i bought a second HD for my powermac. I finally got it working. now i want to Stripe Raid the two together to make one large drive. but to do that i have to take off all the info thats already on my computer. To make my life a little easier, and to not have to reinstall everything. I want to know if i can install os x on an external drive and move everything over as if its another computer. Is that possible. if so how?
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How to install OS X on External HD
- Thread starter mashinhead
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The esiest way is to use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to clone your internal onto the external. It'll be an exact bootble dupe.. Good way to back up, which you may not be doing right now (bad idea jeans, my friend).
You need to have an external firwire drive to install OS X on or make a boot from, so if it's USB 2.0, you're kinda screwed. Return the enclosure and get firewire.
You need to have an external firwire drive to install OS X on or make a boot from, so if it's USB 2.0, you're kinda screwed. Return the enclosure and get firewire.
so after i back it up using say superduper! and i erased and raided the hds together i would have to instal os X on the new raided HDs and then use Superduper! and restore that to the new drive?
mashinhead said:
Now that we are discussing this, I thought I would ask this question. I appreciate it if someone can chime in with comments/answers.
After performing that (superduper from an internal HD to an external, then, after HD is replaced for an internal, superduper from an external HD to that new internal HD), does Superdupe (or any other cloning/back up software) write from the edge (starting point) of the HD continguously? Or, does it just do the exact copying (including the relative file locations on the HD, however scattered or fragmented those files are) from one hard drive to another?
As you use your HD, some files are wrote at various parts of the HD. I am curious to know those back up/cloning software will put those scatterd files nicely right next to each other as it clone the files from one hard drive to another.
mashinhead said:
If you have a bootable drive (e.g. firewire), then just boot from it and use SuperDuper to clone the installation back onto your stripped drives. No need to install OS X on them. SuperDuper would just overwrite it anyway.
YS2003 said:
Yes, I'm fairly certain it does.
mashinhead said:
kwajaln said:
No, I don't. I meant Bad Idea Jeans, just as I wrote.
yellow said:
one last question how do i boot from the external? i hold down T or C after restart and choose the one i want?
mashinhead said:
Nope.
Way 1: Choose it from Startup Disk prefpane in the System Preferences.
Way 2: Boot holding down Option. After all the buses are polled, and bootable volumes should show up, you can select it there and click the Right Arrow button.
If you want to make a clean install copy of the OS on an external HD, load the OS disc and restart the Mac, press & hold C to go in the installation menu.
Once you start installation, you'll be given the option as to where to install. Make sure you use firewire (don't know if USB works) and you should be able to format and install the OS on the external HD.
That's how I did it. To boot from either one, go to System Preferences, Startup Disk, and choose where you want to boot from.
Hope this helps.
Once you start installation, you'll be given the option as to where to install. Make sure you use firewire (don't know if USB works) and you should be able to format and install the OS on the external HD.
That's how I did it. To boot from either one, go to System Preferences, Startup Disk, and choose where you want to boot from.
Hope this helps.
ortuno2k said:
I tried this on my lacie firewire hd and kept getting an error message half way through the install. What am I doing wrong?
dan-o-mac said:
Don't know what you might be doing wrong.
I used an external HD which I put together, using a regular 80GB HD and an enclosure which I bought from CompUSA.
No problems at all for me.
Maybe the installation disc is scratched or defective? I don't know...
and... test boot from your external & Check all your data BEFORE you do the reformat thing on the internals...