re-install mac osx from lacie external usb dvd drive
- Thread starter lagref
- Start date
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
Is there some reason you cannot simply boot from the OS X Install/Restore DVD and install that way?
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?
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
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.
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.
jbarley
One more, for the road!
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.
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
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.
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.
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
U.S.D.A. Prime
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.