Installing Tiger DVD on a mac without a DVD drive?

Kinniken

Kinniken

Registered
Hi, I'm wondering wether I should buy the Tiger CD or DVD family pack. All my computers save one have a DVD reader, and I appreciate the convenience of having the OS on a single disk. However, I also want to be able to install it on an old iMac G3 with only a CD-RW. Is there a way for me to do that? Maybe a way to use my iBook's DVD drive, a bit like the FW HD mode? I also have an external FW hard drive, would there be a way to copy the Tiger DVD on it and boot the iMac from that?

Any help welcomed!
 
Hello Kinniken

If you have a machine which can be started in Firewire Disc target Mode (connect the machines together with a Firewire cable while both are turned off, then start the one you want to show up as a firewire drive - your machine without the DVD drive - while holding down the T key. When you start up the other machine WITH the DVD drive, your first machine should show up as a hard disc on the desktop), you should be able to then reformat your sans-DVD machine and install Tiger on it over Firewire.

Good luck when you get Tiger,
 
Thanks! I tested it with the Panther install CD and it worked fine. I should have thought of it myself really, I feel stupid...

Now, I just have to wait for Panther!
 
Btw.: Use the most _similar_ machine for installing. If it's a notebooks that has no DVD capability, it's safest to use another notebook for installation, since you'll want the right utilities and code. Also it's better to use a machine with the same processor generation (G3, G4, G5). I'm not entirely sure whether the installed code is any different at all, but you'll want to make sure nothing goes wrong.
 
I won't have the choice... The two machines without DVD drives are two G3 (an iBook and an iMac), and the machines with one are two G4 (one iMac and one iBook) and a G5 iMac, so as far as processor generations are concerned the best I can do is G4 for G3.
I'll keep it in mind for iMac vs iBook though. Thanks for the tip!
 
BTW, I've already pre-ordered the family 5 pack on DVD on the assumption that I would be able to install using an external USB DVD-ROM player. Did I make an assumption that I shouldn't have?
 
BTW, I took a DVD Rom drive from a PC and pop it into my eMac and it worked, no probs! Now I should have no problem putting Tiger not just on my eMac but also on my iBook using Target Disk Mode.

If anyone wants instructions on how to switch out your CD Rom just ask!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top