iBook External Hard Drive/Bootable ?

vjmacaddict · 10-23-2005, 09:29 PM

I just purchased a Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300RO 300GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive, and a Rosewill RX30-U2FA External Enclosure USB/FireWire. Still waiting for the shipment to arrive.

My question: Will I need to purchase additional wires/cables or other equipment, in order to install the hard drive?

The hard drive will be connected to my G4 iBook, presently running OS X 10.3.9. I would also like to install Tiger on the external hard drive, and be able to boot from the external hard drive. Will that be a problem? Thanks.

-- vjamacaddict

Las_Vegas · 10-23-2005, 11:21 PM

None at all if it's connected via Firewire. OS X resets the USB port during boot making it impossible to boot from USB.

tlarkin · 10-24-2005, 01:29 PM

OS 9 can boot from USB. It seems that there is no support in the OS X boot strap for usb devices. However, I have read that some linux users have booted linux off a USB drive using apple PPC hardware. There may be some sort of open source answer out there for you, but I would recomend just going with firewire. FW will boot natively, with no issues.

voldenuit · 10-24-2005, 03:09 PM

Hopefully one fine day Apple gets around to clean up the USB mess that prevents booting from USB mass storage, something pretty much any decent OS (and even some nasty ones) is capable of.

Las_Vegas · 10-24-2005, 03:37 PM

OS X boots from USB, it just doesn't finish. The problem is that the kernel resets the USB port while loading Frameworks. I suspect it would require rebuilding the Darwin kernel to override this behavior.

10-23-2005, 09:29 PM	#1
vjmacaddict Triple-A Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: California Posts: 60	iBook External Hard Drive/Bootable ? I just purchased a Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300RO 300GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive, and a Rosewill RX30-U2FA External Enclosure USB/FireWire. Still waiting for the shipment to arrive. My question: Will I need to purchase additional wires/cables or other equipment, in order to install the hard drive? The hard drive will be connected to my G4 iBook, presently running OS X 10.3.9. I would also like to install Tiger on the external hard drive, and be able to boot from the external hard drive. Will that be a problem? Thanks. -- vjamacaddict __________________ -- vjamacaddict, G4 iBook, OS X 10.4.8, 768RAM, Bluetooth, Superdrive, Airport Extreme

10-23-2005, 11:21 PM	#2
Las_Vegas League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 5,845	None at all if it's connected via Firewire. OS X resets the USB port during boot making it impossible to boot from USB. __________________ Las_Vegas -- Ts'i mahnu uterna ot twan ot geifur hingts uto. -- Sometimes I wonder… Why is that Frisbee getting Larger? …and then it hits me. -- Disposable thumbs make me specialer than most animals…

10-24-2005, 01:29 PM	#3
tlarkin League Commissioner Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City Posts: 9,629	OS 9 can boot from USB. It seems that there is no support in the OS X boot strap for usb devices. However, I have read that some linux users have booted linux off a USB drive using apple PPC hardware. There may be some sort of open source answer out there for you, but I would recomend just going with firewire. FW will boot natively, with no issues. __________________ http://www.tlarkin.com (it is under construction)

10-24-2005, 03:37 PM	#5
Las_Vegas League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 5,845	OS X boots from USB, it just doesn't finish. The problem is that the kernel resets the USB port while loading Frameworks. I suspect it would require rebuilding the Darwin kernel to override this behavior. __________________ Las_Vegas -- Ts'i mahnu uterna ot twan ot geifur hingts uto. -- Sometimes I wonder… Why is that Frisbee getting Larger? …and then it hits me. -- Disposable thumbs make me specialer than most animals…

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:

10-24-2005, 03:09 PM	#4
voldenuit Hall of Famer Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Old Europe Posts: 4,896	Hopefully one fine day Apple gets around to clean up the USB mess that prevents booting from USB mass storage, something pretty much any decent OS (and even some nasty ones) is capable of.