Booting a Pismo from an external drive

I have a Pismo too. Did yours die on you?

First, the USB CD drive is probably going to be WAY too slow to boot from (1 or 2x at best, I would venture to guess?)

Maybe you should reboot but hold down the option key while doing so; then you can choose which boot disk you want to boot from: OS X or OS 9.
 
:D I forgot to mention, it is lacking the internal DVD drive and I want to reformat the hard drive. So I that is why I need to be able to boot from an external CD.
 
CalSD said:
:D I forgot to mention, it is lacking the internal DVD drive and I want to reformat the hard drive. So I that is why I need to be able to boot from an external CD.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't see why you can't... and you won't know if you don't try. If you have another firewire capable system, you can use firewire target mode on the Pismo to reformat the drive as well.

I would recommend replacing the Pismo DVD drive when you get the chance. If you don't plan on or need to read DVDs, you can get a Lombard CD-ROM drive cheaper. I can't count how many times having that drive around (even though I don't use it much) has saved me in a tight spot when something went bad.
 
I had the same problem. I went almost 2 years without an internal drive. Mine broke as well. I used a firewire CD-RW drive to boot from and install OS 10.3. I don't know about a USB drive, but if that fails and Firewire drive is your answer. FYI I purchased a replacement drive, CD-RW on ebay for $130, albeit I had to have the old Pismo plastics from the broken drive, so it would slide into the slot.

Goodluck!
 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58430

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58354

I don't think you can boot a Pismo from a USB device, but I could be wrong.

The first link indicates that USB booting was only possible starting with the AGP G4 Towers, and the second link indicates that a "Bronze Keyboard" PowerBook cannot use an external USB device as a startup disk. Neither definitively say you can't, but I just don't think you can -- but good luck, and let us know if it works!
 
I would have to say getting the internal DVD/CD drive for your Powerbook is a great option. I have a Pismo and this drive is great, and will serve your needs. If you can boot up, hold the "T" key down while the computer is plugged into another computer; the Pismo will boot up as a firewire hard disk on that other computer.
 
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