I was told that the new Intel Macs will not let you boot from an external hard drive with fire wire. Is this true??? I was thinking of getting a Mac mini, transferring the data on my G5, then cloning it so I would have a bootable backup. Just in case the internal drive started acting badly.
Bootable?
- Thread starter tbird301
- Start date
jbarley
One more, for the road!
To answer your question,
With the correct Operating System, Intel Macs will boot from an external firewire drive be it 400 or 800, they also will boot from USB externals.
DeltaMac
Tech
You can choose the destination at the beginning of the install.
Keep in mind that the downloaded installer app is deleted when the install is complete.
If you anticipate needing to reinstall (and that might happen as you "feel your way" with a new Mac) then you may want to copy the installer to an external drive, if you like.
Good plan is to download the installer, and create a bootable installer, using a flash drive. Use that to install (or reinstall) OS X.
Keep in mind that the downloaded installer app is deleted when the install is complete.
If you anticipate needing to reinstall (and that might happen as you "feel your way" with a new Mac) then you may want to copy the installer to an external drive, if you like.
Good plan is to download the installer, and create a bootable installer, using a flash drive. Use that to install (or reinstall) OS X.
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
DeltaMac is exactly correct, but I wanted to expand on his comment and say that even though the original installer is deleted at the end of the installation, that doesn't mean it's gone forever -- you can re-download the installer an infinite number of times after-the-fact.
...though I do agree that for such a large installer (4+ GB), the recommended route would be to do exactly what DeltaMac said and simply make a copy of the installer before installing so that you're not stuck waiting for it to re-download when you need it.
...though I do agree that for such a large installer (4+ GB), the recommended route would be to do exactly what DeltaMac said and simply make a copy of the installer before installing so that you're not stuck waiting for it to re-download when you need it.
TuckerdogAVL
Registered
How do download the installer, create a bottable installer using a flash drive and simply make a copy of the installer before installing? I made a copy of my 10.6 (not 10.6.8) disks onto USB that I was going to load onto a new computer running Yosemite after partitioning. I'm thinking I can then have 10.6.8 to run programs that don't run on Yosemite by booting into it when needed.
DeltaMac
Tech
Yes, you can. The 10.6.8 system will need to be on its own partition, or on a separate drive of some kind.
How did you copy that 10.6 installer? One method that works, is to use Disk Utility, Restore tab. Your 10.6 (Snow Leopard) installer would be the source drive, and your chosen USB drive, or maybe a separate partition, will be the destination. A simple file copy will NOT be bootable...
TuckerdogAVL
Registered
I used disk utility but didn't use restore tab. I think what I did load the 10.6 original disk, then do the "C" prompt, then in disk utility when I was asked where to install I chose the USB and hit install. Will this be bootable?
DeltaMac
Tech
The only way that you would choose a destination for copying, is when you used the restore tab (and, that's a great choice that will do what you want) - so, yes, that will be bootable.
Why did you mention doing a "C" prompt? Did you use a diskutil command in the terminal? That would work fine, too. The Disk Utility is just a GUI interface for the UNIX diskutil command.
Anyway, it sounds like you are doing just fine.