Duplicate boot drive to external firewire

I have an 320GB OS drive that has a 10.4.8 install on it.
I need to upgrade it to 10.4.9 for FCS2, but 10.4.9 is incompatable with my version of ProTools, so I wanted to literally duplicate my OS drive to a external firewire. Here's my Q:
The OS Drive only has... ~100GB or so in use, and the external drive is 160.
Even though it would fit, can I actually boot off of DVD and copy the OS to the external if the total disk size is smaller than the OS drive? If not, is there a way to do it by just copying files (some sort of unix command)

Download Carbon Copy Cloner
http://www.bombich.com - version 2.3
Or head over to http://www.macupdate.com and download.
No need to boot from DVD.
You can also use Apple Disk Utility -> Restore.
If it is FW400, figure it is going to take a while.

Similar Messages

Can PB boot from an External Firewire Hard Drive?

Can I set up an external firewire hard drive as an emergency boot drive, in case my internal drive goes south? Anyone have utility software recommendations for setting up boot drive or mirror drive, in addition to OS X's Disk Utility? Thanks.

Photon2:
Yes, you can set up your external firewire HDD as an emergency boot drive.
Here's what you need to do:
1. Your HDD must be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2. (Optional) I suggest you partition your HDD so that the first partition is roughly equivalent to the size of your internal HDD. The rest can be partitioned for other uses. (See Dr. Smoke's FAQ Backup and Recovery) For step-by-step for formatting and partitioning please post back).
3. Use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of your internal HDD to the external firewire HDD/partition.
Please post back with further questions or comments.
Cheers
cornelius

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.

Can I boot from an external Firewire drive?

I have restored my internal system drive (27GB) to a 100GB partition on a 300GB external FW drive (as a backup).
Using System preferences I changed the startup disk to be the clone & rebooted to test.
No start and the only way to get going again was to turn the FW drive off & reboot.
Is it possible to boot from a FW drive?
Should a drive as described be bootable?
Any thoughts will be appreciated.
John

Thank you all for your input.
After some trial & error (& little sleep last night) I have made some progress:
Further research suggested that:
1. there may be a hardware issue with my Ex FW case (it has a Prolific PL-3507 chip)
2. Tiger (10.4.x) behaves differently from Panther (10.3.x) and possibly different versions of Tiger may behave differently
Also I have previously successfully used DU to move my OS from a 30GB to 120GB disk (both internal drives) under 10.3.9. This disk will boot when placed in a ext FW case.
I concluded that under 10.3.9 at least my case was OK & Apple DU was OK when run from the boot volume.
I also checked the clone made using DU under 10.4.3 by taking the HDD out of the FW case & installing it internally in my Mac - it wouldn't boot so DU hadn't made a bootable clone - it was never going to boot internally or externally. Ever.
Next step - SuperDuper! - worked perfectly - backed up & booted no fuss, no worries.
This confirms that the Prolific PL-3507 chip will boot an external FW disk under OS X 10.4.3.
I then referred to Lee Cullens' posts as quoted by Matthew Whiting (with a link above in this topic).
Lee has the answer (at least for my hardware/software configuration). For Apple's DU to produce a bootable clone it cannot be run from the disk which is being cloned (ie 3 volumes are needed
1st to boot from & run DU from
2nd to be cloned (the vloume to be backed up)
3rd to be colned onto - the backup
I tried DU from the boot disk again to "prove" it wouldn't work. While it appeared to clone correctly Permissions were all messed up & after over an hour of "Repairing Permissions" I gave up. The volume wouldn't boot even though system preferences saw it as a bootable volume.
I then ran DU from another volume (the one made using SuperDuper!). After verification (but not repairing permissions as I didn't want to potentially waste another hour!) it booted fine from the ext FW drive. I did however uncheck "Ignore Ownership" after Cmd-I on the volume from the desktop.
I conclude:
My hardware is OK (& probably others who may have similar issues)
Apple DU can make a bootable clone which will work on an ext FW drive PROVIDING 3 volumes are used - boot with DU on, from & to. Suitable for a bootable backup but a bit fiddly ( also free & regularly updated by Apple)
SuperDuper does the same job with less fuss (don't need a CD or 3rd volume + other features). As noted by Matthew basic cloning is free but I think the shareware cost will be worthwhile ($US27.95)
SuperDuper! here: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Thanks to all for their input.
I now have an answer that I'm more than happy with.
John

Boot drive failed; external backup drive not being seen

I've had a Windows Server 2012 Essentials machine (6 drives + 1 external USB 3TB dedicated backup) running fine for over a year now. The system backup was configured through the Essentials Dashboard, the backup drive was found automatically by
Windows without any custom drivers, and was successfully backing up as scheduled. A few days ago, the server rebooted for an update, and started blue-screening early on during the boot. Using the install media, I went to the restore facility, but
the dedicated external USB backup drive isn't being found (the restore list is empty). I tried using other USB ports (they all work, as tested with the keyboard), but the backups on it still aren't showing. Moving the backup drive to a nearby Windows
8.1 machine, it shows up correctly in the Disk Manager (the name is correct; no drive letter assigned, as expected). From the system-recovery command-line on the server, wbadmin get drives show it, but as [not mounted].
What should my next steps be? Is it safe to mount it to a drive letter on the Windows 8.1 machine and share it out, or will that irreparably damage the backups? Is there something obvious I'm missing? Why isn't the Windows Server 2012 Essentials
install media's repair functionality finding it (this should be a no-brainer, right?)?
The drive in question is a Seagate model SRD00F2.
Thanks!

1. What updates has been installed. See info in WindowsUpdate.log.
2. Hope you has not installed optional drivers. It this is true try to return back or reinstall drivers from server vendor support page (perhaps support for USB 3)
3. What do Event lods and Device Manager say?
Rgds
Milos
The reboot was overnight (about 4am) on Sunday, 2014-04-13. It was for the latest updates from Microsoft at that time (so the prior Tuesday's batch; see below for the details from WindowsUpdate.log).
No optional drivers installed, other than the motherboard ones at initial system load. They've been running great for a year or so now. They weren't part of the update.
Not possible to check. Trying to boot into safe mode also blue screens fairly early on during boot (about 15-20 seconds; same error). Boot logging never generates a log because it doesn't get far enough to dump to disk.
From WindowsUpdate.log:
Updates to install = 2
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Title = Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 10 for Windows Server 2012 (KB2936068)
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * UpdateId = {783D8F98-1563-4735-B1A3-3E3BB2D86532}.200
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Bundles 1 updates:
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * {1BBB8E66-7F5E-4CA2-9EB2-80117D4D84D9}.200
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Title = Update for Windows Server 2012 (KB2928678)
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * UpdateId = {8F7E4DBD-BE3F-463B-BB5A-55B33039A023}.201
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Bundles 1 updates:
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * {8D7948A9-3FD9-4430-B790-0511A7CB4502}.201
2014-04-13 03:06:46:093 492 f30 Report *********** Report: Initializing static reporting data ***********
2014-04-13 03:06:46:093 492 f30 Report * OS Version = 6.2.9200.0.0.131377
2014-04-13 03:06:46:093 492 f30 Report * OS Product Type = 0x00000032
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * Computer Brand = System manufacturer
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * Computer Model = System Product Name
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * Platform Role = 1
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * AlwaysOn/AlwaysConnected (AOAC) = 0
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Revision = 0211
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Name = BIOS Date: 07/02/12 16:24:26 Ver: 04.06.05
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Release Date = 2012-07-02T00:00:00
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Sku Number = SKU
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Vendor = American Megatrends Inc.
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Family = To be filled by O.E.M.
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Major Release = 4
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Minor Release = 6
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Locale ID = 1033
2014-04-13 03:06:46:702 492 f30 DnldMgr Adding revision ID 200 for update 1BBB8E66-7F5E-4CA2-9EB2-80117D4D84D9 to the lock revision cache.
2014-04-13 03:06:46:702 492 f30 DnldMgr Preparing update for install, updateId = {1BBB8E66-7F5E-4CA2-9EB2-80117D4D84D9}.200.
Other pieces of interest after that:
2014-04-13 03:20:12:900 8984 30e0 Handler FATAL: CBS called Error with 0x80071a30,
...and...
2014-04-13 03:20:21:047
492 26dc
Report REPORT EVENT: {E979933C-EE46-4395-8C2C-8E09543CAABE}
2014-04-13 03:20:15:665-0700 1
195 [AU_SCHEDULED_INSTALL_FAILED] 101
{783D8F98-1563-4735-B1A3-3E3BB2D86532}
200 80071a30
AutomaticUpdates Failure
Content Install Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80071a30: Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 10 for Windows Server 2012 (KB2936068).
2014-04-13 03:20:21:172
492 26dc
Report CWERReporter::HandleEvents - WER report upload completed with status 0x8
2014-04-13 03:20:21:172
492 26dc
Report WER Report sent: 7.8.9200.16731 0x80071a30(0x80071a30) 783D8F98-1563-4735-B1A3-3E3BB2D86532 Install 101 Unmanaged
2014-04-13 03:20:21:172
492 26dc
Report CWERReporter finishing event handling. (00000000)
2014-04-13 03:30:34:845
8984 1084
Handler Requesting post-reboot reporting for package Package_for_KB2928678~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.1.1.
2014-04-13 03:30:34:845
8984 1084
Handler Completed install of CBS update with type=3, requiresReboot=1, installerError=0, hr=0x0
...and...
2014-04-13 03:31:09:364
492 33a8
AU # WARNING: Install call completed, reboot required = Yes, error = 0x00000000
...and...
2014-04-13 03:31:09:364
492 1f9c
AU Install complete for all calls, reboot needed
2014-04-13 03:31:09:364
492 1f9c
AU CAUInstaller::OnAllCallsComplete | result of install HRESULT hr = 0x80071A30
...and...
2014-04-13 03:41:11:933
492 1f9c
Misc WARNING: SUS Client is rebooting system.
After that, there's just some shutting down client and such notices for the reboot.

Can the iMac G3 with Panther boot from an external FireWire drive?

It does have firewire. I am worried that if my internal HD fails, I am going to be SOL. Sooo... If I install just Panther (full retail) on a new internal HD, will i be able to boot from it? How about if it is on an external FW drive? I DO NOT have the original install disks that came with the computer.

If I install just Panther (full retail) on a new internal HD, will i be able to boot from it?
Yes. Verify that the computer's firmware is up to date first.
How about if it is on an external FW drive?
Yes.
(29546)

IMac won't boot with SATA external firewire drive attached

I have an 1T Hitachi SATA drive enclosed in a Macally firewire enclosure. If it is attached either in series with other IDE firewire drives or directly, my iMac will boot only to the Apple icon and will not engage the gear icon. If I disconnect the drive the iMac will boot normally with all the other IDE firewire drives attached. I've troubleshot with both Macally and Hitachi, received a replacement enclosure and have an RMA from Hitachi. Before I send the Hitachi back with the possibility of a replacement not fixing the problem, I am asking whether there is a known problem with external SATA drives in particular. TIA. -Dave

I have the same problem exactly but with two firewire 800 drives attached. Both are LaCie d2 500 gb drives. I have tried each one as the first in the series with no luck. I have not tried to connect with any other type of cable.

Booting up off External Firewire Drive

Hi
I just got a LaCie mini 250GB Firewire drive, which works very nicely and certainly improves performance. However, I find when I do a cold start that it usually defaults to booting up off the mini's internal drive. This is when the mini has been shutdown using the shutdown software command, but the LaCie is still left switched on.
I understand I can force the LaCie by using a key on start-up, but I am not present when doing the start-up (it's being used as Home Theater setup).
Anyone got any ideas how I can always force the external drive to be used unless it absolutely can't be found?
Thanks
Ian

Something you might want to try, although its a workaround and has no guarentees:
It seems that the only way you can boot externally is a warm restart, right? So, make an applescript to restart your machine 30 seconds after it is launched. Place that script as an application in your startup items for the internal drive. Theoretically, the mini starts from the Int HD, auto-logs in, runs the apple script application. If - after thirty seconds - no user input has occured, it restarts the mini. At this point, it should just do what its told - use the external. If you need help with the scripting, just shout (or post here).

Does arch support booting from an external firewire cdrom drive?

as above?

If the mobo provides that function through bios provisions the arch system should boot.
EDIT: There may be issues with udev and mkinitcpio to ensure the boot sequence is not terminated by the udev detection.
Last edited by lilsirecho (2008-05-14 15:18:04)

Unpartition+reinstall without cd or cd drive, just external firewire hd

1) i have been given an iMac g4 with non-working cd drive, 10.4.11 Tiger, 700mhz which had its hd partitioned into 2 equal parts. i do not have an installation cd as was a give-away from a friend of a friend. i cloned/backed up the whole of part 1 to part 2 using superduper, then moved those backups to the external hd. superduper said it was going to erase everything on that drive if i used it to clone/backup directly to it, so i thought i'd try moving the disc backups over. i want to un-partition the iMac drive without losing all the what is on the computer. (toast, photoshop, protools, dreamweaver, and some other stuff that's purchased that i don't have installation discs for.) trying to figure out is there a way to download the Tiger startup installation files to my external and somehow boot from there to unpartition and install, instead of from an installation cd? i need help.
2) then i want to figure out how to network the two, using a netgear router that i can't install from cd since the iMac's cd drive is broken.
3) i'm not a mac native, so i don't know how to do anything.
any help? i've tried since sunday to figure this out on my own.

Hi, & welcome to the forums!
1. Good that you have it backed up, but did you Clone it to the external drive? Is the external drive Firewire?
2. You can network them, but Target mode would be how to install using the other's Optical drive...
FW Target Made
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
I'd call Apple with the Serial number of the Mac and get the Install Discs for that machine, or find where to buy them.
3. Welcome aboard.

Duplicate ical alarms using external boot drive

I have an external firewire drive that I boot Leopard from. I carry it between home and work. At both home and at work I have similar, but not identical Mac Pro (Intel) desktop machines that stay put. In either location I can just boot from my external firewire drive and have all my OS environment and files with me. I've been doing this for months.
Every since I've set it up, though, I have had a problem with iCal alarms. If an iCal alarm goes off, say, while I'm using my external HDD at home, and I dismiss it, it never shows up again at home, even if I reboot. But if I then take the HDD into the office and boot from the external HDD there, all the alarms that went off and were cleared at home, show up all at once when I boot up at work. It also happens in reverse -- alarms cleared at work show up the next time upon boot at home. Note that I'm running from the same boot disk in both cases. I don't sync multiple calendars with .Mac.
This is particularly annoying because I have some automator ical scripts that are triggered once/day and if they run at home late at night, I don't want them running again when I boot up the next morning at work.
Anyone know a fix/workaround for this. I searched the iCal prefs, iCal help, this discussion list, and did a google search to no avail.

You can use the hardware, but will have to repartition and reinstall the OS from the disk shipped with the new Mac Mini.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220
If you create a disk image of the Lacie on your Mini, you can later use setup assistant to restore users and applications from that image.

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

Hi all
Connected my new 300 GB Seagate External Firewire Hard Drive today.
Installed Tiger from DVD. Updated to 10.4.3.
Installed Tech Tool Pro 4. Updated to 4.1.1.
Booted from External Firewire Drive.
Disk Utility cannot Verify or Repair internal drive. Does not say or do anything.
Tech Tool Pro cannot repair volume or optimize. Says, "Cannot Unmount Volume."
Is there a fix for this?
Thank you for the help!
Jeff
eMac 800 nVidia. Mac OS X (10.4.3) 160 GB Internal HD. Pioneer Superdrive. 1 GB RAM.

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...
Nothing happens when trying to use Disk Utility to Verify Volume on internal eMac Drive.
Tech Tool Pro says, "Cannot unmount volume" when trying to check Volume or Optimize internal drive.

Booting os x from *partitioned* external firewire drive?

Hi all,
my internal hard disk (on a 12" powerbook G4 867 mhz running osx tiger 10.4.10) has started acting weird (many people are reporting failing hard drives, and I'm assuming mine is failing too), so I'm preparing for replacing it with a new hard drive.
I've backed up the drive to an external firewire drive (LaCie portable 80 GB firewire drive "Design by F.A. Porsche") using Carbon Copy Cloner with the option 'make bootable' selected.
PROBLEM: I can't boot OS X using my clone on the external drive.
I'VE TRIED:
1. holding down Command-Option-Shift-Delete while booting to bypass the internal drive. (This didn't work: I saw an os 9 icon blinking/alternating with a question mark for a while, and then the computer booted from the internal hard disk.)
2. holding down Option to select the external drive in Startup Manager. (Didn't work either: Startup Manager opened fine, but only showed my internal drive volume. I tried clicking the 'rescan' button, but it couldn't find my external drive.)
3. SELECTING THE EXTERNAL DRIVE under Startup Disk in System Preferences. Note that the external drive volume *did show up* there. So under some conditions at least, the external volume is identified as a bootable volume. (This didn't work either, though: When I shut down the computer and booted up with the external drive connected, it still booted up from the internal drive.)
POSSIBLE EXPLANATION?
My external drive is partitioned into three partitions of different formats:
1. "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)"
2. "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)"
3. "MS-DOS File System (FAT32)"
The bootable volume is the first partition with the os x format.
Could my problem be caused by this partitioning of my external drive?
Either way, what to do?? I hope some of you savvy people out there can help me out.
Cheers,
Philip

Hi Philip,
My problem has been fixed, & I imagine it's the same for you...:
With the excellent help from Dave Nanian at shirtpocket.com - the developer of 'SuperDuper!' (thanks Dave - you rock!), the problem (as Michael suggested) is to do with the Partition Scheme of the drive.
If your drive was like my portable LaCie Porsche drive, it was FAT32-formatted for PC out of the box. This format has an underlying MBR (master boot record) partition-scheme. When re-partitioning a drive in 'Disk Utility', the original partition-scheme sticks, so if you simply re-partition the drive to Mac OS Extended, it will still have an MBR partition scheme... which Macs cannot boot from!
For a Power PC Mac to be able to boot from an external firewire drive, the drive MUST have an APM (Apple Partition Map) Partition Scheme underlying the Mac OS Extended partitions. To do this, click on the 'Options' button in 'Disk Utility' when on the 'Partition' page before partitioning. You will see the options:
GUID Partition Table (for Intel Macs... (n.b. Power PC's cannot boot from a GPT drive))
Apple Partition Map (to create a bootable drive for a Power PC Mac)
Master Boot Record (to create a bootable PC drive)
So.... to make your external drive bootable for your Powerbook G4, choose 'Apple Partition Map' in the 'Options' page prior to partitioning.
Special note about Intel Macs: Contrary to info supplied by Apple, an Intel Mac CAN boot from an APM-partitioned drive (this is why the OSX installer can be univerally bootable!), BUT, the problem is that the OSX installer will NOT let you install OSX-intel on an APM-partitioned drive....
You can, however, clone an Intel-Mac-OSX internal drive that has a GPT partition-scheme (using CCC or SuperDuper) to an external drive with APM, & the Intel Mac will still be able to boot from that clone...
The only real use for doing this, though, is if you want a multi-partitioned backup drive with separate bootable partitions for OSX-PPC & OSX-Intel machines. (Remember that a PPC machine cannot boot from a GTP-partion-scheme drive, hence the need to use APM in this instance seeing as the Partition Scheme applies to the entire drive (it can't be different for each partition.)
Good luck - let us know how you get on!
Jason

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.

Duplicate boot drive to external firewire

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