'll need to be booted from something other than your internal hard drive.


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## jbarley (Jul 15, 2009)

ElDiabloConCaca said:


> On a PowerPC-based Macintosh, you cannot boot from a USB device -- unless you're booting Leopard.  If you have Tiger or earlier, it won't work -- but Leopard should.


I've always believed the same as your quote, but a google search using "boot a PPC mac from USB" as input leads to a lot of hits the seem to claim otherwise, such as...

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/10/25/boot-your-powerpc-mac-from-an-external-usb-drive/

I have not tried any of these, but I think there must be some credibilty to them and might be worth the original posters time to look into some of these tips.

jb.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jul 15, 2009)

Well, it's worth a shot: pop your install DVD in the USB drive, restart the computer, and hold down the option key as it boots.  You should be presented with a "boot manager" which will show icons for all the currently bootable devices.

If the external drive shows up as bootable, you're golden, and then can install OS X back onto your original hard drive.  If not, then the rule apparently holds: no USB booting on PowerPC Macs without Leopard.


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## minamitek (Jul 20, 2009)

ElDiabloConCaca said:


> On a PowerPC-based Macintosh, you cannot boot from a USB device -- unless you're booting Leopard.  If you have Tiger or earlier, it won't work -- but Leopard should.



That's funny, I had the exact opposite problem. I was able to boot from an external USB DVD drive on a Tiger PPC machine (to install Leopard) and it worked fine.

Unfortunately later I needed to re-install Leopard, and now it won't boot from the external drive  


EDIT: scratch that: it just worked. Not sure what I did any different (rebooted holding down 'option'). It didn't work the first 2 times, then worked on the 3rd. I suggest trying different USB ports: maybe there's an issue with one of them.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jul 20, 2009)

minamitek said:


> I was able to boot from an external USB DVD drive on a Tiger PPC machine (*to install Leopard*) and it worked fine.


Isn't that "booting Leopard"?  You have to boot from the Leopard install DVD to install Leopard, and the Leopard install DVD starts up in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," therefore, you're "booting Leopard" from a USB device on a PPC Mac... no?

The grand question is: can you boot from a _Tiger_ install CD/DVD using that USB DVD drive?


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## minamitek (Jul 20, 2009)

ElDiabloConCaca said:


> Isn't that "booting Leopard"?  You have to boot from the Leopard install DVD to install Leopard, and the Leopard install DVD starts up in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," therefore, you're "booting Leopard" from a USB device on a PPC Mac... no?
> 
> The grand question is: can you boot from a _Tiger_ install CD/DVD using that USB DVD drive?




Sorry, what I meant was I was able to select the external drive as a Startup Disk option using the Tiger system prefs... but couldn't do that again once Leopard was installed.

So no, haven't tried actually booting a copy of Tiger from a USB drive.


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