Creating Startup Disk on External HD

I will be getting an external HD for use with my MacBook (Late 2007). In addition to partitions for Time Machine backups and a master iTunes library, I want to create a startup OS X 10.5 partition that can boot the MacBook (and a new iMac that will be added shortly). Will the installation disk that came with the MacBook be able to create such a partition?
I understand that the partition needs to be a GUID partition to boot an Intel Mac, but will the same startup disk be able to boot both the MacBook and the new iMac? (The main purpose of the startup disk will be for emergencies and to be used as the base user account to be imported when installing OS X on other computers.)

Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu to three. Use the sizing gadget to set the size of each partition to what you want. Bear in mind your Time Machine partition should be about twice the size of the hard drive you are backing up. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volumes mount on the Desktop.
4. Select a volume you just created (this is a 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, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the partition size.
Repeat Steps 4-6 for each partition.
You can then boot from your Leopard Installer DVD and install Leopard on the partition you created for the Leopard installation. In order for the bootable volume to start both your computers you will need to update the Leopard version to what is required to boot the latest Mac model you have.

Similar Messages

Why can't I see Tiger as a startup disk on external drive since upgrade?

Hi,
Before I upgrade my Powerbook G4 Aluminum 15" to Leopard, I decided to create a bootable external drive, both with Tiger and Leopard partitions installed on it, to try Leopard out and also so I can later boot into Tiger if I need to. Now that I've booted into Leopard on my external drive, when I go to "startup disk" in system preferences, the Tiger OS on the same external drive isn't showing. I know it's on there and it showed up as an option when I was running Tiger off of the PB's internal drive, but now it's gone when booted in Leopard from my external drive.
I do see the option to choose to boot from Tiger on my PB, but my fear is that once I upgrade it to Leopard, it won't recognize Tiger on my external drive and I'll be unable to boot back into Tiger if needed.
Does anyone know why this might be happening?
Thanks!

No but you still can boot up into Tiger if you want to. Plug in your external HDD. Restart your computer holding the option button. You'll have the option to choose which start up drive you want to boot into. That's how I do it all the time.

Create startup disk

I noticed some problems with my mac book pro. I used the disk utility application and recieved a message to reboot with a startup disk. How do I create a disk? other sites recommended finding a file called Install Mac OS X Lion.app I could not find this file.
Any ideas?

Here is some information on the recovery process from Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
(you do need to hit Command + R for it).
Alternately, hitting the Option key should bring up the startup manager and offer the recovery partition as a boot option.
I would still suggest making a copy of the installer after your download to be able to avoid having to download the entire OS whenever there is a problem.

FCE Express is writing render files to startup disk not external hard drive

Hi
I'm using FCE Express HD 3.5.1, with a MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, with 2 GB memory.
I'm using a Lacie big disk extreme as my scratch disk, and FCE is set up to write all render files to this. However, I noticed that my startup disk was becoming full and realised that FCE is writing render files to the startup disk not the external hard drive.
I've quit, shut down, etc...
Any ideas what is going on?
Many thanks
Helen

Whenever FCE is behaving strangely, one thing to try is trashing the preferences. Here's how:
http://www.fcpbook.com/Misc1.html

How to create startup disk to defray

I need to defrag. I have iDefrag software on a USB drive. When I use the Snow Leapoard install disk to start up, I cant see the USB drive where iDefrag rests. Can someone please advise.

Large files are de-fragmented automatically (on the Mac OS X partition) when they are opened. With use, fragmentation of large files improves automatically.
Unless you Hard Drive is nearly full, file fragmentation is unlikley to cause slowdowns.

Can't create a Tiger startup disk on an external drive

After backing up the applications and data files to DVD’s I installed Leopard on my Power Book PPC G4. Everything went without a hitch. Now I would like to create a Tiger startup disk on a USB drive. When I try to format the USB drive with the OS 10.4 disk that came with the laptop I get a message that says “Unable to find system 10.3 or later” just prior to the step that lets you pick the drive you wish to format. I would like to be able to startup in system 10.4 so I can run an older version of 4th Dimension in the Classic mode. Is there a way to accomplish this now that I have already successfully installed Leopard?

I quickly scanned your profile before posting the link to that KB article, and could have sworn that I saw an Intel-based Mac there... In any case, many people have successfully booted OS X from USB drives on PPC Macs. It's certainly not as good or reliable as using a FireWire drive, but you can read various reports about it here and by Googling something like +PPC Mac boot USB+. You'll come up with a lot of information, so I don't understand other posters denying it can be done...
Good luck.

I'm having trouble creating an external startup disk

I have just obtained a new 500 Gigabyte hard drive to replace my iMac's G5 160 Gigabyte internal drive. Alas, when I started to take apart the computer, I realized that mine (late 2005 iSight model) is the only one of the G5 iMacs that is so complicated to dismantle that I could not do it myself. Cleverly (of course) I sent off for an external enclosure for the drive so I could at least have its backup (and startup) capacity. God forbid I should pay someone an unreasonable amount of money to install it for me.
Following suggestions here (in these forums) and elsewhere, I elected to use Data Backup, which came with another external drive I previously purchased, in order to clone my onboard hard drive. I followed the instructions, and (many hours later -- during which I largely was asleep) the cloning process completed.
I checked the contents of the drive, and all seemed in order. So I restarted and held down the option key, the better to select the new drive as startup disk.
And guess what? It wasn't there. I tried several more times. Only the iMac's drive (and, when turned on, any other external drives with startup capability I had attached) showed up.
Did I choose the wrong copy option?
I chose: "Entire Internal Drive to /Volumes/iMac Startup Clone"
Is that NOT the option I needed in order to clone the hard drive? Should I have used Carbon Copy Cloner (my previous method) instead?
The drive will not go to waste, of course, even though I can't install it (myself) into the computer. But startup capability would be nice.
Before I erase and start from scratch, I am hoping someone here might have a clue.
Many thanks, if so.
Leonard B.
Message was edited by: Leonard B.

Hi, BDAqua,
Nice to hear from you. You helped me with another recent question. Thank you.
The external case is Other World Computing's Mercury Elite Pro with Oxford chip set. Drive is an Hitachi deskstar 500 Gigabyte disk (I'll dig around for exact specs, if needed).
Weird thing is that the drive (partitioned into two disks, one boot, one for files) shows up in the Finder and in Disk Utility, but not in System Profiler. It's not visible at all there (not under Firewire, by which method it is connected, nor anywhere else). I can access its files, though, via Finder.
Very strange.

Startup Disk full. I have external backup drive. Can I delete folders in My Lightroom photos?

I am using Mac Intel OSX Lion. I received a screen message that stated my startup disk is full. I am positive this is due to my 10,000 or so photos (mostly RAW files) stored in My Lightroom photos folders. Since my photos are externally backed up can I delete those 9000-10,000 photos in various folders of My Lightroom? And by doing this do I free up disk space in my computer's hard drive?
I might also mention that photos created in LR5 are saved to folders in the Mac's Pictures area under "Favorites." So am I duplicating, i.e, doubling the file hogging capacity, because it is in Pictures and also in LR5. Any help is much appreciated.

Jim,
See my posted title: I backed up all 9000+ photos in 3 external hard drives. Two are full but the third still has a lot of capacity. All photos are saved in lossless .dng file. I don't have a problem going back to those external drive files if I want to do more post processing with the photos. I fail to understand why my startup disk on the Mac is full as the great majority of file space taken up are from LR5 photos. I only have two or three Mac Applications: Swift Publisher and Quicken Essentials, both of which do not require huge hard disk space.
By the way, those 9000+ RAW files are also stored in Pictures in the Mac. 9000 files each about 20Mb I calculate to 180Gb. Am I right?

External backup drive doesn't show in System Preferences/Startup Disk

Using SuperDuper!, I thought I created a bootable backup on my LaCie FW 200GB ext. HD. I opened System Preferences/Startup Disk to try booting from the LaCie by changing the Startup Disk to the LaCie. The LaCie didn't appear, there. My Mac HD is there, and a Network Startup icon with a question mark in it, is there. I'm on a standalone machine. My Ethernet port is used for a cable modem.
I Restarted and held down the Option key to see if the LaCie would show up that way. No luck. The LaCie is mounted on my desktop, and the System Profiler shows it on the FW bus. So, I don't really have a bootable backup drive (or volume). The LaCie is not partitioned, nor is my internal startup disk.
I did use Disk Utility & found I had to repair the LaCie. Initially, DU said the disk couldn't be repaired, but on a repeat, the LaCie shows as repaired.
How can I get the LaCie to show up in System Preferences/Startup Disk?

Select the external drive's icon and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. In the pane labeled "Ownership and Permissions click on the small triangle gadget beside the word Details. You should see at the bottom a box labeled "Ignore permissions on this volume." If there's a checkmark in the box uncheck it. Close the Get Info window. Now see if the drive appears in the Startup Disk preference.
If you still have a problem then you might try the following:
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, if supported.) 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, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
Next clone your system to the external drive:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Set Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only.
2. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
3. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
4. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
7. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
8. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

I keep getting "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files/documents to an external hard disk

Dear all,
What should I do? I keep getting the "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files and documents to an external hard disk.
Thanks a heap.

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning your files.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard when startup disk is already an external HDD

Hi All,
Am just in the process of upgrading to Snow Leopard (currently running Leopard) on my Mac Mini. When originally setting up the Mini, I created an external HDD as the "startup" disk.
Now when attempting to upgrade, I only have the option to upgrade on to the Macintosh HDD as the upgrade disk tells me that the external HDD can't be used because it doesn't use the GUID Partition Table scheme.
I know I can use the Disk Utility to change the partition scheme on the external HDD, however will doing this erase the existing data on the HDD and potentially leave me with a Macintosh HDD that isn't the startup disk and an external HDD without an operating system?
Any advice on how to properly partition the external HDD and effectively upgrade to Snow Leopard when I'm already running Leopard OS X from an external HDD would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Lee

leemathers wrote:
I know I can use the Disk Utility to change the partition scheme on the external HDD, however will doing this erase the existing data on the HDD and potentially leave me with a Macintosh HDD that isn't the startup disk and an external HDD without an operating system?
Any advice on how to properly partition the external HDD and effectively upgrade to Snow Leopard when I'm already running Leopard OS X from an external HDD would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
I don't see any alternative other than making a complete backup of that external drive, redeclaring the partition scheme, then restoring the backed-up data to it. A side benefit is that you'll now have a backup of everything in case something goes wrong with the upgrade, which is an excellent idea anyway.

Using External Hard Drive as My Startup Disk

I have created a Clone of my main drive on an external USB drive.
I would like to use this as an emergency backup.
However when I plug in the drive it does not appear in my Startup Disk in my preferences window.
What am I doing wrong?
Sorry if this is a dumb question!
Thanks,
Steve

PPC Macs cannot boot from USB drives. Their startup drives use Apple Partition Map formatting.
Intel Macs use GUID. They can startup from an APM formatted drive however, as that is the format of the Mac OS X Installer discs. But, you cannot install OS X onto an APM formatted drive from an Intel Mac.

Using disk utility to create a disk image then burn to an external drive

I have an iMac which does not have the ability to burn my iDVD projects to a DVD. Can I save my iDVD proj. to a disc image? Then write that image to an external DVD writer via Disk Utility?

This is from _Disk Utilty Help_. Erasing a disk is the same as formatting it. These directions are for Tiger; check this topic in Leopard to see if there is any difference in the directions.
+_Erasing a disk or volume_+
+You use Disk Utility to erase disks and volumes.+
+Erasing a disk deletes all the volumes and files on the disk. Erasing a volume deletes all the files on that volume, but does not affect other volumes. Erasing a recordable disc, such as a CD-RW or DVD-RW disc, creates a blank disc with no formatting.+
+IMPORTANT: If you have any files you want to save, be sure to copy them to another disk before you erase the disk they are on.+
+Usually when you erase a disk or volume, Disk Utility erases only the information used to access the files on the disk, not the actual files. Because of this, the erased files can be recovered. If you want to erase a disk so that the files cannot be recovered, you can select security options to write zeros over the disk space.+
+If you want to erase an external disk, connect the disk to your computer.+
+In Disk Utility, select the disk or volume in the list on the left.+
+Click Erase.+
+Choose a format from the Volume Format pop-up menu. Usually you will choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).+
+Type a name for the disk or volume.+
+If you're erasing a disk and plan to use the disk with Mac OS 9, select the checkbox to install the Mac OS 9 drivers.+
+You do not need to install the Mac OS 9 drivers to use the disk with the Classic environment.+
+If you want to erase the entire contents of the disk by writing zeros, click Security Options, then select the option you want and click OK.+
+Click Erase.+
+To erase your computer's startup disk, you must start up from another disk. You can use your Install Mac OS X disc.+
What does "journaled" mean?
Check this out for the answer. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8835.html

External HD as startup disk

Hi. I have an iBook with a rather small harddrive (30 GB with 13.5 of free space). I have a larger USB external HD and I decided to just leave the version of OS X I have on the iBook's HD (10.4.7), and use the external one as a startup disk and have the latest version on it. If I also ever decide to buy Leopard, I will install that on the external harddrive as well.
I am having problems with this though. I copyed the needed folders, such as the OS X system folder and the libary folder, but the external harddrive doesn't appear in the list of startup disks in my system preferences. What gives? Do I have to install the OS onto it? How would I do this?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

I have the same situation exactly, since I use music applications quite a lot.
I went through several stages of work-arounds to free up some HD space.
1. I-Tunes: I created a new iTunes music folder (from within the application of course, don't try just moving the folder in a finder window) on an external USB Hard drive. whenever the drive is present, the entire library becomes available.
2. Logic Express: I've been using Logic Express for a while, using an external USB drive as the Audio scratch disc. However the application with all its associated loop and sample files takes up around 8GB of space, leaving about 2GB unused space, not a good situation and virtual memory became tight. Safari would run very slow and I started to get "not enough memory" messages from my very overworked hardware. Solution ? an external Firewire drive, to which I cloned the internal HD as mentioned in other posts here.
3. Running Apps: I intended to boot the i-Book from the FW disk, but soon discovered I didn't need to. Applications can be launched from this external HD since all the associated files are available to it in its own domain so to speak I can allocate the iBook HD as my audio scratch disk and transfer the audio files over when the session is completed.
I have yet to fully test how this compares to booting from the external drive, but on first trial it seemed to me because the FW drive runs faster then the start-up process is quicker and other disk related time delays are improved.
Let me know if this works for you.
CE

How to move Startup Disk clone from one external drive to another?

I thought this would be a question easily answered on the WWW and easily found via search engines, but so far no luck, hence this question.
Prior to upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion I followed some very good instructions from Tom Nelson on ask.com (http://macs.about.com/od/backupsarchives/ss/diskbackup.htm) related to using Disk Utility to clone my internal Macintosh HD drive to an external hard drive, making it a bootable drive. I cloned to a very nice LaCie external FW drive that had far more room than that needed for the clone. This drive booted just fine as a startup disk, so mission accomplished:   I have now a bootable clone of my Lion system prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion.
The upgrade to Mountain Lion went well, and now, before I put any additional apps or much additional data on the original internal Macintosh HD drive, I want to use Disk Utility again to clone the drive so I'll have a snapshot of the system right after the upgrade to Mountain Lion.
Questions:
Is there any way to use the same LaCie drive that now holds the Lion startup disk clone to hold the yet-to-be-done Mountain Lion startup disk clone?
If not, how can I move the Lion startup disk clone from the oversized LaCie external drive to a drive more the size of the Lion clone (approx 140G)?   The LaCie drive is far too roomy and nice to have sitting gathering dust for only 140G to be used in an emergency restore.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

Good info Csound1, and thanks.
So my final question (I think): How does one move/copy a startup disk clone from one external drive to another, and still have it bootable on the new external drive?   I'm still considering freeing this LaCie drive up for more dynamic storage and getting another drive for the bootable startup disk clones IF I can move this Lion startup disk clone to a new external drive.
I guess the summary question is:   how does one clone a startup disk clone? As I think about this, and recall the Disk Utility screens, couldn't I simply select the Lion clone on the LaCie FW external drive and do the same operation I did with the original internal Lion drive? Basically the same steps as before but this time the source is the LaCie FW external and the destination is a new external drive?
Thanks again; wonderful forum here with very smart people.

Creating Startup Disk on External HD

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