Installing Leopard on an external as a subordinate boot.

Aloha All
I just finished the transfer of all my back up data from my external onto my iMac and (very essential onto DVD) So I'm ready to reformat and install Leopard on the external as a secondary OS. I'm running Tiger on my native HD and my intention with running Leopard on my EHD is just to learn the changes.
External HD is F/W 7200 rpm, 250GB and my only intention is to look and learn the new OS before I move it onto my iMac. any advice, warnings.

Rick:
I did something similar. I first tried doing an Update install on a clone of my internal drive on external drive, but that resulted in 8 hours of frustration (described in my reply to Eric W. in Apple - Support - Discussions - Blue Screen on MacBook Resolved ...).
However, when I erased the external partition (not as drastic a step as reformatting it, as you intend to do) the "virgin" install went smoothly & I am now running Leopard from that partition with no problems noted so far.
My guess is you will have no problems if you do what you contemplate.
Good luck!

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Can I install Leopard on an external drive to run my computer?

Since it seems my hard drive has totally bit the dust, can I install Leopard on the external drive I use for Time Machine, and run my desktop from that drive? Could I run it from an external drive totally dedicated to Leopard? I am buying a new desktop soon, but I need info off of this machine. Can I plug in my Time Machine drive to my laptop and be able to use it without losing data?

Elizabeth Salcido wrote:
Thanks so much.
Youa re welcome!
I figured I would have to use a second drive. At least when I get my new desktop I will have a drive for Time Machine for both desktop and laptop.
If you really plan to keep the laptop around after you get your desktop, I would recommend replacing its internal hard drive. While running your laptop off an external is possible, it should be considered a stopgap measure. i wouldn't do it on a permanent basis. For one, as you'll find out, it's quite a bit slower than when using the internal drive.

Install Leopard on an External Drive on a Snow Leopard Mac Book Pro

Hi
I have a MBP 17/CTO 2.66GHz i7, which came installed with Snow Leopard.
I've used boot camp to install Windows 7.
I've attempted to install Leopard 10.5.4 on an external drive.
The steps I've taken:
1 - Connected my WD Passport on the Firewire Port
2 - Partitioned the drive. The first partition is 100GB, Mac OS/X Extended (journal) and I've selected the GUID Partition Scheme
3 - Inserted the Mac OS/X Leopard DVD, and followed the instructions to restart
4 - On restart I have three options. Mac OS, Windows and Install Mac OS\X
5 - I select Install Mac OS\X.
6 - The disc spins for a few moments and then the laptop freezes
Beware of the following issue:
1 - On restart more often than not, the DISC will spin and then the laptop will freeze.
2 - To overcome this, restarting pressing the ALT (option) Key.
3 - You should see your boot options. If you do not see "Install Mac OS\X", then eject and reinsert the disc.
The question maybe why would I want to have an Leopard Installation when I have Snow Leopard. The software I develop has thrown up a number of differences between Leopard and Snow Leopard, hence I need both OS's to support my software.
I mentioned this to the Apple Store before I purchased my machine. They put me through to a senior technician at Apple Care, who told me it would be possible to have the set up I am after; and to contact Apple Care if I ran into any difficulties.
After I received my laptop and ran into the problems I described above I contacted Apple Care, only to be told by a senior technician that it should be possible to install Leopard on an external drive, but Apple Care cannot provide any support or assistance.
I really do like the laptop and would much rather not return the laptop; but I really do need the setup described.
Anyway I have tried a number of different approaches:
1 - Having no partitions (so just the single partition)
2 - Trying all three Partition Schemes:
- GUILD Partition Table
- Apple Partition Map
- Master Boot Record
All resulting in the same problem.
I can confirm the external drive does appear as bootable in disc info.
My guess is one of the following is preventing the install:
1 - It is simply not possible to install an earlier version of Mac OS\X than 10.6 on the laptop I have, even if I tried to install on an external drive. This restriction is built into some hardware confirguration. So even if I wiped the internal hard drive or added a new partition to the internal hard drive, I would not be able to install 10.5.4. I say this may be a reason as the second technician told me the CPU has built into it a process which prevents installing older versions of Mac OS/X, but that it should NOT restrict installation on an external harddrive.
2 - When trying to install Mac OS/X, a search is carried out for an external drive which has the correct format. For some reason it may be that this search is not finding my external drive?
I'm a little stuck here and quite disapointed that the support promised by Apple Care for assistance in setting this up, is now not forth coming.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, as ideally I would prefer to keep and not return the laptop, it's a beautiful piece of machinery.
Cheers
Parmy

The mystery continues...
I have an older MBP (2.33 GHz Intel Core Duo) which came installed with Tiger. I can confirm I purchased a genuine copy of Leopard (10.5.4) from the Apple Store and it’s not an OEM version. I installed 10.5.4 without a hitch on my old MBP internal drive. It is the only OS installed on my old MBP.
Using my older MBP (which through software updates is now running 10.5.7), I managed to install 10.5.4 onto my external HD (WD My Passport Studio – 640GB FireWire 800).
However; on the final restart, the screen remained grey and 10.5.4 did not boot from the external drive.
I restarted the machine holding down the ALT (option) key, and only two options appeared, Macintosh HD and the Install DVD. I selected the Macintosh HD and opened System Preferences.
In System Preferences --> Startup Disk, I discovered the partition on my external HD which contains 10.5.4. I selected this partition and selected restart.
On restart my MBP displayed a grey screen, and the blue light on my hard drive flashed slowly. I left this for an hour, however; the OS did not start and the screen remained grey.
I then plugged my external HD into my new MBP which I started holding down the ALT key.
To my surprise I found 3 boot options (Macintosh HD, Windows and Leopard). Leopard being the partition on my external drive, which now has 10.5.4 installed.
I selected Leopard, but sadly after 30 minutes, the OS failed to boot.
Although this deviates slightly from this post, I fail to understand the problem here:
1 – Why can’t I boot 10.5.4 on an external drive, from my old MBP? Surely this is not because my old MBP is now running 10.5.7?
2 – Why can I see 10.5.4 as a boot option on my new MBP but not on my old MBP when I start the MBP holding down the ALT key?
I doubt there is a problem with my external drive, as it seems to read, write, etc... in all normal cases.
Whilst it definitely appears that I won’t be able to boot 10.5.4 on an external drive from my new MBP, I should be able to at least boot it from my old MBP, which would give me the option of installing Snow Leopard and Windows on the internal drive of my old MBP.
Apologies for keeping this post going, but I hope by getting to the bottom of this, it will help other Mac users as well.
I’ve run out of ideas of things to try, so I will give Apple Care another call in the morning, and will report back.
Any suggestions of other things I can try?
Cheers

How to install Leopard from an external DVD reader?

Hi,
I've bought Leopard today. unfortunately, it's not yet installed on my PowerBook. As my SuperDrive is dead, I use now an external DVD (Lacie Portable DVD-RW), but it doesn't work. I can read the Leopard install DVD, but when it reboot, it reboot on my current installation.
I've tried the following during the boot sequence:
- alt pressed, but I can only see my main HDD
- c pressed, but I boot on my current installation
Can you tell me if it is possible to install Leopard from an external DVD, and how can I do that ?
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Emmanuel Di Pretoro

Can you tell me if the same problem occur with a FireWire external DVD ?
It does not occur on your model of Mac.
(25504)

Installing Leopard on an external HD

I have a MBP for work, which is still running Tiger. Nevertheless, I would like to play around with Leopard and was wondering if I can run it on an external (bootable) HD.
If so, I have a few questions:
- Do I need Firewire 800 or can I use USB 2.0 (the MBP is Intel, not PPC).
- How complicated is it to install Leopard on en external drive?
- How can I make an external drive bootable.
- How can I choose which drive to boot from?
Thanks a lot,
Stefan

The good news is that this is a pretty straightforward process (I have done this, and trust me, I'm no expert!) Intel Macs will happily boot from a USB 2.0 disk. First, if you haven't already done so, partition the external in disk utility. Make sure you choose 'Mac OS Extended (journaled)' as the format. Under 'volume scheme', choose how many partitions you want, and their size(s), then under 'options', make sure you choose 'GUID partition table'. Insert the leopard installation disk, choose the external as the destination volume, and install in the normal way. To choose which drive to boot from, hold down the option key at startup and you will be asked to select a drive.
Message was edited by: Foozlum

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Are you doing a lot of spot removal or brushing?
This doesn't sound like a disk drive issue at all. Once Lightroom reads the file from the disk, and you are editing, the disk plays no further role. Using a faster disk drive here will not make the slightest difference.
So, I would check your graphics drivers to see if they are up to date. I would also temporarily disable your virus checker and firewall.
How much memory does your computer have? What CPU do you have?
How big (in megapixels, not megabytes) are the photos you are editing?

Install leopard on an external drive?

Hi I was wondering if I can do a clean install of leopard on a usb external drive.
I originally did an upgrade install on my imac, but would like to play around with a clean install on an external. And if the setup seems faster would like to migrate it back to my internal. Just wondering if this would be possible? Thanks

Yes you can I have a clone of my internal drive with leopard using carbon copy cloner and it is bootable

How do I install Leopard on my external FW drive?

Hi, 30 minutes ago I went out and bought a new external FW 750gb drive. I was planning on using the method described in here:http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071025100548752 but you now have to pay for it and I don't want to for one bit of info. How was it done. I want 4 partitions. I want the leopard boot disc on one partition, leopard on another. Time machine on another and a folder for my music backup lastly.
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The key to the install on an external firewire drive that you want to use with Leopard as a boot drive is this... go to the disk utility and click on the firewire drive in the left column. Go to the Partition tab, click it and under the "Volume Scheme:" click on the button and select the number of partitions you want to set up. Now go to "Options" at the bottom of the menu and click it to discover the trick to this settup: select the first partition scheme "GUID Partition Table" and then click "OK"
Don't forget to name each partition in the first menu and make sure the format is Mac OS Extended (journaled) if you desire the journaling feature. Now click on the "Apply" button and you will now be able to boot the Leopard install disk and select the external firewire drive for the install. I did this and it works great!
Jerry

Installing Leopard From An External Hard Drive

Hi everyone,
It's been a long journey trying to get my mac fixed after it started acting up and obviously since I am posting here it is not fixed yet. I need to re-install os x on an external drive and it is telling me that I have to erase everything on the disk before I can install it, but I need everything on the external hard drive and paid the stupid geek squad 100+ $ just to put my stuff on it. I guess my question is: Is there any way to not have to erase everything on my external hard drive to install os x properly again?
I have an iomega external drive if that makes a difference.

Having all your data backed up is the best thing you could have done before doing anything else (but you probably knew that).
Reinstalling form an external drive is sort of right - you may want to look here
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
But if you're short on time you can insert the CD/DVD that came with your Mac and hold down the C key when you reboot. This will bot your Mac from that disk rather than your internal HD. Select the language once it boots, then choose DiskUtility from the Utilities menu. Try selecting the repair disk option. If that works, you'll be good to go. If that fails, you can choose the erase and install option. Once that [roces is complete, you can copy your data back to the internal HD.
However, if your internal HD is bad, or there is some other hardware problem, you'll be back where you started, and a call to Apple, an Apple Store, or an Apple repair shop may be in order.
hth
Jeff

Leopard lost my external HD, how to boot from Tiger

When I upgraded (?) to Panther, it wanted to do a backup to my external HD, but it was going to be to large, so I told it not to. The next day when I started up, I typed in the password to my external HD and got a window saying Device not found. I have been following the discussions af many others with the same problem, so I'm getting experimental
I would like to boot from my Tiger disk, but when I insert it in the DVD drive and choose it in startup disk, it restarts, but wants to install. What I am trying to do is to boot from my Tiger disk, turn off password protection for the external, then go back to Leopard, hopefully to a useable external again.
How do I boot from an install disk so I can get to my dock and Finder?

David Tinker wrote:
When I upgraded (?) to Panther, it wanted to do a backup to my external HD, but it was going to be to large, so I told it not to. The next day when I started up, I typed in the password to my external HD and got a window saying Device not found. I have been following the discussions af many others with the same problem, so I'm getting experimental
I would like to boot from my Tiger disk, but when I insert it in the DVD drive and choose it in startup disk, it restarts, but wants to install. What I am trying to do is to boot from my Tiger disk, turn off password protection for the external, then go back to Leopard, hopefully to a useable external again.
How do I boot from an install disk so I can get to my dock and Finder?
You have the right idea. It would be easier if you had another computer with Tiger.
Try this. Boot into the Tiger CD by holding down the "C" key but do not install anything, In the Utilities menu you should have an option to log in as a single user in the terminal mode.
From there you can access the external HD and turn off the password. You will need the instructions how to do this in a terminal from the HD manufacturer or someone else on these boards who had done it before.

Installing Leopard on an external as a subordinate boot.

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