Can I run Panther off an external hard drive

Hi all,
First of all, let me preface the following with this caveat: I'd describe myself as a novice when it comes to all things MAC, so please bear with me.
I read earlier posts on running OS X on an external drive, but I have a slightly specialized problem. My hard drive on my Powerbook seems to have an error (I tried wiping it clean and reloading Panther, but it gives me disk error messages part way through the process). Instead of taking the computer in and having an internal drive placed in it, I'm wondering if I could purchase an external hard drive and use that as I would my internal one by putting OSX on it. Is this possible at all? Or am I not conceptualizing it properly?
I'd appreciate any help you could give me on this, as well as any suggestions about repairing the disk error (beyond simply replacing it).
A million thanks.

"Is this possible at all?"
That's entirely possible. Simply hook up the drive, then boot from the Panther install CD/DVD and isntall it on that drive. Make sure it's a FireWire drive though.
However if your computer is out of warranty, you can replace the internal drive yourself, with instructions from:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide
Of course if it's still under warranty, have Apple fix it for free.

Similar Messages

  • How to run itunes off an external hard drive using the new itunes

    I have windows 8.  I installed the new itunes and I want to know how to run itunes off an external hard drive. 
    thank you for your help.

    Same way as before, hold down shift as you start iTunes, Choose or Create a library.
    tt2

  • Can I run iTunes from an external hard drive?

    My laptop's hard drive is getting pretty full. Collection of movies, songs, pods and pictures are taking up most of the space. Can iTunes be reinstalled into an external hard drive dedicated to my Apple iPods and iPhone stuff? Whenever I want to sync or visit the Apple Store, then I can just turn it on. Would appreciate any advice on how to manage a big inventory of files.
    Thanks.
    Priscilla

    I just did this the other night....
    I plugged in my hard drive, and copied the ENTIRE ITUNES FOLDER onto my hard drive. This is the folder you see when you open my music. It has all of your playlist and rating information in there. After that is finished, you have to go into your advanced preferences, and change the location of your itunes music folder. once you do this you should be set. it worked for me.
    hope this helps!
    -Phil

  • I can't delete things off my external hard drive

    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) (Verified)
      MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5
      1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
    I bought a Seagate 2TB external hard drive. i can get stuff on it no problem but I can't delete certain things from my trash. When I try to delete some, not all, things off it a box appears that says:
    "the operation can't be completed because ..... is in use."
    It's not, I have all the applications closed. I have tried the normal delete, the secure delete, I have tried turning the laptop off and then trying to delete again when its on and it's not working, I have tried putting the file back on the Hard drive and then moving it to the trash again (this has worked for me before with other drives) and deleting, that is also not working.

    This is concerned in particular with backups.. but what is relevant is the command to empty the trash.
    http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html
    Doing stuff from terminal as you know .. be very careful.
    I would do a permissions fix beforehand. Just open the disk the disk utility and run the repair.
    Or again you can do it from terminal.
    http://osxdaily.com/2010/08/10/repair-disk-permissions-from-the-command-line/
    Depending on what nasty changes there are in Yosemite.

  • How can I transfer files off an external hard drive formatted for windows?

    I just bought my first mac (yay!) and am trying to transfer my files off of my old pc.  The problem is that I stored all my personal files on an external hard drive, which is of course formatted for windows.  My mac will open it, but it is "read only."  I tried plugging it back into my pc and using the Migration Assistant to transfer my files over, but it was not detected (rest of the pc was).
    However, the second time I tried plugging it in to my pc, it told me it would need to be formatted first.  Obviously my mac has changed something on it, and now all my personal files are on a hard drive that is unusable by either my old pc or my new mac! 
    Any suggestions would be appreciated!  Heads up though, I am not especially computer literate, and my pc needs to stay intact as the husband needs it and some of the programs on it for school.  Also, I have a second external hard drive that is brand new with nothing on it, if that will come in handy.
    Thanks!

    Format the extra HDD to EXFAT as previously indicated.  There are two ways that can use to transferr the data. 
    1.  Connect both drives to the PC and the copy the files to the newly formatted (EXFAT) drive from the HDD with the data .  Then connect the EXFAT drive to the MBP and transfer the data to same.
    2.  Connect both drives to the MBP and open DISK UTILITY>RESTORE.  Drag the drive with the data on it to the 'Source' field.  Drag the EXFAT drive to the 'Destination' field.  Click on the 'Restore' butt is on.  After the transfer has been completed, close DISK UTILITY and place the data on the MBP where you want it.
    Ciao.

  • How do I run iTunes off an external hard drive?

    I have an 80GB laptop which is getting pretty full, so I've added a 500GB external hard drive with the intention of transferring my music files (amongst other things) to the external drive, freeing up space on the laptop. This has proved (almost) more trouble than it's worth...
    Initially I simply copied iTunes over to the external drive using Windows Explorer. Surfing the apple discussions, however, convinced me that I ought to do the "consolidate library" thing as well (which resulted in me duplicating the files on the external drive). Finally sorted that out, deleted the music files on the hard drive, and discovered that my music library was allegedly "empty". Further surfing on apple discussions made me decide to copy the various iTunes library files from the main iTunes folder back to the hard drive. This has resulted in iTunes being unable to open, due to an "unknown error".
    I'm ready to give up! Anyone out there successfully running iTunes off their external drive? How do you do it?

    Follow up: My next move was to copy my iTunes folder back onto the hard drive. I had only been doing this for ten minutes (the process took twelve hours the previous time I did it) when iTunes was up and running again, and indeed "seeing" all my music files on the external drive. I cancelled the copy process, deleted all the newly copied iTunes music files from the hard drive, leaving all other files intact, and everything seems fine. The problem is now solved, but I'd nevertheless be grateful if someone could explain to me what was going on!
    Thanks
    Ian

  • Can't get things off my external hard drive

    When I purchased my Macbook, it had OS X 10.4.11. I upgraded to Leopard, and started backing up my files using Time Machine. My hard drive crashed, and when they fixed it, they but OS X back on my computer. I really want to get all of my files and settings from my external hard drive back onto my computer, but I don't know how. Help?

    try...
    Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard > Time Machine
    http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1227

  • Can I run LR on an external hard drive only?

    I am currently a student and my personal computer is a macbook air, and does not have a large enough hard drive for my photos. I would like to use LR for the organization. When I Import photos and work on them from the hard drive then close down LR and reboot the computer All of my work is no longer there.
    Please help and advise me what to do?
    Anthony 

    It would probably be better if you kept the Lightroom program on the hard drive, putting the catalog and images on an external hard drive. But I'm curious when you say that when you shut Lightroom down and reopen it that all your changes are gone. Please clarify when you say that you want to use Lightroom to organize your photos. Are you also editing them using Lightroom?

  • Can I run Mavericks from an external hard drive while keeping Snow Leopard?

    Hi there,
    I have a Macbook 5.2 which runs ok with Snow Leopard but I was wondering if I should upgrade to Mavericks now. Because I'm not sure how the new operating system will run on my machine I thought I could install Mavericks on an external USB hard drive and boot from there to evaluate if it runs fine for me.
    Not sure if this is possible as I understand that 10.6 and Lion/ML/Mavericks have different filesystems etc... Don't want to upgrade, realise that 10.9 is not running smoothly for me and having to downgrade to Snow Leopard again - which if I remember well what I read a while ago it is not a straightforward operation....
    Any ideas?
    Many thanks
    Mike

    Yes it's possible and quite easy.  However, do not install on a thumb drive - I've tried this with a 16gb and it's slower than a bread wagon with biscuit wheels.
    Now I'm running a lacie external 500gb drive (partitioned) and a firewire 800 cable on macbook pro with Mavericks.  Now it's smokin fast, faster that running my base hard-drive on snow leopard, however the external drive with mavericks osx is still dependent on the guts and performance of the macbook itself.

  • Can I run applications from an external hard drive

    Hi I am a sort a new Mac user and I would like to run Lightroom from an external drive. Is this possible on a Mac?
    Thanks!

    Yes, but it will load a little slower. If it does disk I/O from the external then that will also be slower.

  • How can I run Itunes from an external hard drive?

    I have over 35GB's of music.  Its killing my hard drive.  Help!!!?!!!!

    heres an apple article on how to move your itunes media folder, sounds like exactly what youre looking for.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
    -mvimp

  • Can I run plugins from an external hard drive on Logic?

    Question above

    Yes.. the plugins themselves must reside on the system drive... in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components.
    If you have a small system drive.. or you are running out of space on your System HD (and you should keep at least 20% of the total space free to give your OS X some 'breathing room" for it to work effiecently...you can always install another copy of your OSX on, and then boot from,  an EXT HD... which you then can install Logic on along with all the Plugins..
    Just make sure that Ext HD is a 7200rpm non green or power saving model and it is connected via FW800 or TB (or a FW800 drive via a TB to FW800 adapter) or UBS3.. but do not try using a USB2 HD.. or a 5400rpm model as they tend to have performance issues..
    Those that have smaller SSDs as their System Drives often find this approach to be the best solution

  • Can I load applications to an external hard drive for use on a new Air?

    Hi, so I have moved my itunes and iphotos to an external disk to free up space. I have a few games that I rarely use that I'd like to migrate to the external hard drive too, leaving just the tools I need to work on the air.
    1. Can I run games from the external hard drive?
    2. How do I migrate the games to the external drive? I assume drag and drop wont cut it?
    Thanks

    Hi
    It was a streamed game - call of duty modern warfare - and seems to have loaded just fine from a drag and drop.
    Appreciate everyone's help.
    Thx.

  • I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on a brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

    I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on my brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

    Why, if it told you you have insufficient space on your computer, would it suggest making more space available on your phone?
    At a guess, you have insufficient space on your phone. Installing software will typically require more space than the final size of the software, perhaps even twice or three times as much, for the installation process. You can easily dump some videos or music temporarily, and then synch them back in afterwards.

  • How do I move a partition on my mac hard drive, to an external hard drive so that i can run windows when the external hard drive is connected

    How do I move a partition on my mac hard drive, to an external hard drive so that i can run windows when the external hard drive is connected

    Are you talking about a Bootcamp partition? You can't boot Windows from an external drive.

Maybe you are looking for