Possible to boot MacBook Pro Core i7 from an APM FireWire drive?

Hi everyone,
is there a way to boot the current MacBook Pros from a FireWire drive which uses Apple Partition Map instead of GUID? I’m asking, because I use a FW drive with lots of partitions containing service tools, etc. This needs to be used on older PPC Macs, too. So until now I just used it with APM, because this also worked fine with Intel Core (2) Duo Macs. The problem is that it no longer seems to work with the current Macs.
Is there a way to fix this or will I need to carry 2 external drives from now on?
Thanks
Björn

Thanks, I assumed something like that. While trying to boot 10.6.3 from my APM drive it would halt at the grey  screen without the spinning, so I thought booting off APM drives is no longer possible. I know that it’s not officially supported for Intel Macs, but it always worked. Maybe I will just wait if 10.6.4 automagically solves this.
I was playing with the USB stick option too, but as long as I can keep everything on 1 drive I will do that. Currently there is everything from 10.3.9 to 10.6.3 on it.
Thanks
Björn

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Message was edited by: Majordadusma

My MacBook Pro Core Duo from 2006 shuts down randomly requiring frequent reboots to the point I had to abandon doing any project or anything on this MacBook Pro. Same thing occurs with the iMac dual core from 2007. MacBook battery replaced.

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Some possible good news for MacBook Pro Core Duo owners....

All,
I believe I am now running 2.4GHz 802.11N on my MacBook Pro Core Duo.
I have a Belkin F5D8071 ExpressCard installed.
I also have the new Airport Extreme.
Before I got the AE, I tried to run the 802.11N enabler with the Belkin card installed. No go. The enabler said my hardware didn't meet the minimum requirements.
But, I received my AE yesterday and installed the Airport Utility on the MacBookPro while the Belkin card was plugged into the ExpressCard slot.
As I was watching the installation, I noticed that the enabler installed!!!
So I switched the AE to N only 2.4GHz (Belkin support has no mention of support for 5GHz N for the F5D8071). And my MBP joined the network!
So I investigated some more. I opened Network Utility and it said my link speed was now 144Mbps. And the MAC address began with 00 17 3F. That is registered to Belkin. The Belkin card was active! But I saw no power light on the Belkin card. So I went into IORegistryExplorer and found the entry for the ExpressCard, it said the IOVendor was Apple. So what I THINK is happening is the Apple Driver is now recognizing the Belkin card and the driver just doesn't know how to drive the lights on the card. But it does recognize the chipset on the Belkin card. Which Belkin says the chip is made by Airgo.
I ran a quick speed test by copying a 1GB file from a wired PowerBook to the MBP. It only took 12 minutes to copy!!! Sweet!!! I have "N" speeds on a Core Duo MacBook Pro.
Now one limitation is the Belkin card does not support 5GHz. But there is hope for CD MPB owners. Hope this helps others.

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MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Macbook Pro Core Duo 2.16Ghz with 1GB+2GB memory module

Is it possible to install an 2gb modulle along with my 1gb module witch came standard with my macbook pro Core Duo 2.16Ghz?
Im thinking about the following modulle:
Kingston KTA-MB667/2G
(Any other suggestions?)
And just for my information is it possible to install 2x 2gb memory?
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But i still have a few questions:
Is the 2gb modulle not supported or the total of 3gb
is not supported?
I want to know it absolutely 100% for sure becouse i
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From what I have read in various forums a single 2GB module will work in the Core Duo machines. 3GB is not supported however. People who have tried adding 3GB (2GB +1GB) to a Core Duo report the computer would not boot.
I am not sure why you would want to use a single 2GB module though. Perhaps if you were wanting to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo later?
I would say if your going to try to use a single 2GB module understand the risks. i.e. I don't how much people actually tested for stability etc. other than to try it and say yeah it works. You do loose the dual-channel configuration for whatever that is worth.
I would make sure you purchase from a place that has a liberal return policy if your going to try it. Just in case your not happy with it.

Who has a brand spanking new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo? Comments?

Hi,
Ok, it's been almost 3 months since I posted a similar post asking for experiences with the new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo.
Please let me know how things are working, whether you went 5400 or 7200 internal (my main concern), pros and cons, size of screen (15" or 17"), etc...
Got my eyes on a 17", but don't know which internal to do.
Thanks!
PS - I may go iMac 24" (because it has Firewire 800) and keep this ol' PB G4 1 gightz for portability... thoughts?

If you want to use Logic, then 15 inch screen is a must. There is not enough > space on the 13 inch to view Logic, especially when you open the soft synths.
well yes... or, in my case, the 15 inch screen was still not enough so I went for the 17. it has exactly the same res as the 20" cinema display which I was already used to with logic, so I'm happy. plus I never use this machine as my laptop to carry around (I kept my powerbook for that) so I didn't need to compromise on getting something that was still not too big to be a comfortable laptop. but I think if you do want to work with logic effectively and still have a laptop that's a practical size to use as a general laptop, the 15" is the right choice.
what internal speed drive did you go with? 5400 or 7200
I went for the 7200rpm drive. have you read all the information out there on the net about the new PMR technology that's used on the 160/5400 and 200/4200 drive options in the MBPs? there are some very comprehensive benchmarks that have been run which show that there's not as much of a dramatic difference anymore between the 7200 and the 5400. for some operations under certain conditions, the 5400 actually appeared to be faster.
you're not planning to use the internal drive for audio though, are you?
my reasoning for getting the 7200 drive is the following. OSX permanenty and automatically uses disk-based virtual memory just in regular operation. it is constantly creating and reading swap files, as well as just referencing little bits of whatever data that the apps and the system need to run. this VM use becomes heavier the more your actual physical RAM starts being used up. now seeing as I know that I'm going to be running heavy logic sessions, using up as much RAM as I can get with samples and just general everything.. I decided I needed to have the snappiest system drive I could get. even given the benchmarks for the PMR drives, I still felt that fast read/write access speeds and the fastest seek time possible is what I needed to have optimal performance. sure a 5400rpm PMR drive might have great specs for a lot of things. but when the system needs to be able to find whatever swap files or system resource as quickly as possible, I still think you can't beat a disk that is just physically spinning faster.
the other thing I've done is this. when I first got the machine, I reformatted it and did my own custom install of OSX. traditional drives perform best when they are less than half full. from what I've read, anything down to 30% full is still on an improving curve, and maybe it gets better still even less full. so I scaled back the install to as lean a system as I could. I've installed only the most important apps that I need, and I definitely did not install the iwork and office trial software. after that, I used software called monolingual to remove even more language localizations (which are added with app support) on top of what I had already left out in my custom install. this got me back almost another GB of space. also, my itunes library is not on my MBP.. I've kept it on my powerbook. the only times I ever want to listen to music from my itunes library on the MBP is when the powerbook is nearby anyway, seeing as the powerbook is the only machine that I ever take anywhere. so, the library just appears in itunes on the MBP as shared music. my iphoto library is locally stored on my MBP though, because iphoto runs so much faster on this machine.. but this is the only concession to include personal files that I've made on the MBP. so, out of a 100GB system drive, I still have 62GB of free space left, and I'll keep it as close to that as I can.
as for my project audio and my sound library, it's all on an external FW800 drive. but I'm also considering getting an e-SATA card and getting a drive for that, because it will be even faster and will free up the FW bus to have full-bandwidth use of something like liquid mix. we'll see.
anyway, so far so good. like I said in my first post, logic is running like a demon. in general, this machine is running real fast for everything, like a fast desktop.
but I think the problem with your question is.. it's going to be hard for anyone to be able to tell you how it would have been had they gotten a different drive. I have no idea if my system would be running logic any less fast if I'd gone with the 5400. my instincts tell me that maybe it'd have slightly less of an edge, but I can't really say. it's probably true that if I was using my 7200 drive less cautiously than I am, and that it was getting close to full, then it would probably slow down a bit more dramatically than a 5400 would have, if I had one of those and it was getting full. this is to do with the fact that higher data density on the same sized platter can mean faster seek times only when they are starting to get fuller, and also to do with aspects of how PMR disks work. but I think that a well managed and lean 7200 drive that is much more than half full will still give you a slightly perkier system than a 5400 PMR drive used at its best. there's not really any way I can know this for sure though.
end of the day, I don't honestly think logic would run like a dog with a 5400rpm PMR drive. but if you want the absolute best performance you can get, you're better off keeping a lean system drive, trying to keep it at least only half full or better.. and then using a fast external for your projects and sound library. in that case, I don't see the point of getting a 160GB internal drive, just so that you have more space to keep empty.
but if you want to use the machine for multiple purposes and you could really use that extra disk space, then I still think logic will run more than fine. compared to your powerbook, there's no way you'll be dissapointed.. it's like having a dual 2.5ghz G5, if not faster, only in a less than one inch thick case that you can carry in your bag.

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I recently bought a brand new MacBook Pro Core i7 2.66Ghz with 8GB Ram and 500GB 7200rpm HD and Hi-Res display.
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Running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on my brand new 15" MBP right now.
The only problem I'm having is the USB controller issue that is reported in the following thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2411685&start=30&tstart=0
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Message was edited by: jdamien75

Possible to boot MacBook Pro Core i7 from an APM FireWire drive?

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