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Dal123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2008
903
0
England
I need an external Hard-Drive that is bootable for a 17" Powerbook G4, it seems that there are not at all many available out there.
Does anyone know of any?:confused:
 
Only a drive connected by Firewire will work as a boot drive for a PPC G4; USB won't work, but you have lots of Firewire drive options.
 
agree you can take any harddrive ata , s-ata , ssd , and any size you want ( minimum for tiger is a 4gb drive ), as long as it is connected via FIREWIRE
and remember to format it "Mac OS Extended Journaled"
 
Thanks for input chaps, I really didn't think I had many options :eek:. The drive needs to be bootable incase my drive packs-up, I don't have intel, it's a power pc.
I did have this western digital drive http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/technology/computing/113829851_western_digital_1tb_mybook2_studio_edition_external_hard_drive.html?hnav=4294960198 which states bootable for mac on a firewire 800, when I had it though it was not bootable from a power pc unfortunately. Can anyone recommend me a drive, as I don't think there are many out there that are bootable for a powerpc macbook.
 
Thanks for that link, I formatted my external hard-drive exactly in that fashion but no matter what it would not boot from that drive.
I gotta be honest, I don't think that there are many external hard drives out there that are bootable from a power pc mac. I have both firewire 400, and 800.
 
Thanks for that link, I formatted my external hard-drive exactly in that fashion but no matter what it would not boot from that drive.
I gotta be honest, I don't think that there are many external hard drives out there that are bootable from a power pc mac. I have both firewire 400, and 800.

You just didn't clone them right.

Simplest way:
1) Put in any kind of installation CD/DVD. Click next on the language selector, then go to Utils->Terminal in the top menu bar.
Code:
$ diskutil #Lookup which drive is your source and which is the destination
$ sudo dd bs=512 if=/dev/rdiskX of=/dev/rdiskY
where X is your source drive and Y is your destination drive. This creates a 100% copy of the drive, including partition map, and it will be bootable.
 
how did you try to boot from the external drive , it wont boot automatically from the external as long as there is a internal with osx on
you need to hold down the ALT key at startup then normally the external should show up after a while holding the alt key
i have many external drives and never came across that it wouldn't boot from
as thats how i test my backups if they really work


the only thing i can think of is under ccc you have to tell ccc under options to make a absolute exact copy of the drive including system files otherwise it does only backup your files which obviously wont boot
 
Thanks for that link, I formatted my external hard-drive exactly in that fashion but no matter what it would not boot from that drive.
I gotta be honest, I don't think that there are many external hard drives out there that are bootable from a power pc mac. I have both firewire 400, and 800.

Take a look at this:

Bombich Software Forums > Carbon Copy Cloner Support> DO NOT USE a ** WESTERN DIGITAL ** drive...

I've got a old LaCie D2 (Firewire only) that boot a CCC using my G4 iMac flawlessly. I believe of the current mainstream retail drives available that Seagates will work, but you'd probably be best to check the second link on the page to be sure.
 
Thanks for that link Dewguy.
I created an exact back-up of the drive, restarted the computer and held down keys to boot from the drive. It would not show as a bootable drive. I followed the manual from the external hard-drive exactly. And as the link Dewguy has posted you can see it wasn't anything that I was doing.
It was advertised as a bootable drive for macs, however after I bought it, and tried booting from it a few times I realised something was up, and after searching google / western digital for a while I found a link from western digital, and unfortunately the drive was not bootable from a powerpc mac :(. I returned it and managed to get my money back, but been quite busy, and realise that if my hard-drive was to pack-up I would really be in trouble.
So need to find a replacement.
 
that is really a interesting info a very interesting one ,to be remembered
so if you want a external harddrive then you can have a western digital ,
but not a western digital enclosure :eek: because of their harddrive smart stop thingy or how they are calling it , i guess thats energy saving a step to far

i mention that as i am a fan of western digital drives , but have them all in some cheep chinese alloy /white enclosures with fans for cooling and mine are ide (P-ATA) drives and i am able to boot from them thats why i never got even the idea that there would be a possibility that you could not boot from these more modern drives and enclosures
 
Mine did not have a display screen with the new feature that has received many, many complaints as I know that they create a new partition on the drive / label that happens every time you make a back-up / save something - and they cannot be erased.
I really did my homework when I purchased the drive, and read quite a few articles complaining about the new feature, and advising others against it; western digital even had it on their website about the vast complaints they were getting!
I'm put off western digital now, as I don't think they have any mac power pc bootable drives. Think I might try a la cie or whatever it's called :p.
 
Mine did not have a display screen with the new feature that has received many, many complaints as I know that they create a new partition on the drive / label that happens every time you make a back-up / save something - and they cannot be erased.
I really did my homework when I purchased the drive, and read quite a few articles complaining about the new feature, and advising others against it; western digital even had it on their website about the vast complaints they were getting!
I'm put off western digital now, as I don't think they have any mac power pc bootable drives. Think I might try a la cie or whatever it's called :p.

I believe that Western Digital external hard drives also will NOT boot on Intel Macs. As I mentioned earlier, if you're looking for a store bought external, I believe that Seagates offerings are/would be bootable.

Another brand of external hard drives that have a good reputation and I believe would be bootable are those from OWC (Other World Computing) here's a link to their offerings:

OWC External Storage Solutions

They offer most of their drives as complete drives (I believe Hitatchi internals) or do-it-yourself cases with a choice of internal drive to put in it.
 
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