i just installed tiger on an external harddrive and it worked well, but once i restarted, it booted from my internal hdd......is there a way i can easily switch between the 2 without having to restart or change the settings from which disk to boot from first? i mean i know something as simple as clicking which i want to boot from probably doesnt exist, but is there anything that can make it easier?
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boot from external HD
- Thread starter derajfast
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derajfast said:
You have to hold specific key when you restart your computer.
last time I checked, I think it was the key "c". not sure.
faintember
macrumors 65816
I think so (that is if you want to boot from a secondary/external drive). I think you can do this by holding down "option" when booting. Holding down "c" boots from the cd, and you could do it that way. Put in your system cd, boot up holding "c", go to startup disk, and then select the external. There has to be an easier way than that, but i am unaware of it.derajfast said:
mad jew
Moderator emeritus
derajfast said:
Well, as reberto says, open up System Preferences and under Start Up Disk, you should be able to select your external drive to start from every time if that's what you want. 🙂
OSX looks for appropriate start up volumes on boot up anyway, so if you select the external but you have appropriate system files on your inbuilt hard drive and you unplug the external, it should still start up from the original internal drive however it may take a little longer as it goes searching for appropriate files.
Having said that, I've only had experience with the original 10.0 and not 10.4 and from what some people say around here, that feature may have been overwritten however I don't know why and I think that's unlikely. 🙂
faintember
macrumors 65816
faintember
macrumors 65816
Sry for the double post, but, lets say if the internal hd failed, then what command would you use to boot from the external? Would you boot holding cmd-opt-shift-delete?mad jew said:
cygni
macrumors regular
🙁 Ok, I am trying to do the very same thing (boot from an external usb hd).
I have tried everything on this thread and nothing is working. I can't even use the backed up data that I cloned (using carbon copy) before erasing my small internal HD. So I am totally lost as to what to do next.
Does anyone have advice as to what I can do to force a boot to an external usb HD? I found an article and feedback stating it's simply impossible. I am truly open to any reasonable suggestions and would very much appreciate any help.
running os x 10.3.9 on g3 ibook (flavored), 288mb ram, all orig. hardware. with a new western digital external 160gb hard drive. thanks!
I have tried everything on this thread and nothing is working. I can't even use the backed up data that I cloned (using carbon copy) before erasing my small internal HD. So I am totally lost as to what to do next.
Does anyone have advice as to what I can do to force a boot to an external usb HD? I found an article and feedback stating it's simply impossible. I am truly open to any reasonable suggestions and would very much appreciate any help.
running os x 10.3.9 on g3 ibook (flavored), 288mb ram, all orig. hardware. with a new western digital external 160gb hard drive. thanks!
timnosenzo
macrumors 6502a
Mitthrawnuruodo
Moderator emeritus
Applespider
macrumors G4
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I didn't think you could boot from USB either but I suspect 'received wisdom' rather than fact is involved. Thearticle above seem to suggest that it's because the firewire ports become live through open firmware while the USB ones don't until later in the boot process.
Although it doesn't help you, cygni, the lesson for others is always to test booting from your new clone before you erase your current HD.
Apple seem to suggest that it might work but isn't expected to work
Link
Can you boot from your OS X restore/install disk and then access the data on your USB drive? It might not help with the booting issue but it might help.
If your drive isn't too big and you have a large iPod, you may be able to copy the structure on the USB drive over to a partition on the iPod and then boot from that if it's Firewire?
Mitthrawnuruodo
Moderator emeritus
He-he... I like the good old Pismo better and better... 😉Applespider said:
Thanks for the link. Explains the inconsistency... 🙂
Hmm... maybe I should try this with my current iBook one of these days... I have that old USB1.1 disk laying around somewhere...
To the OP (to get back on topic 😉): Does the external USB drive show up if you hold down the option key during boot, as faintember suggested earlier, (should give you a slow blue screen with one button for each bootable volume and some arrows, like this)?
cygni
macrumors regular
Yes, lesson learned. Sadly I do not have an ipod or firewire port, but I will try accessing the drive through my install disk and see what happens. Thank you!Applespider said:
for me the external doesn't show up, just the internal hard drive is displayed as an option. Maybe I could try installing classic and see if it gives more startup options. Thanks for the link!Mitthrawnuruodo said: