Installing Leopard on external drive then using as Internal

I have a family member that found a nice deal on a Macbook, but it has no HDD nor install CDs/DVDs. I want to buy her a HDD and then install Leopard on it and send it to her. I know that if you have 2 Macbooks, I can switch the HDDs from one to the other and the Macbooks will boot up on the HDDs. My question is, if I have a PowerMac G5 and I install Leopard (Universal Disc) onto a 2.5in HDD using an external case, will she be able to just pop it into her Macbook or do I have to install using a Macbook too? Thanks!

Can't be done. The machine she has must get the original discs from the owner.
If the original owner lost the discs, they must call AppleCare to get replacements for them.
Macs should never be separated from their discs. I warn against this on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/usedrefurbished.html
You can't copy the operating system, as it is only licensed for your use on your machine.
As long as they are not in the same household that license only belongs to you alone.
And then if they are in the same household, you still need to buy them a family license so you can install it on multiple Macs.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody

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Installing Leopard on external drive / then making it internal

Hi There-
Please tell me if you think this scenario will work. I'm running out of room on my mac mini's hard drive, so I bought a new drive along with Leopard. I want to install leopard on the new drive in an external firewire cage and set everything up. Then when I'm satisfied, I can crack the mini open, pull out the internal drive with a working tiger install, put the external drive in (with leopard) and just let it boot.
Is it that easy?

Yes that will work.

Installing leopard to external drive

I recently had problems with an update last week. After the update, the computer would not start. I took it into the Apple store, they tried to reinstall the update (to 10.4.11) and were not able to get it to work. They suggested I buy Leopard, take that home and try installing it. It appears that I can get Leopard to install, but only with a full erase. I still do not have a computer that will make it past the opening gray screen without the Leopard install disk in the DVD drive.
This is where I am smacking my own fingers. I do not have a backup of my important files (I will change that post haste). I purchased a backup drive last night also.
Here is my question...
Can I install Leopard on the new external drive first. Then boot from the external drive (I saw them do that at the store last night). Then copy the important files onto the external drive (I only care about documents and music - I am fine with reinstalling the programs). Then erase and install the OS back on the computer. I did not purchase the multiple license version. Or is there a better method I do not know of? Once I have the computer fixed, the external drive will be just for backups (so I would erase the Leopard install and copied files from that drive).
Thanks

thanks,
CCC looks interesting but since my internal drive is not booting, I assume I would need to:
1) install Leopard to the new external drive
2) boot the machine from the external drive (don't know how to do that yet)
3) download CCC to the external drive
4) make a copy of the original drive onto the external drive
5) unhook the external drive
6) install Leopard on the internal drive (with an erase)
7) download CCC to the internal drive
8) hookup the external drive
9) use CCC to move the files from the external drive back to the internal drive
(except for the OS files - how would I do that?)
10) erase the external drive and use it as a backup for the internal drive!!!!!
(no more excuses for not backing up regularly)
Questions:
1) Is there a difference between CCC and "Time Warp"?
2) Is there a problem with cloning the non-working hard drive?
(It appears to physically be working, just not booting)
2a) If it is not advisable to clone the entire non-booting drive,
(due to problems with the copying back to the internal drive after
the clean install), is CCC any better/more useful than just using
file manager if I am only moving data files and no programs?
3) Is there anything funky about copying the downloaded iTunes files?
4) Did I leave anything out of my plan above?
I think I am close and can't wait to get home to try this.
Thanks,
David

Installing Leopard on External Drive

Hi,
I have an external drive, ( western digital passport 120GB )
I was wondering if it was possible, to install Leopard on my external drive.. and boot from my external drive so I'll be running leopard from the external.
If so, can someone explain to me how I would do this?
and also, if I wanted to delete the Leopard system from my external drive, how would I go about doing that, so my macbook boots from its own hard drive again ( tiger )
thanks!

You first have to be sure the drive is bootable. Not all external HDs are bootable.
You will also have to partition it GUID or GPS since you are using an Intel box.
If it is bootable, Leopard will need its own partition, so you would have to temporarily put the other stuff on the drive somewhere else, partition the drive with enough room for Leopard and then put the other stuff in the second partiton. The Leopard partition should have a HFS+ filesystem that is journaled.
That's about it.

Can't install Leopard on external drive

After speaking with someone at the Genius Bar last week, we determined that the problem I'm having with my eMac is probably due to the 4-5 year old internal hard drive finally getting ready to give up the ghost. ;-(
I asked if it would make sense to buy an new external drive, load Leopard on that, and boot off that while I save for a new Mac. He suggested that would work. (While the speed might not be ideal over a USB connection, I'm not too concerned with that. As long as the kids can do their homework, and I have a place to store photos it's fine.)
I just got my new external HD, got it partitioned into 3, and am trying to load 10.5.3 on it from my CD so I can make it the boot drive. The problem is that - while all 3 partitions show up on the "list" of places to install, the internal HD is the only one that will let me install on it. The 3 partitions all say that I can't install on them.
Any idea why I can't install on the external, and more importantly, can I work around it somehow before my internal drive dies for good?
Thanks,
Tim

Hi JDB38;
There is no such thing as an Intel G5. It is either one or the other but never both. An Intel tower is a Mac Pro. A G5 is a tower with a PowerPC processor in it. So which do you have?
Allan

Install Leopard on external Drive?

I'd like to do what I have always done before when upgrading OSes, which is install Leopard on an external HD whilst I keep my existing Tiger on the internal HD.
This way I get to try out the new system without throwing out the old until I am satisfied the change is actually an "upgrade".
However I have heard this doesn't work with Leopard, you can not run 2 different OSes on the one machine and switch between them at startup.
Is this true? Has anyone tried this for themselves?

Peter Breis1 wrote:
I'd like to do what I have always done before when upgrading OSes, which is install Leopard on an external HD whilst I keep my existing Tiger on the internal HD.
This way I get to try out the new system without throwing out the old until I am satisfied the change is actually an "upgrade".
However I have heard this doesn't work with Leopard, you can not run 2 different OSes on the one machine and switch between them at startup.
Is this true? Has anyone tried this for themselves?
You heard incorrectly. Many here have done exactly that which you propose. I have two dual-boot machines - Tiger and Leopard. It does not matter whether the drive is internal or external. The only caveat is that for Leopard to boot on an external drive on an Intel box, the drive must be GUID.
For PPC it must be APS. Other than that, there is no problem.

Testing Leopard on External Drive/Keeping Tiger on Internal-Any Problems?

I am currently running Tiger 10.4.11 on my internal HD and I want to install Leopard on an external drive to test it against my applications before I commit to making the switch.
Are there any problems, concerns and/or precautions I need to be aware of or take when installing Leopard to the external drive? I have SuperDuper which has cloned my Tiger drive.
Once I've installed Leopard is there anything I should be aware of when booting Leopard off of the external drive and running my applications on the data that is on my internal HD?
Thanks

No real issues. Just be sure your external HDD is partitioned with a GUID scheme, not Apple Partition Map (check that in Disk Utility).
Hope this helps...

Can i install leopard on external drive to recover files from internal hard drive

Ok i am havinga problem with laptop ... wont restart. Power on and mormal grey screen appears ... then a bar appears below the spining dashes and after a few increments the laptop automatically shuts down. Now is it possible to install OS on extrenal to allow me to access the laptops internal drive to save files?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes you can do that, though I'm not too sure that Iomega's firmware is up to date to do it. Be sure that any data you have on the Iomega is backed up elsewhere before attempting it. Some Firewire drives without up to date firmware from the manufacturer may become invisible and unusable after a software update on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. Also an AGP PowerMac needs its firmware updated while booted from Mac OS 9 before installing Mac OS X 10.2 or later:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
That said, if after testing you find it does work, you can switch booting between both drives using the Option key booting as described in the Startup Manager article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178
Leave OS 9.2.2 on your internal, and 10.4 on your external. That will be a lot easier than partitioning. Some information I wrote for others which can help you on your migration to Mac OS X is provided in this link below:
http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html
If you really want to partition, be aware that only third party software is available to partition without erasing the entire drive, and you'll want to make sure additional partitions that will boot Mac OS 9 have Mac OS 9 drivers installed as my link above states. Whatever you do, be sure you have at least two copies of your data at all times:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Can I install Tiger on external drive with OS9 on internal?

I bought and plan to install OS X 10.4.3, but will continue to use OS 9.2.2 about 95% of the time because I can't afford to update all 3rd-party software at this time, so I want to start up in 9.2.2 usually. Can I install 10.4.3 on a partition of my external HD with firewire and leave 9.2.2 on my internal HD, then pick a start-up OS by a key combination or such? How should I do it, and what problems might I encounter? To partition my external HD should I use OS 9.2.2, the original 9.0 CD, or the new 10.4.3 DVD?
I have a Power Mac G4 (AGB Graphics) with an internal 10 GB HD and an almost-empty external 120 GB firewire HD (Iomega). Thanks.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes you can do that, though I'm not too sure that Iomega's firmware is up to date to do it. Be sure that any data you have on the Iomega is backed up elsewhere before attempting it. Some Firewire drives without up to date firmware from the manufacturer may become invisible and unusable after a software update on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. Also an AGP PowerMac needs its firmware updated while booted from Mac OS 9 before installing Mac OS X 10.2 or later:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
That said, if after testing you find it does work, you can switch booting between both drives using the Option key booting as described in the Startup Manager article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178
Leave OS 9.2.2 on your internal, and 10.4 on your external. That will be a lot easier than partitioning. Some information I wrote for others which can help you on your migration to Mac OS X is provided in this link below:
http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html
If you really want to partition, be aware that only third party software is available to partition without erasing the entire drive, and you'll want to make sure additional partitions that will boot Mac OS 9 have Mac OS 9 drivers installed as my link above states. Whatever you do, be sure you have at least two copies of your data at all times:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Possible to Install Leopard on External HD and Boot on Another Mac?

Is it possible to install the Leopard upgrade DVD onto an External HD, AND THEN use the external HD to boot Leopard onto another Mac? Also, since the upgrade disc is an "upgrade," would I have to first install Tiger onto the External HD?
If possible...
Am I able to create an External Boot Drive that can boot both onto a PPC Mac and also onto an Intel Mac? Or will I have to create separate partitions?
Lastly, can Intel Macs boot from an External USB Drive? Or are FireWire Drives required? Thanks!

Yes, you can install on an external drive and boot the Mac. I do it all the time.
I'm not 100% sure whether the same drive can boot PPC and Intel Macs -- I don't think so because PPC macs require Mac formatting and Intel Macs require GPT formatting to boot.
Intel Macs can boot off both USB and Firewire external drives. PPC Macs can only boot off Firewire external drives. In any case, Firewire is better as it's quite a bit faster.

Why can't brand new MacBookPro9,1 (OEM Mountain-Lion) boot from Snow Leopard on external drive, or internal partition?

Why can't brand new MacBookPro9,1 (OEM Mountain-Lion) boot from Snow Leopard on external drive, or internal partition?
Is this because of hardware changes? Or firmware changes? Or is it just and Apple Inc. administrative fiat?

@Steve Holton: Sorry Steve, but you're wrong about that one . I'm using 10.8 (purchased and downloaded) on the internal HD of this MBP8,3 (2.2 GHz, 17"), and I am also able to boot into 10.7.4 and 10.6.8 from external FW800 partitions.
However, I DO have problems with my MBP9,1. It came with 10.7.4 installed and ran fine. Then I purchased and installed 10.8. It ran fine but could no longer boot from 10.7.4 on an external partition. I then reinstalled 10.7.4 on the internal HD and discovered that it is still unable to boot (even 10.7.4) from an external FW800 partition.
One of Apple's Senior Support Advisors has done some remote troubleshooting but the case is still open and unresolved. An earlier Apple Support case suggested that when, I installed the downloaded copy of 10.8, there had been a "firmware update" (behind the scenes) that is now causing the problems with booting from my external partition(s). This apparently is "a bug": it is not what is supposed to happen.
So - I believe - "the problem" really has nothing to do with hardware capability. It is strictly about Apple's strategy for "managing its future customer base". If you don't like it - use something else - I am seriously considering Ubuntu as an alternative.
If there's a hidden caveat in all this it's probably "Read Appple's Licence Agreement VERY Carefully".

Installed Lion on external drive per apple support, now won't install on Mac HD, because can't create recovery disc, does not give option besides restart to old OS

On the noecovery page I followed instructions to install Lion of external drive, which I did. Then tried to install on HD, but got same message as no recovery disc could be made and only option was to restart to back Leopard. Don't want to take to geniuses since there must be a simple answer.

On the noecovery page I followed instructions to install Lion of external drive, which I did. Then tried to install on HD, but got same message as no recovery disc could be made and only option was to restart to back Leopard. Don't want to take to geniuses since there must be a simple answer.

Transfer itune library to external drive then back to PC

In preparation for the re-install of Windows on my machine I would like to save my itune library on an external drive then to reimport it. I have more music than my current iPod can store so can't use it for the transfer and my Pc can only burn CDs the external drive option looks the best...if only I'd know how to!

Be careful you don't make the mistake I did, if your operating system is changing (e.g. XP to Vista) this will only partially work as the paths will be different, you will end up losing your playlists at the very least.
I don't really know any way around this, a couple of people did give me some tips in a previous post that I wrote but Apple deleted it because it was critical, so they are now lost too.

Installing windows on external drive, or other method without formatting HD

I would like to install windows in order to run some CAD software (i dont want to take the performance hit of running in parallels and osx has an infuriating lack of a good cad program) but I also dont want to have to format my HD since I have all these software licenses set up that it would take forever to set back up again. Is there a way to install windows without formatting my HD in order to repartition it? maybe resize the partition or install windows on an external HD?
thanks!

Windows cannot be installed on an external drive. This is a Windows thing. If you want to use Boot Camp then your internal drive must have no other partitions. Boot Camp will then create a special Windows partition of any size you designate.
If your drive is already partitioned then repartitioning the drive or resizing existing partitions will result in some data loss. Essentially in order to restore the drive to a single partition you must first backup whatever data is stored on the partitions that must be removed. Alternatively, if possible move that data to the main volume (top volume in the partition mapping.) Doing this makes it possible to delete the other partitions, then resize the remaining partition to full capacity. This can be done on the fly using Disk Utility. Of course there's always risk of something going amiss, so it would be wise to have everything backed up.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive. I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed. Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial.

Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: OFF
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
                    Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
          Destinations:
                    Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                    Total size: 999.86 GB
                    Total number of backups: 64
                    Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Too small
                              Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
          Time Machine details may not be accurate.
          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
          /sbin excluded from backup!
          /usr excluded from backup!
          /System excluded from backup!
          /bin excluded from backup!
          /private excluded from backup!
          /Library excluded from backup!
          /Applications excluded from backup!
Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
Thanks,
Darcy

Installing Leopard on external drive then using as Internal

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