Installing OS X on a USB hard drive?

Hi all,
Is it possible to install OS X on a USB drive? I am attempting to do so with a drive hooked up to an iBook, but not having any luck - the installer says it cannot be installed to the drive. I know that this is possible with Firewire, but what about USB?

Huh, I never knew that. I figured a hard drive's a hard drive. However, a little searching does turn up this:
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/10/25/boot-your-powerpc-mac-from-an-external-usb-drive/
...which indicates that you may actually be able to boot from one with a cloned system copied to it.

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Win7 can't boot in USB hard drive blue screen 7b error,but can boot when use PD8

Install Win7 64bit in a USB hard drive through some tools,when start windows the microsoft logo appear,get blue screen.
***stop:0x0000007B(0x80786B58,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)
problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.If this is the first you've seen this stop error screen restart your computer .If this screen appears again.follow these steps:Check for viruses on your computer.Remove any newly hard drives or hard drive controllers.Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly.Configured and terminated.Run DCHKDSK/F to check for hard drive corrption,and then restart your computer.
Technical:
***stop:0x0000007B(0x80786B58,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)
But when use Parallels Desktop 8 My boot camp ,the win7 can boot normally.
Any solution?
Thank you.

Hi,
If this issue is related with firmare, then it's recommend to contact the vender\manufacture, if you got any update of this issue, we'd be appreciate that you could share your experience with us.
Regards
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

How to install windows 8 onto an external hard drive connected with usb 2.0?

How to install windows 8 onto an external hard drive connected with usb 2.0?

Transfer win 8 from inside hd to external hd.
Cloning Win 8 is also OK.
Aomei Backupper can do the above.
In additional, Do you know Windows to Go?
http://www.disk-partition.com/features/windows-to-go-creator.html

Arch: Install to & run from External USB Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

I wanted to play with ArchLinux 2009.02, but replacing the existing Debian-Lenny on the laptop's HDD wasn't an option. So I experimented with installing Arch on an external USB Hard Disk Drive.
I have tried to make this "newbie-friendly", so I hope the more experienced will forgive the detail.
Materials:
Three year old Dell Inspiron 6000
CPU = 2.0 GHz Pentium
RAM = 2.0 GB
Internal HDD = 80 GB
Internal CD/DVD R/RW
External USB HDD = Freecom FHD-2 Pro 80 GB
Archlinux 2009.02 install CD
Steps to install:
1. I put the Archlinux install CD in the drive and connected the external 80 GB HDD in the USB port.
2. When the Dell laptop was booted, I pressed F2 to enter the BIOS setup. I edited the boot sequence to the following:
Internal CD/DVD
External USB device
Internal HDD
On the Dell, you can also press F12 to select the preferred boot device for that boot.
3. I started the laptop and the Archlinux installation menu came up and I proceeded with installation following the "Official Arch Linux Install Guide" and the "Beginners Guide".
4. Used km to change to UK keyboard layout and then began the installer script (/arch/setup). I was installing from the core CD so I skipped the network steps.
5. HDD preparation.
This was fairly straightforward with two cautions:
(a) Make very sure that the external HDD (sdb) is selected for the operations.
(b) Remember to set the Bootable Flag for the first (/) partition on the HDD.
I chose 20 GB for /, 2 GB for swap and the remainder for /home.
6. The package selection and installation was fairly straightforward.
7. Configuration of System
This was section was straightforward with one warning:
USB had to be added to the HOOKS in the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file!
I found this to be essential for my external USB HDD to function as a bootable device. Otherwise I got the same sorts of errors relating to unrecognisable file system types that other people have reported in the forum.
The relevant line from the end of the edited /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file is below:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb filesystems"
8. Installation of GRUB was the other point where caution and/or correction was necessary.
When it asked where GRUB should be installed, I had to select sdb (my external USB HDD) and not any of the particular partitions on sdb. If the root partition sdb1 was selected then the laptop won't boot from the external USB HDD.
The GRUB /boot/grub/menu.lst as written by the installation routine specifies hd(1,0) which doesn't work when you try to reboot from the external USB HDD. When you boot Arch from the external USB HDD, as far as Arch is concerned - at that point in time - the external USB HDD is the first drive in the system. To fix this:
(a) When the Arch boot menu comes up, press e to edit the grub entries.
(b) Change the first line to hd(0,0)
(c) To the end of the kernel line add rootdelay=8
(d) Press b to boot the system with these temporary corrections.
(e) Once your Arch system has booted, edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the above changes permanent.
The relevant portion of my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like the following:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
9. The laptop happily and consistently boots Arch Linux from the external USB HDD when it's plugged in before startup/booting.
Running Arch from the external USB HDD seems as quick as running Debian from the internal HDD.
So if there is a performance penalty associated with using an external USB HDD, my wife and I haven't noticed.
In summary, the three essential points to address during installation to an external USB HDD are:
Remember to set the bootable flag for the first partition.
Add USB to the HOOKS for /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file.
Correct the /etc/grub/menu.lst file.
I hope this is helpful.
Ted

Hi Rookie,
As you say, it is worth remembering the rootfstype= option for the kernel line just in case someone still has problems with GRUB after making all the other changes.
I was working with the most recent Arch 2009.2 release.
I only got messages about unrecognisable file system type when I tried booting with the "stock" or "as-installed" GRUB (before I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst). After editing /boot/grub/menu.lst to identify the drive correctly and add rootdelay, GRUB was able to do the rest and everything worked OK without any error messages.
Best wishes,
Ted

What packages to install, and how to install in an USB hard drive

Hello.
Well, as I said in another thread, I want to install in an USB hard drive. But I don't know how, because it hasn't graphical installer, but text installer. I tried in a virtual machine, and it was fine, but when I want to start it, an error appears, "Was not found a bootable system" or something. Maybe a VM is not as a computer, but... well. I didn't change anything while I was installing GRUB, and I know that I've to install it in /dev/sdb.
And I want to know too, what packages to install and what packages don't (the ones which are neither "base" nor "base-devel"). But I'll install sudo, links and ndiswrapper (for wifi).
Thanks, and excuse me if my English is bad.

Gotta use the wiki my friend and this one is even translated into Spanish:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … C3%B1ol%29
As to your question about which packages you'll need beyond those in base and base-devel - that depends on what you want on your system... no one can answer that but you!
Welcome to Arch.
Last edited by graysky (2011-01-01 19:50:46)

When i was installing bootcamp, it deleted my coursework on my 1TB usb hard drive?? why is this?? can someone help??

When i was installing bootcamp, it deleted my coursework on my 1TB usb hard drive?? why is this?? can someone help??

You did something wrong. Why was your usb hard drive connected? Did you somehow format the external hard drive? If so, your files are gone.

Installing OSX 10.5 On A USB Hard Drive?

Ok I am a complete newb to the mac world. I have never owned or operated a mac before this one. I have read several topics online about installing OSX on a external hard drive. My problem may be simple but I just cant figure it out. I have a western digital 300gb external usb hard drive. I have partitioned it to apm, went without a hitch. When I boot from my install media which is OSX 10.5, it sees my external as an option to install, but if selected it says that OSX can not be installed on that drive. Is there something that I am missing or doing wrong? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Ok great. Thanks for the reply's. It has been very helpful. And I do have the 700mhz cpu. I backed up my copy of retail OSX 10.5 DVD to a usb thumb drive and can boot successfully to the install dvd from the thumb drive. I used a program to fake the cpu speed to meet requirements of 10.5 and that worked fine. I just didnt know if I could make the iMac see the external hard drive as an internal. But I believe my question has been answered. Thank you all.

HT1178 how to install a usb hard drive though air port time capsule

I am looking to connect a usb hard drive to my time capsule airport. The primary purpose of this drive is to create a shared drive between the three computers in the house, not for time machine. Is there any specific steps or procedures I need to know to make this happen? thanks.

Plug it in, click here, and follow the instructions. The drive needs to be formatted as FAT16, FAT32, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and may need to be connected through a powered USB hub.
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How to restore machine using a TM backup on a usb hard drive from older imac to a brand new iMac?

My imac (the one that had a superdrive in it), had a broken superdrive and was sent for repair. Whilst being "repaired" the screen was broken. I now have a brand new imac albeit without a dvd drive. My question is how to I restore my the old TM back up which had been made to an external usb hard drive to the new imac. Help files say that I should not restore from a TM file to a different machine and that I should use migration assistant. Whilst I can see the external usb drive in TM it is not being recognised in Migration assistant when I click on back up from a TM backup on another machine or disk.
Any ideas?
Just noticed that this new machine is running OSX 10.8.4 the broken imac was on mavericks

This is very simple first run Software Update on the new machine and get your machine upgraded to the most recent version of Mountain Lion 10.8.5. Install all other software updates Apple recommends in Software Update. Then care fully read Pondini's guide on using Migration Assistant located at:
http://pondini.org/OSX/MigrateLion.html
Your migrated data will be in a new account, to access it log into the new account.
Also DO NOT repeat DO NOTuse Wi-Fi to migrate data, if your TM backup drive uses USB, then connect it via USB and follow the on-screen instructions as described in Pondini's guide.

External USB hard drive not being recognized

Hello! I'm sure this has been posted before, but excuse my naivety with this sort of thing...
I have a mac mini 10.5.6 (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and I run the Time Machine function to an external usb hard drive. The hard drive worked fine (plugged into the usb port on an older keyboard), but I went out and bought a new aluminum apple keyboard (because they look so cool ^_^ ) - I plugged the external usb drive into the keyboard and it wasn't recognized, so I tried plugging the external drive directly into the mac mini, but it is still not recognized. It is not showing up in Disk Utility or in System Profiler
Help? I'd hate to have to give up this fancy keyboard...
Thank you!
Dr. E

I believe I had my external drive plugged into the (old) keyboard because with the old mac that I had didn't have a free usb port for it - so when I got the mini I just plugged things back in where they were. But I have always had the Time Machine back up to this drive (connected to the keyboard) though it has been slow (another reason I thought the new keyboard was a good idea).
I tried restarting the computer without the alu keyboard plugged in, but same problem of no drive showing up.
Here is what System Profiler has to say about my drive:
USB2.0 Storage Device:
Capacity: 93.16 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Product ID: 0x6830
Vendor ID: 0x04b4 (Cypress Semiconductor)
Version: 0.01
Serial Number: DEF107920F07
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Cypress Semiconductor
Location ID: 0x3d130000
Current Available (mA): 100
Current Required (mA): 0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
USB:
Capacity: 92.84 GB
Available: 53.14 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s2
Mount Point: /Volumes/USB
I don't know the brand or model as it has 'always' been in the case that in which it currently resides and I didn't physically buy the thing :\ I do know that no software was installed with the drive as I assumed that when I put all the old info from the original mac to the mini that it was the sort of thing that would carry over.
Sorry I'm not terribly helpful - Thank you!
Dr. E

Partitioning and Formatting USB Hard Drive

I'm using a FreeAgent USB hard drive on my system, but placed a lot of files on it before realizing that Mac can't write to an NTFS file system. I've got about 35 GB of files on a 250GB drive. So, two questions:
1. Is there something I can use to partition the drive and format part of it to FAT32 and part of it to the Mac format (realizing that I won't be able to read the Mac formatted partition in Windows).
2. Is it possible to partition the drive without removing the files that are now on it and reformatting (obviously leaving part of it as NTFS)?
I'll probably be able to do 1, but just thought I'd ask about 2 for information purposes.
Thanks,

I suppose I could just format it FAT, but I have some vague notion that the Mac format will work better with the Mac OS, especially for backing up. I'd primarily use the Mac partition for backup, and for storage of video files that just take up too much space on the MacBook internal HD. Don't know how realistic that is, and I'm also not sure which backup program would be best suited. I'm pretty new to the Mac environment, and am not even all that sure whether to keep the *.dmg files that I've used to install several programs that I purchased for the Mac.

Airport "sees" USB hard drives, but Finder can't find them!

Yesterday, my iMac's Finder could see my external USB hard drive connected to AIrport, but not today. Airport sees it right now--I've checked and updated it and restarted it. Finder still can't find the drive. I click on my Airport connection in the Finder sidebar, my usual route to the hard drive, but the connection window hangs. And hangs. I need access to the files on that hard drive. Problem is, another iMac using Tiger needs access, too, so I can't disconnect arbitrarily. With that iMac, Tiger's Finder sees the files, and can access them. But not this 20" 2.4G iMac with Leopard 10.5.3. What's going on?

floba,
the first solution, clearing the entire index and letting it rebuild, did not work.
But setting the drive in 'privacy' and then removing it did immediately work, my search window which was left open refreshed instantly to reveal my items. I'm curious however if it will stick..
i have another issue that may be completely unrelated, but maybe not..
i clear my spotlight shortcut key (command+spacebar) because it conflicts with common Adobe app commands i use. But i frequently will find that this shortcut key is RE-ENABLED. At the same time, my shortcut to use Spaces (command+f8, command+arrow keys, and command+numk keys) are CLEARED as if i had never set them. This happens consistently and is frustrating. I don't reboot very often, but i under 10.5.2 i often came home to find my computer has locked up, so it would seem these shortcuts all reset when i reboot, and i wonder if my external drive index is lost every time the drives are ejected.
Vista's completely useless search features were a main reason i gave my PC's away and bought macs. I'm obviously finding these failings frustrating on the mac. I'm even more disappointed at the news Snow Leopard is a bug fix and is selling as a separate OS. Installing additional programs is not an option, i want the OS to do what i tell it to do /rant

Can you share a USB hard drive over the network through an Airport Express?

After asking a few individuals at my local Apple Store, I have been consistantly told that I can plug in a usb hard drive into the bottom of my airport express and share it over the network.
However, after making sure my airport express has the latest firmware (6.3) and even donwloading and installing the airport disk utility I still am not having any luck getting my HFS (journaled) usb 2.0 hard drive to be visible on the network.
I have also noticed that when following the instructions on this apple support document (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AirportUtility/5.1/en/ap2108.html) that when I get to step 3, the option to click disks is grayed out. I assume this supports my theory that the airport express won't share hard drives, can anyone confirm?
Am I doing something wrong? Or were the reps at my store mistaken and the only hardware that can share a hard drive is the airport extreme not express?
Thanks
Message was edited by: althe3rd

Thanks for the swift reply.
Continuing my investigation I started to come to the conclusion you just mentioned. I am surprised none of the staff at my store realized this. However, at least I know now.
The basis for me looking to this is... With leopard on the eve of its release, I wanted to get a large network accessible storage solution that would allow my wife's and I's Macbook pros to use time machine on the network drive when we were at home. Since we rarely use our laptops while sitting at a desk connected to an external drive, I figured this would be a great idea and started to look into various NAS solutions.
Surprisingly, most generic (netgear, western digital) network drives require you use proprietary software to connect to them, and are only compatible with windows xp. After seeing the options the airport extreme opens up in terms of network storage I figured it would be the best bet.
Do you have any other suggestions besides getting an airport extreme? I would rather not have to buy a full blown mac that I have to leave on 24/7 to share the drives. Or do you see any possible pitfalls to this idea? Such as, would time machine forget to use the network drive after a while since it wouldn't always be available to it when away from home?

MAC Mini & 2.5 USB Hard Drive Issue

Strange thing happening with a new MAC Mini:
For Christmas, I bought my wife a brand new MAC mini. Everything has been working fine. So, for our anniversary, I bought her a 120 gig USB hard drive (I know, I'm such a romantic
Anyway, ever since I hooked up the hard drive (USB Drive) to her system, it seems that when I first turn the MINI on, the keyboard and mouse completely stop working. once, I had to hold the power button in to hard boot it, then, when it restarted, everything was working fine again.
Tonight, when I turned the MINI on, it did the same thing. No keyboard or mouse. Then, after I hard booted it, the mini never booted up. Black screen. USB hard drive light was on, but, no MAC power light and screen was black.
Now, I just unplugged the USB drive and all is working fine again.
It seems that the USB hard drive being plugged in while powering the MINI up is giving me some grief.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what can be happening here? It is a brand new MINI with Leopard installed. I highly doubt I have a defective MAC because everything was fine until I plugged a USB HDD into it. With the drive unplugged, it seems that it works fine.
No Operating System(s) are on the USB drive. Just pictures and movie files.
Here is the drive I got her:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8110750
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Gary

I'm sorry. I should have been more detailed in my description. It is a Toshiba drive. here are the specs:
The Toshiba HDDR120E02X 120GB Hard Drive is USB-powered and includes an internal shock sensor and ramp loading technology. Ready to go out of the box and certified to work with Windows XP and Vista as well as Mac OS 10.3.9 or later.
Technical Information
Storage Capacity
120GB
Drive Performance
Data Transfer Rate
480Mbps External Maximum USB 2.0
Interfaces/Ports
Interfaces/Ports
USB 2.0 USB
Physical Characteristics
Form Factor
External Hot-swappable Portable
Miscellaneous
Compatibility
USB 1.1
Plug n Play
I didnt have it hooked to the keyboard though. I have had some trouble trying that in the past, so, other than my mouse, nothing else is plugged into the keyboard.
Thanks again for your help.

[SOLVED] Kernel panic when using external USB hard drive

I have a desktop PC with a 64 bit arch install, on a Core2 Duo 6320 CPU. I have been using (and continue using right now) a 500 GB "Iomega Desktop Hard Drive" external USB hard disk without problems. But I have just bought a 3 TB "Seagate Expansion" external USB hard drive and I'm unable to use it from my Arch install. Each time I try to format it or to copy data from the PC, Arch freezes with a kernel panic. Sometimes it freezes faster and I cannot see anything, but others I am able to see the following kernel messages, repeating several times:
[11701.205071] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13380 tag 29, inflight: CMD
[11701.221297] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.221313] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.221323] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13500 tag 30, inflight: CMD
[11701.237550] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.237567] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.237576] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13680 tag 31, inflight: CMD
[11701.253922] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.253936] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.253956] sd 3:0:0:0: uas_eh_device_reset_handler
[11704.252182] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: LOGICAL UNIT RESET timed out
[11704.252196] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler start
[11704.252443] usb 5-6: stat urb: killed, stream 0
[11704.358882] usb 5-6: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[11704.483206] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler success
Strange enough, the drive is listed by lsusb command as a 2TB but I don't think this is related to the problem (as the OS sees the 3 TB). This is the lsusb output:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bc2:3312 Seagate RSS LLC SRD00F2 [Expansion Desktop Drive 2TB]
I have tried the drive on other PCs and it works flawlessly. Also tried booting Windows 8 on the same PC I have Arch installed in, and in Windows it also works perfect. I have tried using ext2 and NTFS filesystems. Tried also changing the USB cable without success. And right now I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?
Last edited by doragasu (2014-07-03 11:06:25)

looks like it could be the UAS module , check https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=183190

Installing OS X on a USB hard drive?

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