Boot from Firewire External, OS 9.2, Lombard 400 with OrangeLink card?

I have a Lombard 400, running 9.2.1 with an OrangeLink Card. I have a Firewire external drive with a bootable 10.3.9 drive cloned to it. I have sucessfully booted from this drive to clone the drive to another powerbook I have, so I know it is bootable. The firewire drive shows up on the desktop of the Lombard and I can choose it as the startup disk in the control panel. However, when I restart the computer, it boots back into OS 9. What step am I missing here? I read documentation that the Firewire card is okay for booting.

Amy,
Unfortunately you cannot boot through a FireWire PC card; it does not have the onboard firmware necessary to initialize at startup as does built-in FireWire. In addition, it does require supporting software and this does not load until the OS loads. The only bootable external drive would be a pure SCSI HD or an ATA/IDE HD in a case that uses a SCSI interface.
There is one possible alternative which I have never tried, but the application XPostFacto, used to install OSX on unsupported machines, can be used as a "helper" to boot an external FW drive through a PC card. How well this works I just don't know...
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/

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Boot from FireWire External Drive WITHOUT mounting internal Hard Drive

Is it possible too boot a PowerBook G4 over FireWire (this part works) WITHOUT mounting the internal hard drive at boot time - i.e. never mount the internal hard drive when booting from FireWire?
There is an Oreilly article at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/h/341 which discusses using "niutil" but it is not clear how to indicate the internal hard drive should not be mounted.
The boot from FireWire works fine but how do you tell Mac OS X to ignore and never mount the internal hard drive? There used to be an /etc/fstab file where you could specify drives to mount. The /etc/fstab.hd file comments now say "IGNORE THIS FILE.
This file does nothing, contains no useful data, and might go away in
future releases. Do not depend on this file or its contents."
Thanks,

That is not the problem - I have been using the startup manager by holding down the option key during boot-up. I am having no problem getting the PowerBook to boot from the FireWire Drive.
*The Problem* is that after the PowerBook has booted from the exernal FireWire drive, I still see the internal hard drive of the PowerBook on the desktop. I do not want this. Some key points to note:
[1] I can unmount the interal hard drive and remove from the desktop only by using the Disk Utility in the Applications/Utilities folder. There is a button there to "unmount selected volume"
[2] The finder does not have an icon next to the internal hard drive icon to allow the internal hard drive to be unmounted when booted from a FireWire drive
[3] I want the MacOS X kernel to be configured to not automount any hard drive volumes at bootup - this used to be possible by editing the /etc/fstab.hd file but that file does not appear to be used any more per the commennts in the file.
**Remaining Question** How do you configure the MacOS X kernel to prevent it from mounting any other hard drive at boot time? I do not want to use methods [1] or [2]
Thanks

Booted from firewire external disk, internet slow

Hi,
My iMac is currently being booted from external disk via Firewire 800. I have to do this until I receive new install disks from apple to resore my machine.
The computer is usable, however internet is very slow... I have other devides, windows machine, ipad, iphone and they all run okay.
It seems that because I have booted via the external disk..... internet is slow. Could this be as the OS is needed to refer to the external disk?
Any suggestions to correct this please?
thanks
Mark

I need to restore from a time machine backup - full system restore, only possible from orignial install disks supplied with my imac apparently.
The bootable external disk , is actually the orignial boot disk, however has disk problems - SMART warning, and when trying to restore this disk to the new installed disk, it fails.
I can only boot from it, and run some of the apps on it.
I know that it seems strange that I have slow internet, but it seems to be the case.
Internet seems to pause lots of times, I wonder if its something to do with tmp files on the external disk.
I have tried downloading Lion to upgrade and use this as a method of getting a bootable system, but Lion has been downloading for 3 days, and I have had to abort a couple of times.
It does seem odd, but cant think of anything else.

Booting from firewire target mode on a mac pro with kernel panic?

hello
i am wondering if it is possible to use firewire target mode to boot a mac pro that has never got past a multi language kernel panic on boot?
basically i have tried all the other options and cant get it to open the superdrive to insert my installation disk, as to repair the drivers with my snow leopard disk.
i've tried holding my mouse key down, the paperclip option on the drive itself and the firmware keycombo, so my idea is that the only way to fix it is with target mode. can this be done - and if so - could someone direct me towards a tutorial that will help me do this.
please advise if this is possible or if there is another method i should use? apart from taking it to the applestore (extreme last ditch option) i am quite low on ideas here.
many thanks!
p.s heres the message i wrote for the original problem which caused all the kernel panics;
"i recently bought a mac pro and upon starting it for the first time opted to transfer the all the data i could over via firewire from my macbook pro.
i used the standard 't' command with the firewire symbol.
Somewhere towards the end of the transfer (I am not sure at what pont - I wasnt there for all of it) - , the monitor went blank and the whole thing was unresponsive. my macbook's firewire sign continued to move around the screen.
after leaving it for some time i decided to turn off the macbook and then the mac pro.
i restarted the macbook and got some pretty crazy stuff happening to my calender - but so far everything seems to be fine.
i am more concerned about the "you need to restart your computer" message; this is the dreaded 'kernel panic' right?. i have never actually done anything with this computer yet, and it was purchased new."

"i recently bought a mac pro and upon starting it for the first time opted to transfer the all the data i could over via firewire from my macbook pro.
Never opt to transfer until you have insured it works fine for a couple days, I would never use Setup or Migration Assistant until such time, and I would have a bootable backup clone.
Try pulling all the hard drives from inside your Mac Pro and boot from OS X DVD - latest OS build.

IMac G5 won't boot from an external Seagate Freeagent FireWire drive

Hi guys,
So, the internal drive on my sister's iMac G5 finally died a few days ago. On my advice, she stopped in to Best Buy and bought a Seagate Freeagent Xtreme 1tb external drive (with FireWire). I had her connect the Seagate to her MacBook (in Windows Boot Camp mode) and use the Seagate Manager to disable the drive's power-saving mode. I then talked her through using her OS X Leopard DVD to (re)partition the Seagate (using the Apple Partition Map scheme) and format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled, and Leopard installed just fine on the external drive (from the G5, via USB).
However, now when she tried to boot from the external over FireWire (by holding down "Option" on power-on), it plays dead (no lights), and doesn't show as a viable boot device. When plugged into the laptop (also over firewire) it shows up just fine on the desktop. We would use USB to boot, but her G5 doesn't support booting over USB.
What am I missing here? We've been working on this for three days, and have gotten so freakin' close to having her iMac up and running again, but the cursed Seagate drive simply refuses to "kick in" at bootup and work on the G5!
Any ideas would be awesome,
Huxley

Honestly, that's exactly what I would do if I had hands-on access to the iMac, but such a swap is a bit beyond my sister's skill-set.
We never did figure out what the issue was, so I had my sister return the drive and order one from MacSales.com (aka Other World Computing) - if anyone will have a Mac-friendly drive, it's those folks!
Huxley

Booting from an external firewire drive

I bought an external hard drive (Western Digital, 320 gb, firewire). First, I erased the disk and formatted it as Mac Os Extended (Journaled).
I cloned my internal drive (using SuperDuper) on to the new external drive. My goal is to have an alternate bootable drive in case my internal drive fails. However, it will not boot on it even though it may be selected as the startup disk. And will not come up as an option when holding down the option key while booting. I've read about a similar problem that was posted but the solution confused me. Can you give me a solution to this problem?

First you should prep the drive correctly as follows:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, select the button for Zero Data (single pass) and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process may take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
After formatting has completed select the volume you must created from the left side list, then click on the Restore tab in the DU main window. Drag the new volume to the Destination field. Drag your startup volume from the left side list to the Source field. Click on the Restore button.
After cloning has completed quit DU. Open Startup Disk preferences, select the new volume and click on the Restart button. Your computer should boot from the external drive.

How can I boot from an external drive?

I am unsuccessful trying to have the external backup drive to boot the Powerbook. I tried first a USB Lacie Mobile Disk, then thinking USB was the problem I got a FireWire Little Disk of the same brand. None will boot even if the disk appears in the startup disk control panel. When I boot with option key, the choice is no longer there. Maybe they require a power supply other than the USB power lead? Any experience?

USB drives are not bootable for PowerBooks. FireWire drive usually needs to be used with the power supply since it consumes more power than the USB
Right! So there is no way to boot from an external without a power source.
Thanks Arnie.

Booting from an external drive over usb

Hey, has anyone else had any problems booting from an external? I have an external lacie drive that I keep a clone backup on (using superduper) and usually have it connected with firewire400. I know it works because i've accidently booted using it before, but recently the firewire port on it died so i've been using usb instead.
Now the problem, holding option on my macbook starting, I get no options to choose from. If i have the mac osx dvd in, it pops up so I know it's not a problem with my macbook. It is possible to boot from usb correct? Everything i've read has said it's possible... I'm not sure why my external drive isn't coming up. I know it works over usb because I've used it alot since the firewire port died on it. I checked in the disk utility and it does say it's bootable, and afterall it's cloned using superduper like i said before...
I have 2 partitions on the drive, is that a problem? It never was before, I've booted off it many times before using firewire though. Can someone help me out here? Very annoying as I'm replacing the HD in my macbook and neeeeeeed to get on my external.
When I asked the guy at the genius bar awhile ago he just said it was probably a problem because my old internal HD died and he said sometimes it causes the macbook to not even be able to get as far as the point to boot from another source. Well now I have a new working drive in it, so I know that's not the problem. It just doesn't show up to boot from anymore, ugh.

Sounds like your clone isn't bootable. Have you tried the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

BOOT FROM AN EXTERNAL USB DRIVE???

I know apple has made it clear about booting from an external USB drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106474
but I know that there are people who are able to boot from an external drive, does anybody know how to do this?
It's just that id like to work on final cut studio on an external drive for various reasons:
1st: my powerbook's HD is small and slow (60gb)
2nd: my external usb drive is big (160 gb) and fast (7200 RMPS!)
so a little help would be apreciated
best regards

"Actually, USB II is faster than FW 400."
In theory, probably. In real life Firewire 400 is much faster than USB2, not to speak of Firewire 800:
"Wee Wiebetech" Portable FireWire/USB2 Drive Challenges The Fastest Competitors.

Booting From An External Drive in OS 9.2?

I have a G4 with a bad internal ROM drive. I am currently running OS 9.2.
I would like to upgrade to OS 10.
I have an Iomega USB 2.0 external drive connected to my computer via the USB port in the back.
How can I boot from the disk in this external drive?
I tried holding "option"- it only found my regular hard drive.
I tried holding "cmd-opt-shift-del" but my mac got very confused and blinked a ? at me.
How can I boot from the external drive so I can upgrade?
Thanks
O.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Mac OS X will not boot from USB drives on a PowerPC.
You need a Firewire optical drive to boot, and an AGP PowerMac G4 at that to boot Mac OS X. To identify your PowerMac G4, see this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58418
Once you've identified it, boot the machine into Mac OS 9 on the hard drive and make sure your firmware is up to date:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
And then you'll be able to install Mac OS X. Follow these precautions on my FAQ before doing so:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html
If it turns out you have a PCI PowerMac G4, you'll have to replace the optical drive internally to boot Mac OS X or Mac OS 9.
Also make sure your clock battery is under 4 years old before attempting to upgrade the firmware. It is a 3.6 V 1/2 AA battery you can buy from Radio Shack item 23-026.

How do I boot from an external drive?

I've just Carbon Cloned my 60GB drive to a firewire external drive. I'm about to replace the 60GB with a 160GB drive and the CCC instructions say boot from the external drive I'd just created once the new disk is installed. Then CCC the cloned drive back to the new hard drive.
So, how do I boot from an external drive? Do I have load anything to the new drive? Will the macbook detect the external drive and boot from that? Or what??????
Thanks
Dick

Thanks DWB. Being the rash impetuous guy I am I didn't wait for replies and just switched on the macbook after installing the new disk (which was so easy it was unbelievable - had to go and buy a a little torx bit though) to see what would happen.
Blow me down with a feather if it didn't just boot off the external drive all by itself :-O It did come up with the disk was unverified and I could see it in FINDER and I was prseented with a screen to ERASE/RESTORE etc.
When I went to CCC the external drive back to the new hard drive it didn't give show me the new hard drive so I guessed I'd have to do something to format (?) the hard drive.
I don't know if I did the right thing but I went to disk utilities and chose ERASE in the vague hope it would maybe format the disk in some way.
Seems to work now and the CCC replaced the system perfectly as far as I can see.
Basically very impressive all round. Piece of proverbial to replace the disk and CCC made life so easy.
Thanks again.
Cheers
Dick

How to Boot From an External HD

I am still pondering getting a mini - I know that I will want a much larger hard drive (since I want to use it for media and will keep tons of video and music on it). I would like to know how to boot from an external hard drive. I've searched google, the forums, and apple support, and see people mention it all the time, but can't find out how to do it, etc. Is it just like running off my normal HD but all the files are kept on the external (so I could still access files thru itunes, etc.)?
Also, I would like to get a 500GB+ drive to keep my files on, and was wondering if people had recomendations. Brands, USB 2.0 or Firewire, etc.
Apologies if this is a novice question - but I can't seem to find answers anywhere.
Thanks in advance.

Firstly, it is certainly possible to boot from an external drive, so what you plan is not only feasible, but since the external would be faster than the internal drive, also rather beneficial to the efficient running of the mini - meaning, the system will be notably faster in use.
In my view, the best option is an external firewire drive, not USB. The reason is that FW has it's own dedicated controller while USB doesn't. In effect, it means that FW data transfer speeds are stable and consistent, while USB rates vary widely, depending on what else the system is doing.
Once you have your external drive connected, the easiest way to make it bootable is to copy your existing MacOS install from the internal drive using software such as Carbon Copy Cloner (downloadable from www.versiontracker.com). This will avoid having to do a lengthy reinstall. Once MacOS is copied, then open System Preferences, and the Startup Disk preference pane, and click on the external drive icon. The next restart will then be directed to the external.
Once you have booted from the external drive, you use it just as you would an internal, and MacOS will treat it as the boot volume, including by default, placing your user account folders on it, including your documents, music etc.

IMac won't boot from Firewire?

Hey gang-
I wanted to post this to save anyone else pulling out their hair if they have a Mac that won't boot from a Western Digital (WD) external Firewire drive. I recently purchased a Western Digital My Book Studio 2 TB FireWire 800 External Hard Drive.
I bought this drive intending to partition it into two 1TB partitions- one for a bootable backup and one for a Time Machine backup. I do my bootable backups with the application SuperDuper, which is outstanding for this purpose. I have used it to create bootable backups on 3 different Maxtor external Firewire drives, and they have all flawlessly booted all my Macs. I expected no different from this new Western Digital (WD) 2TB drive.
Unfortunately, the WD would not boot 2 out of my 3 Macs when connected via Firewire. It would NOT boot an Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) or an Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does boot our Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition). Strangely, the WD booted all 3 Macs when connected via USB, though needless to say very slowly in all cases. If you need additional technical information, read on.
Technical Info: The following tests were done with the WD connected via Firewire. The WD is correctly formatted for booting Intel Macs with GPT GUID formatting. Note that the WD appears as a bootable drive in System Preferences->Startup Disk on all 3 of my Macs. But when attempting to boot via Firewire, I get only a grey screen on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). The Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition) boots normally. When booting with the Option Key held down, Startup Manager does NOT see the WD as a bootable drive on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does appear as a bootable drive on the Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition).
When connected via USB, the WD boots all three of my Macs, but very slowly compared to the internal drive.
It's probably worth noting that the Late-2007 MacBook and the Mid-2007 iMac all share the then-new Santa Rosa architecture. So I'm guessing that they may share the same Firewire chipset. And for whatever reason, that chipset does not play nice with the WD chipset.
So, bottom line is that if you need a Firewire bootable backup, be sure to test the drive right away so that you don't think you have a bootable backup when in fact you don't.
On the good side, the drive is amazingly quiet. At this point, I need to decide whether to keep the drive, knowing that I have only USB as a bootable option on 2 out my 3 Macs, or return it. But in any case, wanted to pass this on to anyone else having problems booting from an external Firewire drive.

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

KILL ME... Ejecting a disc / booting from an external...

Hi there...
Let's start this off by saying I am in no way a genius.
Moving on...
I'm selling my boss's Powerbook G4 for her... I wanted to format it to make it like new, and was told to use the software that came with it... Instead I found the software from her brand new MacBook Pro and thought to myself, "Eh, whats the difference?"
Now it won't boot up, just says the driver cannot be found...
Keep in mind I am in no way attached to any information on the computer, as I was looking to start it over anyway...
So here's what I need to do.
Get that disc out and find the CORRECT install discs...
Super duper!!
I tried holding down the mouse / track-pad key upon booting, that doesn't work.
The other suggestion I heard via text from my Apple Employee friend was to boot from an external and drag it to the trash...
Any tips on how to do that??
...(or how else to get this effing disc out?!?!)
Thanks and I love you.
~jess.

I connected to another laptop, firewire to firewire, and held down T on the stuck laptop while booting it up... The other computer was able to read it, then eject the disk...
Sweet baby Jesus, I was excited.

Booting From An External DVD Burner

Hi,
My Parents' Leopard copy will arrive in a few days, and since the iMac G5's drive is dead, I was wondering if the install process will be possible from an external DVD drive device.
PS: I also have an iPod 30 gig (if it's impossible via the DVD drive, is it possible via the iPod?)

IMPORTANT: is it normal that when I boot from the external Drive (Firewire) the grey screen with the Apple (start up screen) remains static for a long time? (the loading "flower" doesn't show up) .
I need a reply please, because keeping the Mac on that start up screen would be stupid... if it's useless.
Thanks

Boot from Firewire External, OS 9.2, Lombard 400 with OrangeLink card?

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