External boot / TDM?

I am planning to buy a new laptop. My current Macbook is broken (ethernet died, Combo-drive unreliable).
So, I have been investigating Apple's current offerings and noted that only the old plastic MacBook has Firewire. I recall that booting from an external drive and Target Disk Mode require firewire (certainly booting if I recall correctly). Being able to boot from an external drive is not useful often, but when it is useful it is very useful. Besides, I have a setup where I own various Firewire devices. I also wonder how I could connect a iLink camera when there is no firewire.
So, my questions are:
- Are recent Macbooks without Firewire able to boot from USB 2 devices?
- Are recent Macbooks without Firewire able to turn into a USB 2 device via TDM?
- How does one connect an iLink (Firewire without power) video camera?
- Are there external options to add Firewire to the MacBooks that come without them?
Thanks,
G

Gerben Wierda wrote:
- Are recent Macbooks without Firewire able to boot from USB 2 devices?
Recent macs (actually all Intel based macs) are capable of booting from a USB device.
- Are recent Macbooks without Firewire able to turn into a USB 2 device via TDM?
Unfortunately not.
- How does one connect an iLink (Firewire without power) video camera?
This cannot be done without firewire. Unfortunately there are no substitutions for lack of firewire.
- Are there external options to add Firewire to the MacBooks that come without them?
I'm pretty sure there are not any options that exist.
It sounds like the White macbook is your best option for a new computer. It has recently had a graphics card update, so it now uses the Nvidia 9400M.

Similar Messages

External boot disk, options?

Hi all I am considering buying a new mac mini which comes loaded with Mountain lion,
I want to have an external boot disk with Snow Leopard, so that I can run some legacy Rosetta apps
Q1. will Snow Leopard run successfully on the latest mac minis?
Q2. what is my best option for an external boot drive
I want a drive that will be ideally powered from the computer and that wakes up fast enough to boot an OS without the computer defaulting to the internal Mountain Lion OS
USB or firewire, whichever is best
what are your reccommendations?
cheers Robert

The current Mac Mini (mid-2011) can be retrofitted to have Snow Leopard work on it. There is a very comprehensive thread here on this site.
Look for the work of Newfoundglory:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19463681?ac_cid=tw123456#19463681

PRESERVING PERMISSIONS - when making an external boot drive

hi
Someone in a previous thread i posted some time ago mentioned that i need to make sure my premissions are preserved when i come round to creating an external boot volume on my external lacie hd.
1. I think he was refering to the 'ignore permissions' check box in 'info' ? but i
am unsure what to do here re; to check it or leave it unchecked.
2. can anyone explain what this means so i can understand the logic of the
permissions instruction ?
thanks for your time
didier
eMac 800MHz Power PC G4 Superdrive Mac OS X (10.3.8)

Hi
martinR
Thats becoming alot clearer......
A couple of things
1. If i must leave the 'ignore permissions' box unchecked for the bootable volume i create, then what permissions selection should i have selected in the drop down menu box above it ? I am assuming 'read and write.' ?
2. i'm assuming that after answering this...if i set it all up, when i come to booting from the external volume it will ask my for my password and user name , as is common, and that is what you refer to when you mention the os x security.
Just out of interest:
3 what is an administrator - like for if i want to use the terminal there's this thing about needing to be an administrator.........?
4 by the way, since this site has been redesigned i noticed this week that i didn't get any emails telling me that replies had been posted to my questions.
Could you just confirm that i must have in my settings :
Always subscribe to topics I create: set to Yes (this were on default - no)
Always subscribe to topics I reply to: set to Yes (this was on default - no)
Send subscription emails: set to , in my case - immediately.
sorry to bug you, it's just i recognise your name from previous posts i have made so thought you may be a bit of a pro
thanks 4 yr time
d

Can I create an external boot drive for an updated Mac OS Maverick system?

I'm currently running Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6.8) on my 24" iMac and would like to clone my current drive to an external drive & then update that external drive to Mac OS Maverick. First, can this be done to create an external Boot drive for my iMac System? Secondly, can I then select the internal system (OS 10.6.8) or the external drive Maverick OS system at boot time?

Probably will depend on just what your machine is - i.e. how current and fast is the internal hardware.
Generally though, the performance booting off a firewire 800 should be fine for most things with little if any system lag. My late-2008 MBP ( 2.53Ghz core-2 duo, 8GB RAM) runs quite well when booted from a firewire 800 drive (7200rpm - even my 5400rpm portable clone is perfectly useable).
Just remember if using the external for a long or serious work session, if the power goes out, that external is not going to be powered off battery (I keep my full size external drives plugged into a UPS because of that).

PSCS5 will not open from external boot disk

Because OS 10.8.2 was the worst update in Apple history, for the first time ever I decided to do the 10.8.3 update on an external boot disk before sacrificing my internal disk. I used Super Duper to make a bootable clone of my internal , booted from the external and then did the combo update. It seemed to be ok although they didn't fix the scroll bars in Safari as I had hoped. The first app I tried was Photoshop CS 5.1. It tried to open but I got a window that said "could not inialize scratch disk because disk could not be found". After I clicked OK on that, another window said "could not open because disk could not be found" . I have never tried to open Photoshop any version from a bootable backup before and I don't know what this means. The scratch disk for Photoshop is set to be my internal drive Macintosh HD. Why would it not find it? If I were booting from my internal and had set the scratch to the external it would find it. Why would the app be looking for itself on another disk?
After recloning my internal which is still 10.8.2, I have not yet booted from the external to see if the problem was somehow caused by 10.8.3, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. People have reported the usual weird behavior of an upgrade already on forums, but not this paricular problem
I am runninga 2011 mini with dual i7 and 8 GB of RAM.

Just to be clear, resetting the Photoshop prefs is troubleshooting 101. I'll admit that since Photoshop CS and OS X, the need for resetting the prefs has gone way down (although I had a lot of problems when Photoshop first included GPU).
However, if you EVER have a hang/force quit or an actual crash, you should seriously consider resetting the prefs because, well, in a hang or crash, that's when pref can get corrupted...afterwhich Photoshop can misbehave and cause problems.
But in this case, resetting the prefs was a fix for the issue where the exact directory path for a scratch disk no longer existed and thus kept PS from even launching...
Although the OP hasn't given an update, I'm 99.9999% sure his Photoshop is back to launching correctly...and that the issue was fixed by trashing the prefs.

Backing Up An External Boot Drive

I boot from a WD 500GB drive installed in a miniStack and have a second miniStack that I want to use as a Time Macine drive. Apple support tells me that Time Machine will not back up an external boot drive. Has anyone found a work around for this?

Your right and - I think - I'm right. My WD is my boot drive. Time Machine insists on backing up my internal drive and will treat the WD as if it's a additional, external volume. That's not what I want to do. I could care less about backing up the internal drive. Don't use it, could care less what happens to it. It's there strictly as a last ditch safety net. But I want that WD drive to be treated as if it were the internal drive. And I'm hoping that someone has found a way to make that happen. Anyone?

Safe to Erase External Boot Volume?

Naive question, I guess: I have one partition on my LaCie external FireWire drive currently set up as a boot volume (cloned as a Sandbox with shared users and apps. with SuperDuper from Mac HD).
Is it safe to use DiskUtility to erase this partition, so I can set up the other partition as the external boot volume?
Any assistance greatly appreciated...
Jim
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) LaCie 160GB Ext HD

Charles-
Thanks for this. I take your point, but in this instance I'll need to erase the boot volume and copy the stuff over from the other partition to clear space in the latter for the "new" boot volume.
Kind regards
Jim
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Imac retina external boot disk

Anyone have an iMac retina and using an external boot disk? Worked fine on my iMac from last year, but the new iMac won't boot from the several i tried - thunderbolt, usb drive. Oddly the only thing that seems to work is a USB stick.
The others just give the circle-with-a-line-through-it icon showing no boot environment found.
Thanks for any ideas.

The current Mac Mini (mid-2011) can be retrofitted to have Snow Leopard work on it. There is a very comprehensive thread here on this site.
Look for the work of Newfoundglory:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19463681?ac_cid=tw123456#19463681

Security when Using an External Boot Disk

Hi All.
I'm about to purchase a new external hard drive for using as a boot disk and was wondering what securities you can now enforce on a partition with OSX 10.6
The main purpose for the external boot disk is for creating a shared usage resource for running applications. As I will be allowing others to use this drive, I am concerned about the security implications of using it with one of my macs, mainly because of viruses and data corruption.
I know that partitions/external drives used for booting Windows are secure because the windows partition is set to read only for other partitions/drives, preventing "infections".
The question is: Can I set the permissions/security for an external boot disk (OSX 10.6) partition so that if I use it with one of my machines, my internal hard drive will be secure from any viruses, corruptions, etc.
If you can, or if there's anything else I can do to the same ends, please can you tell me how (or post a link to instructions/advice)
Thanks in advance for your help.

Thomas A Reed wrote:
I'm glad you enjoyed reading my [Mac Virus guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/macvirus>, but it sounds like it has not adequately impressed on you the extreme rarity of Mac malware at this time, or the low threat level. Also, it sounds like you're still operating under a couple misconceptions. Firstly:
The external boot drive idea seemed like the perfect solution. As it's the boot drive, when it's used, it's permissions will be enforced on the user. Theoretically this should provide solid protection from trojans, obviously not for that actual boot drive, but for my internal HD.
Keep in mind that trojans are not viruses... they are not going to spread themselves by attaching to other files. (Though, if they did, I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't be able to affect drives other than the boot drive.) Also, malware today is not a juvenile prank aimed at erasing your files. (Though, again, if it was, I'm not sure why you think it wouldn't be able to affect drives other than the boot drive.) Malware these days is big business, aimed at stealing your personal information or turning your machine into a slave to help send spam or crack other machines.
You also say:
The main threat will be from freeware
For this reason, AV software can actually cause more risk. No AV software catches all malware, so by becoming over-reliant on it, you don't use the filter between your ears. That filter is all that is needed to avoid Mac malware. And keep in mind that Mac malware is extremely rare.
@Thomas. I know how rare mac malware is, after a decade and a half of using macs I've yet to knowingly come across any.
The reason for my assumption that a secondary boot drive would afford me more protection is: As with any partition you can set the read/write permissions. Without write permissions, surely a virus cannot copy itself onto another drive.
The important thing is that this secondary boot drive would not contain any personal details, and would not be used for online purchases/transactions. Thus if malware was downloaded onto the drive, it couldn't access sensitive data.
Furthermore when I've finished working with someone, I can scrub the drive and restore from a cloned backup, thus eliminating any maleware that might be on it.
The most common freeware that will be downloaded will be codecs for video. There often is no way to get around this. If the person I'm working with has video in an unsupported format they need this code to use their footage. As you pointed out this is the kind of area that people use to hide trojans (not just for ****!).
Not at all. Again, trojans are not viruses... they do not show up on your machine attached to other software.
This has confused me a little. I thought that Trojans are written as a pice of code that can be hidden within another program. eg. A video encoder program can contain malware but still also behave like a normal encoder when you run it?
Thanks again for your help.

Setting up an external boot drive to only use when running Logic Pro.

Since Logic Pro must be installed on the boot drive and it takes a lot of space I am considering an external boot drive. I would only use this drive when running Logic Pro and at other times it would not be connected. It is possible to set up a Firewire 800 drive in this manner and choose which drive to boot from whenever it is connected? I’m not interested in running Windows on this computer, but I would like the option to connect a second Firewire drive to occasionally backup the Logic boot drive.
Am I better off doing a clean install of the OS on this external drive?

If you hold down [option] at start up it will show all possible Boot volumes and allow you to select the one you want.
Yes, I'd do a clean OSX install and then put Logic Pro on it.

How do i clone this external boot drive to my MBP?

I have been testing Mavericks for some time, booting from an external drive. The internal drive on my MBP is still running 10.6.8.
Now I want to clone the external to the internal, replacing the Snow Leopard setup with Mavericks.
In the Finder, my internal drive appears in the sidebar under ‘Devices’ - as does the external boot drive. But clicking on the internal drive icon (bringing up the file hierarchy) shows the external boot drive in the adjacent column - ie as part of the internal drive.
As a result, when I launch Superduper to clone from the external to the internal, the internal does not appear as an option.
Can you see what’s wrong here, and advise on how can I achieve what I want to do?

I tried 3 re-starts - the first 2 made no difference to the situation, but the third at last brought up the option to clone to the internal drive. The clone is now completed, and all appears to be working OK.

How does external boot drive bind to computer?

What mechanisms bind an external boot drive and the host computer when running? In particular, how is the user environment determined? Examples:
1.I boot from my external drive (10.5.1) to my home mini 10.5.1) and I get one desktop with specific background (that I chose); when I boot to the mini at work (10.3.9), I get another desktop and background (which I also chose). Each mini, booted internally, has its own desktop and background. How does the desktop environment get determined?
2. When booted to one or the other mini from the external drive, iTunes sometimes wants to authenticate permission to play a song. It always comes back with "3 of 5 computers enabled". Why does it forget, and why does it then remember the same three computers?
Where can I find out more about the nature of these behaviors as determined by the operating system?
Thanks,
Fred

If you have the same system (Leopard 10.5.2 latest and lot of fixes) you can easily set the home folder to point to another disk drive so you have the same prefs and home folder. All it is doing is using your home account.
Normally it is /Users/home_account
But you can unlock and change the Account control panel (Advanced option by control click on account) to any location with 'browse' on path field to...
/Volumes/volname/Users/homeaccount
and use the same prefs (like desktop but also email etc)
That would allow you to use carry your home account and always use the same email and such wherever you are.
I always keep home account on another disk drive. In Panther it was done using NetInfo Manager, now modifying home path is in Account control panel. And to me, that is what 'binds' the boot drive to your user environment that you asked.

Using External Boot Drive with New Intel Mac Mini

I have a 1st Gen MacMini and use an external 7200 RPM Lacie drive as the system boot drive along with all the applications.
If I were to purchase a new Intel Mac Mini, is it possible to use the current external drive as the system drive or is there some conversion steps that would be necessary ?
Thank you.

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.

Two Macs, one external boot drive (not at same time)

I'm in a weird situation where I travel b/t two cities during the week and am looking to have a computer in each. Have been doing the laptop thing, but it's too heavy to drag everyday and too slow for the video editing (I'm a filmmaker) I need to do now. So, I have a 1TB SSD and am looking to make it a boot drive (via USB 3 or Thunderbolt) for two different Macs. Right now I'm looking at two iMacs, but I might want to make one of them something else, possibly a new or older Mac Pro.
So, would I be able to run both Macs with one external drive? Also, would I have any issues if I go with two different kinds of Macs? Thought maybe there would be an advantage to having the same with connection issues of some sort.
Thanks for any help!

Let me ask: how are you getting your two OS's on the external drive?
For one thing, if I understand you correctly, you want one OS on the external and use it on both Macs? That, according to the licensing agreement, is not allowed (see excerpt below); you're allowed one backup copy officially. And, secondly, you cannot boot a Mac with an OS version earlier than what it came with, so it would depend on the build of your Macs (and the exact build version it came with). My initial thought was that you clone your internal hard drives to the two partitions on the external and run them separately.
For now, just a guess on your Q #1 - not sure, depends on where it originated (see above for not booting with an earlier version) and, I prefer cloning FROM the internal system TO the external (again, because of build versions/firmware).
Q #2: see above re. software licensing agreement.
Q #3: not sure at this point
As for the SLA - if the OS is preinstalled, the license is for that computer only:
Here is a link to the SLA:
http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/
And, FWIW: no, once you mark an answer, it cannot be undone - hopefully, that won't matter and someone else will pop in with a brilliant idea.....

Running Mavericks + FCPX on External Boot Drive?

Hello
I have a 2010 Mac Pro with 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon. Running OS X 10.6.8 and FCP 7.
I want to run Mavericks and FCPX on an external drive to test FCPX and if I would be comfortable using it.
Is this possible? If so, how do I do it?
Need help asap please.
Thank you.

What this story makes apparent is that Mavericks is more picky than SL about the partition map.
SL can boot from a drive which is partitioned using APM, while Mavericks cannot.
You can still clone with SuperDuper, but you'll have to erase and change the partition to GUID first.
In Disk Utility, select the drive, click on "Partition", choose the desired number of partitions, and then click the Options button. It should look like this:

External boot / TDM?

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