Installing from an external drive?

[JacobsHorse]

I have an iBook G3 700, which had the built-in CD drive removed during an altercation with a flight of stairs.

Q: Is it possible to install 10.3 from an external CD drive (Firewire), or am I stuck with 10.1.x til the end?

 

[Noiseboy]

Is the case damaged too badly to fit a new cd drive? MCE technology will do one about $250. you can find them at http://store.mcetech.com/
I don't know if you can install from an external cd drive but I would think it would be possible to start your iBook up in target disk mode connected to another Mac and to install it from there. I shall wait and see what others have to say on that score and I'll be interested to know. Good luck.

 

[Pismo]

It'll work

Yes, you can install OS X from an external CD drive. I've used mine to install OS X several times. Just reboot with the CD in the external drive and hold down the "C" key. If that doesn't work, hold down the alt/option key and select the drive.

Looks like I'll be doing the same thing from now on because the DVD drive in my Pismo has died (again).

 

[mklos]

I've installed all versions of Mac OS X (including OS X.3) with my LaCie FireWire CD-RW drive on my Dual USB iBook and it works perfectly. I do that because that drive reads at 40x and the drive in my iBook reads at 24x so the installation goes a little faster!

If you place your CD in the drive and let it appear then open up the CD and double click on Install Mac OS X. You get a screen asking for an administrator password...put that in, click ok, then click restart and it should know to boot from your FireWire drive.