Booting from a firewire drive with a bluetooth keyboard

I need to get my computer (iMac G5) to boot from a firewire drive that does have OSX installed on it. I understand from other posts that a bluetooth keyboard will not help seeing as the handshake does not occur until the operating system boots as well. Is there any way to get this to work? I have tried selecting it as the startup disk in System Preferences, but that hasn't seemed to work. I do NOT have a USB keyboard anywhere that I can use (away from home in the boondocks).
Any ideas?

Ikrion wrote:
I need to get my computer (iMac G5) to boot from a firewire drive that does have OSX installed on it. I understand from other posts that a bluetooth keyboard will not help seeing as the handshake does not occur until the operating system boots as well. Is there any way to get this to work? I have tried selecting it as the startup disk in System Preferences, but that hasn't seemed to work. I do NOT have a USB keyboard anywhere that I can use (away from home in the boondocks).
Does System Preferences allow you to select the FW drive as the start up volume? If so, you then press the button to restart, correct? What exactly happens after that?
What version of OS X do you have on the iMac (ii) the FW drive?
Have you booted from the FW before? What kind of drive is it? How did you install OS X on it?
If the FW and iMac have the same version of OS X on, try this:
open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
select the FW drive at the left
choose "repair disk"
choose "repair permissions"
Try again.
- cfr

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Boot from external Firewire Drive-cannot repair or optimize internal drive.

Hi all
Connected my new 300 GB Seagate External Firewire Hard Drive today.
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Disk Utility cannot Verify or Repair internal drive. Does not say or do anything.
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Hi
I did name the new external completely different from the internal.
After booting from the external Firewire Hard Drive, I tried running Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro from both drives. No matter which drive I run the Utilities from the same things happen every time...
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Noise when booting from external firewire drive

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The fans are controlled by code in the OS you boot from. It sounds like the OS you have on your external Maxtor is older then your iMac G5. As a results it may not have the needed fan control code. When that occurs, the Firmware in the iMac, sets the fans to a high speed to ensure your computer will not overheat.
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The firmware update is a good suggestion to check.
Here's another thing. You say you have been "provided with" an external firewire drive with Tiger on it. How was that Tiger OS installed on that firewire drive? If it was done on a computer that is not identical to your iMac, then it very well will not be able to boot your iMac. When you install Tiger or Panther or any version of Mac OS X, what is actually installed is a custom version of OS X that is tailored to the specific model of computer you are running at the time. So if the firewire drive has a Mac OS X that was installed, say from a G5, then that drive MIGHT only be able to properly boot that model of G5. It MIGHT be able to boot a G4 or a G3, but I think the odds are against that.
The reliable way to install OS X is from an OS X CD that is the commercially sold boxed version (not the installation CD that comes with a specific model of Macintosh, and not a firewire drive that has OS X from some other model of Macintosh).

Can I boot from an external drive with a "Virtual CD"

I just purchased a Hitachi LifeStudio external hard drive for use as my Time Machine backup. When I plugged it in to my MacBook running 10.6.4, I realized that it had one of those "Virtual CDs" that contained the manufacturers crapware, similar to Western Digital's MyWare or whatever its called. It shows up in disk utility as an actual separate disk and not just another partition that can be wiped.
I reformatted the drive using GUID and and created 3 HFS+ Journaled partitions. One was going to be for the 10.6 installer, one for the 10.6 boot, and one for my time machine backup. I restored a 10.6 install dvd disk image I created using disk utility to the 10.6 installer partition (with erase destination checked) then option booted my mac and the partitions did not show up. The only thing I could see was my internal hard drive.
I have done this many times before and it has always worked so Im trying to figure out what Im doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is that the "Virtual CD" that Hitachi put on this external drive is stopping the Mac from seeing the bootable partitions I created. I even went into system preferences>startup disk and blessed the 10.6 install partition. That didn't work either, the computer just booted to my internal drive.
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Thanks in advance.

Yes, it's a known issue. You've already referred to the issue with WD systems. WD has a long list of products that are either not compatible with Macs or won't boot a Mac.
There are practically no problems with bare drives, but once installed in an enclosure there is no guarantee that the package will function as a bootable device. This is especially the case if the manufacturer uses some sort of "virtual" scheme intended for using the device as a sort of one button backup device.
External drives don't have to specifically say anything about being Mac bootable or compatible. It's up to the consumer to verify compatibility and usability.

Booting from external Firewire drive.

Hello there.
I got a brand new 17" 2g intel iMac and I'm very happy with it.
However I missed my 2 internal drives so I bought another firewire drive to make backups, having an emergency system, etc.
But apparently I can't install a system with this external drive (nor in the second ext. drive I got).
Is this a common issue? Do I have to do something?
(I'm using the Installer CD I got with the iMac).

It is important to note that a traditional APM partition can, in fact, boot an Intel Mac - I have done it on numerous occasions. Specifically,
- A GUID partition is required to install (new) an Intel version of 10.4.x. If the partition is APM, the installer will not recognize it as bootable and will not allow for installation. In this case, the GUID format is required.
- an APM partition can be used to boot the Intel as long as it is cloned.
I've used (and continue to use) Mike Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner. Despite being a PPC app, it works as expected. I tested this when I first received my Intel iMac since I would inevitably need to use one drive (with multiple partitions of course) to boot a mixture of PPC and Intel Macs at work. As such, I have one external Firewire drive with 3 APM partitions - 1 with 10.3.9 (PPC) for labs that still run Panther, 1 partition with 10.4.x for labs that have upgraded and 1 partition with 10.4.x Intel for the 1 lab where the new Macs are slowly being integrated.

Can WinXP be loaded and booted from external firewire drive?

The subject line probably says it all but:
Does the recent firmware upgrade and/or BootCamp allow you to install WinXP on an external Firewire drive rather than partitioning the iMac Core Duo's internal drive?
Mike
Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.6)

The other problem is XP itself doesn't support booting from firewire. Even if someone could figure out how to install to an external from bootcamp, you would still have to contend with XP.
Glor

Problems backing up then booting from a firewire drive on Intel Macs

Hi
I wanted to help a friend back up his Macbook and then install Bootcamp.
I took over my trusty external firewire drive (Makeytec MHD-25 Combo enclosure + Samsung 80Gb HDD).
So... I ran Disk Utility
Highlighted the firewire drive, clicked Partitions, named it "Backup". Clicked Options -> GUID -> Partition
I backed up his computer with SuperDuper onto Backup. SuperDuper automatically makes the drive bootable. At the end Backup was mounted on the desktop and all files are there.
But Backup wouldn't boot the computer. Instead I got a grey screen for a long time, then the Apple logo with the spinning cog, then after a few more minutes a circle with a bar through it (like a no smoking sign minus the cigarette)
Things I tried after this....
Partitioned the drive again, double checking that I had selected GUID
Erased the drive zeroing out all the data
Backing up using CCC (with make drive bootable option checked) instead of SuperDuper
Could not get this drive to boot his computer.
Then took the drive back home. Tried doing it with my MacMini (same problem)
Then plugged it into my Powerbook, Partitioned it as Apple Partition Map, ran SuperDuper, rebooted from it fine.
My conclusion: The drive will boot a G4 just fine, but not an Intel based Mac.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

A workaround:
The drive enclosure also has support for USB "1.1/2.0", including the ever important cable.
I reconnected it to the Macbook, partitioned the drive back to GUID, then I used super duper to back the Macbook drive (again!). I used firewire (only because it was much quicker - 6Mb/s vs 2.8Mb/s)
Once I did the backup, I ejected the external drive, disconnected it, then plugged it back in with USB, then selected it as the start up disk, then hit restart. Machine rebooted just fine although very slowly.
Still doesn't answer the question of why booting via the firewire port works fine with a G4 mac but not Intel.
Tim

Booting from a external drive with Option key?

I have made a clone of my MBP's drive via Carbon Copy Cloner.
Now I can boot from USB 2.0 extra drive selecting previousely the startup disk in MBP preferences.
My hard disk has some problems and I want to have an emergency bootup so I have some questions about this:
1-Restart the computer and hold down the Option key until disks icons appear on screen, does't work. It appears only HD (HFS+ journaled) icon and not LaCie USB drive (HFS+) icon why? Any solution?
2-HD with a few bad blocks and volume structure error (other hardware tests passed) can be repaired with reformating and reinstaling OS X?
3-Do I have to format the disk with Disk Utility erase and "zero out data" security options and reinstal OS X from my OS X Installer Disc?
Thanks for the help

Yes I have a LaCie USB and Firewire external drive.
I can boot from USB or Firewire if I select the drive previousely with startup preferences.
The problem is, when restarting with USB (or firewire) external drive, I can see only the HD icon when hold down the alt key of my MBP.
In your case have you two icons at the startup? Your firewire drive is HFS+ journaled formated ? Is this relevant?

Booting from external Firewire drive--possible?

If I add a USB/Firewire card to my Beige G3 minitower (300MHz), can I then boot from an external Firewire hard drive on which I have installed Panther? A comment by Tina Garfield in another thread seems to suggest this is indeed possible. (I didn't want to "threadjack" that discussion, so I created this new one. I hope Tina sees it and can help me.)
Tina wrote the following:
Having Firewire allows you to have external drives,
which you will be able to boot from, and make
backups and maintenance especially easy.
I was under the impression that the Beige G3 can't see iadd-on Firewire/USB cards until the machine has booted from the internal hard drive. I really hope I am wrong! If it is indeed possible to have the machine recognize the external drive at startup, and there is something I need to do to enable this, please let me know.
Thanks!
GeeKay

Hi GeeKay,
Ditto to everything Grant posted, with an extra reminder to be sure to download XPostFacto 3.1 and not version 4. I believe on the XPF page ( http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto3.ht ml ), the download for 3.1 is a little bit down the page.
If/when you buy an external FW drive be sure it has an Oxford chipset. If the description does not include mention of the the Oxford chipset, I would strongly recommend finding another external drive that does specify this. Our Beiges are very particular about what they will accept for external booting, and the Oxford chipset is a critical component.
Also, I've found, since I do partition my external firewire drives, that I can boot only from the first partition of the external drive, similar to the behavior of our internal drives. In addition, with one of my Beiges, my "helper" disk that I specify to XPostFacto to allow me to boot externally must be the first partition of my internal drive.
I don't believe that you can actually INSTALL to an external drive. I simply cloned my internal drive's system over to the FW drive. This can be done with software such as the free Silverkeeper ( http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/ ) or with shareware SuperDuper ( http://www.shirt-pocket.com/ ) which are both great for all backups. I happen to prefer SuperDuper because of its redundancy -- it explains EVERY step before you take it and then, even after you tell it to go ahead, it asks you again to be sure That's what you want to do.
Once set up, however, it is extremely cool, and helpful, to be able to boot externally. If your external drive is dual USB/FW, you will only be able to boot when connected via Firewire. None of the Beiges are USB-bootable.
Hope this helps, and keep us posted,
Tina

IMac 2.8Ghz + booting from external FireWire Drive

I was wondering if anyone has 'booted' from an external FireWire drive using the FireWire 400 port?
After going through the issue of reformatting my external drive with the GU-ID partitioning scheme, I found that the drive would mount on the FW400 port but wouldn't boot. In the end I used the FW800 port and the drive booted up first time. On my old PowerBook I could boot from both FW400 & FW800, does anyone know why FW400 doesn't work or is it my iMac?

If it mounts then you can install OSX or clone OSX and then boot from it. From what you are saying a bootable partition will boot on 400 just not on 800, which is quite odd, I concur.
Note that they are notorious for needing the right power supply and they all look identical - I had problems of recent with a triple extreme 1 TB on FW 800, and took it to LaCie (a mile from where I work) - they told me I was using the wrong power supply and gave me the right one free. When I got home I did have the right one in a pile with others. 4.2 A vs. 2.2 A and it worked great. And I have a spare free power supply.
I don't think drivers even enter into it at all with firewire, e.g. drive specific drivers.

Stupid question: force booting from external FireWire drive

My PowerBook is refusing to boot from it's hard drive (flashing ?/folder), which I'll be attempting to repair using DiskWarrior, etc.
But it's also not finding and booting from the OS X installed on my external FireWire drive (which it could do under normal circumstances). How do I force it to do that given that I'm unable to set the Start Up Volume in the normal manner?
PowerBook G4 17" 1.5GHz 512MB 80GB Mac OS X (10.3.6)

Dale,
Thanks for your response. I've been through the usual stuff as in your reference and I eventually got it to boot off the external HD by just leaving it long enough - it took maybe 10-15 minutes. I'm booted from it now. I hadn't thought of using the Startup Manager, but will try to remember next time.
As for the internal HD, it's looking like it's dead - neither Disk Warrior nor Data Rescue II seem to be able to see it. I tried Disk Utility from the external HD, but it doesn't see it and nor does the Profiler. Maybe it's just a loose connection internally. There is a noise coming from the PB from about just under the division between the left hand rest and the speaker. It sort of sounds like a disk continually being read or written - ie. a sort of very rapid clicking, but I don't think it's the HD. And I don't think it's the fan. Anyone with any ideas before I call AppleCare?
I did have a very similar problem a few weeks ago (http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1465680#1465680), but Disk Warrior fixed it apparently with next to no problems. I was going to wipe the drive at the weekend & reinstall, but didn't get round to it in the end ... Fortunately I had a backup this time and was able to restore my user simply by copying it.

Problems booting from external firewire drive

Here's a weird one...
I'm trying to help a buddy with a 3rd gen MBP and a new WD 'My Studio' firewire external drive.
He can mount and use the drive but is unable to boot from it. When starting up his machine with option, the drive doesn't show up as selection. The really odd part is the drive does work if plugged in with the USB cable!
The drive in question DOES work as expected on my 5th gen MBP with firewire. Further, I can stert my MBP in target disc mode and it will function as expected as a bootable external drive for his machine. The system in question was cloned with Carbon Copy Cloner. And again, it boots from my MBP.
I've tried different sets of cables (even though everything works on my system). I actually had him send the drive back for warranty replacement but of course the new one behaves the same way.
What could be the cause of apparently certain firewire drives not being bootable (but otherwise working) on a 3rd gen MBP? The intended workflow is to be studio/audio work so using the USB connection for a workaround would not be an option.
Any clues? Windows is not even installed on any of these machines!

baltwo wrote:
FWIW, many WD HDs won't boot Macs and booting Macs isn't supported. Details at their site. That's the main reason I never recommend their crappy HDs.
Actually I'm very familiar with that list- spent a lot of time looking at this past week!
Ironically, the majority of that page is a list of drives which they claim WILL boot Macs. In fact, the list is entitled "List of Mac-bootable WD external drives..."
And yep, mine is on there...on the list that reads "The following external hard drives should be bootable on Intel-based Mac computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b)" is "MyBook Studio" as well as my drive model number.
But that's all beside the point. Like you, I couldn't recommend their drives at this point. At least make sure if you buy one that the vendor has a good return policy.
Dave

Booting from a Firewire Drive

Hi there -
I'm trying to install Leopard from an external firewire drive (Sony 810UL). It comes up in the Start-up disk opions as well as the simple 'Resart to install Leopard' on the deskop.
Problem is - when I restart, my Powerbook won't recognise the drive.
Any clues?

Is there something wrong with your '12 PowerBook G4's internal optical drive? I had an experience where my '12 PowerBook G4 wouldn't recognize my iLife '05 DVD-ROM. Resetting the PMU fixed it for me. You might want to try that to see if it gets the internal optical drive working again. Here's a link to the Apple Knowledge Base article that describes how to reset the PMU: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449. If that doesn't work your internal optical drive may have dirt on the laser lens. If so running a cleaning CD in the optical drive should dislodge the dirt & enable it read discs again.

How to boot from external firewire drive

Apparently my internal HD on the powerbook has died as it repeatedly gives me the black screen "restart" message and re-install of system software fails.
I have an external bootable firewire drive, which is a "carbon copy" of my iMac, however, it's SnowLeopard not Leopard, so is there any way I can use the firewire drive to boot off of on the G4 or any other suggestions?
Also, does anyone know what Apple typically charges to replace the internal drive in the PB G4? I looked at the video for doing it myself and that is not an option for me.
Thanks!

The black screen restart message, or kernel panic, can be caused by a number of causes, most which are typically hardware-related, and many times a problem with memory. Try re-seating the memory to see if that makes a difference.
This is a good read on kernel panics: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
If you have the original OS X disks that came with the system, find the first one that should say 'AHT Version x.x' in small print on the label. Insert it and reboot while holding the alt/option key down. Choose the Apple hardware test, and when prompted, choose the extended test. That might give you some additional information on any hardware issue(s).
You can't use your Snow Leopard bootable drive on the Powerbook, as Snow Leopard requires an Intel-based system.
If it turns out it is a hard drive issue, be aware that Apple will keep your current hard drive as a trade in on a new drive. Some people have private data on the hard drive and have a concern with it leaving their ownership (even if the drive isn't working).

Booting from a firewire drive with a bluetooth keyboard

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