Installing OS from an external usb drive

[MajorOwned]

Hi, apologies if I’ve missed this info anywhere

I have a titanium PowerBook g4, 400 mhz with a missing internal DVD drive and a blank hard drive

I’d like to install OS9 and OSX as a dual boot system. Is it possible to use an external usb drive? And in what order would be best to do it in?

Thanks for any help

 

[Doq]

It can be done. Though, keep in mind that the Titanium G4s only have USB 1.1, meaning that install speeds will be dogwater. Thus, I'd recommend a FireWire-based installation if possible; whether that be through a second Mac or through an external FireWire drive.

If you still want to use USB for this, some USB drives will work without any hacks or modifications, just from the boot picker by holding <Option> before the chime until the boot picker appears.

Some other USB drives won't appear in the boot picker, but will still work with an Open Firmware command, see this thread.

Finally, some other other USB drives won't work at all, and you'll need to try a different one.

Make sure your USB drive has the Apple Partition Map format; you can format a drive to this in Disk Utility. You have to do this before restoring an installer image to it.

It shouldn't matter which OS you install first, but common practice is to install OS 9 first.

Good luck and godspeed.