Can I use an external hard drive instead of replacing a defective one?

Question

I'm almost certain I need another hard drive; the current one has been installed less than a year. I'm experiencing regular kernel panics; i've done a clean reinstall.
Can I use an external HD as my main drive? Other than the kernel issues, everything else works fine
Message was edited by: joell109

Answer 1

Has using information on 'resolving kernel panics' helped to
define or troubleshoot the list of potential causes of these;
or has the process been partly a guess?
resolving kernel panics - troubleshooting the issue:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
Poor or under-qualification RAM, failed or unable to work
in a later system than a computer was first shipped with,
can lead to kernel panic issues. So can a combination of
software that is incompatible. And if there is a problem in
how the computer reads and writes data to and from the
hard disk drive, it may be putting corrupted data on the HD.
{And the logic board or hardware data flow controller (ATA)
may be defective in such a way as to cause kernel panics..}
An over-full hard disk drive could be damaging the content
of the drive in such a manner (due to over-writing content
and the system being cannibalized) as to cause failures.
What brand of hard disk drive have you installed into there?
An external hard disk drive within a FireWire enclosure, one
that is self-powered so it is on before the computer (and you
have to consider carefully how you detach or attach it to the
Mac, since these have to be unmounted a certain way, etc)
and perhaps large enough in capacity to have it partitioned
so as to give you a backup location for items or utilities that
can run from the computer to help you maintain it, etc.
The externally enclosed FireWire hard disk drive, with AC
power adapter, and cables, should be able to boot the Mac.
Not all can do that... ones with a chipset similar to those
known as 'oxford chipsets' can do this. That is the first test
to do when you get a FW external HD drive, is to see if it
can do this primary task with a boot volume installed.
You can make nice clones, too, if you have a healthy FW
externally enclosed HDD, a bootable one, & self-powered.
Mine are full-computer clones; not just the OS, and not
just the file changes such as a simple backup may provide.
Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich is a good tool to have.
And there are others.
If your computer is essentially eating hard disk drives and
there are kernel panics within a relatively short period of
operational time, there may be something else involved.
A vintage Disk Warrior may be helpful, if you can find one
that will work with the current OS on the computer and
also on the hardware you have, to look into the HDD.
And the original Mac OS software set included with that
computer shipped with an Apple Hardware Test... also,
system logs should indicate the chain of failure; but those
are often cryptic and few people grasp their messages.
Good luck & happy computing!