Booting OSX from an external hardrive

[Gballa]

Hello everyone. I am at a school where i cant even change the time without the admin password. I can easily reset it with my leopard disk, but they somehow find out and reimage it. I was wondering if I could boot Osx from my external hardrive, and basically have a entirely different computer, on the same computer. This way nothing is restricted. Thanks.

 

[plinden]

Yes, you can.

 

[Gballa]

Yes, you can.

thank you for all your help...lol....could u please tell me how

 

[Sun Baked]

Well if they were smart they enabled firmware password.

Otherwise, if it is an Intel Mac just make sure you format the drive GUID.

 

[Gballa]

Well if they were smart they enabled firmware password.

Otherwise, if it is an Intel Mac just make sure you format the drive GUID.

Could you give me the steps to do this please...sry i am stupid

 

[Sun Baked]

Could you give me the steps to do this please...sry i am stupid

There is ample help in HELP, and Apple support.

"You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume..." alert in Installer

Part that talks about Intel Mac and GUID Partition Scheme.

 

[MCRunning]

First you have to make a .dmg file of whatever OS X version you want to use.
Then you have to partition the hard drive first into two parts.

Open up Disk Utility click on the HD > Partition
Make the first partition around 10 GB or so and the second partition whatever space is left (or unless you want to make 3 partitions or more).
Then click options on the 10 GB HD and make it either a GUID Partition Table or an Apple Partition Map (This depends on whether or not you have an intel or power pc. )
Once you have done that restore the OS X .dmg you previously created on the 10 GB partition

Then restart in boot mode (hold c down I believe), select the 10 GB HD and select to install it on the second partition

 

[Gballa]

ok... thanks for your help, it worked and everything, but it could be faster. I have western digital 160 passport and want maybe a firewire that could work with it or a really high speed usb cord...idk...thanks

 

[Les Kern]

Curious why you'd need to modify anything on a machine you don't own. Isn't it set up to be useful? What can't you do on it that you feel you need to do? Isn't discussing hacking a violation of the terms here? I thought it was.