Maximizing my portability: Can one boot from USB? Rumor?

[mach1andy]

I hope I'm not one of these posters that asks a question that has been answered 100 times, but I couldn't find any info on it doing a search here.

SuperDuper's website says you have to have a firewire to make bootable backups on PPC macs. Would that mean that USB drives are bootable on intel macs.

If so, I hear they are churning out 16 GB flash drives for $150 (maybe 32 NAND for more). Does that mean I could basically carry around my entire computer's hard drive (minus the music and videos) and hop on other macs and have everything incl. programs, documents--everything accessable?

What happens if I try to boot a firewire flash drive with an Intel OSX on a PPC OSX? From something like this..http://www.kanguru.com/fireflash.html

I suppose that means I could use my 30 gig iPod to ask as the hd too.

IS anyone out there doing this to save space, backup and be as portable as possible?

-Andy

 

[Eraserhead]

It should be possible though you'll need a different boot for PPC and Intel.

 

[BigPrince]

It is possible for a Intel Mac.

I have never been able to do it successfully on the "newer" PPC Mac's.

 

[wickedsteve]

last I heard PPC macs can boot off FW but not USB and Intel Macs can boot off USB but not FW.

 

[BigPrince]

Im sorry, just in case i was confusing.

I am referring to USB bootable drives.

 

[xUKHCx]

last I heard PPC macs can boot off FW but not USB and Intel Macs can boot off USB but not FW.

PPC-Firewire
Intel-Firewire+USB

As someone mentioned the "newer ppc's" should be able to boot off USB. But a general rule they only boot from Firewire.

also 64 Gb bit pricey though

If so, I hear they are churning out 16 GB flash drives for $150 (maybe 32 NAND for more). Does that mean I could basically carry around my entire computer's hard drive (minus the music and videos) and hop on other macs and have everything incl. programs, documents--everything accessable?

Indeed this is possible

I suppose that means I could use my 30 gig iPod to ask as the hd too.

Again this is possible, for example Micromat have released a program that is designed to turn an old iPod into a system rescue drive.

Will try and find my old photo to have a muck around highly portable disk.

 

[mach1andy]

New angle...

Thanks for clearing up the PPC/Intel acceptable boot methods. That 64GB USB card is a bit pricey!!!

So here's another angle..

Lets say that I had an 80 GB ipod that I wanted to partition in half-- 40 gigs for ppc and 40 gigs for intel (OSX). Didn't the older versions of ipod allow firewire startups? Did anyone ever find a hack to make it still boot from firewire?

This would be the ultimate solution to lugging around all of your stuff!

 

[BigPrince]

Your 80 gig will overheat after some prolonged use. Not a good idea. Only good for emergencies for backup file retrieval. Not something you want to boot off of.

 

[xUKHCx]

Thanks for clearing up the PPC/Intel acceptable boot methods. That 64GB USB card is a bit pricey!!!

So here's another angle..

Lets say that I had an 80 GB ipod that I wanted to partition in half-- 40 gigs for ppc and 40 gigs for intel (OSX). Didn't the older versions of ipod allow firewire startups? Did anyone ever find a hack to make it still boot from firewire?

This would be the ultimate solution to lugging around all of your stuff!

It would be but there is a problem.

You can partition the ipod no problem. But these partitions cant be both GUID and and Apple Parition map. This means you cant boot on both platforms.

 

[mach1andy]

It would be but there is a problem.

You can partition the ipod no problem. But these partitions cant be both GUID and and Apple Parition map. This means you cant boot on both platforms.

So which one does Intel use and which one is PPC (on Guid and Apple Partition Map)?

My point would be to have 1 partition be GUID and the other A.P.Map. Not possible?

 

[xUKHCx]

So which one does Intel use and which one is PPC (on Guid and Apple Partition Map)?

My point would be to have 1 partition be GUID and the other A.P.Map. Not possible?

Intel - GUID
PPC - Apple Partition Map

Not possible from my experience.

Edit: Just tried it on a spare USB flash drive and it doesn't work. So for me it doesn't work on both USB flash drives and USB harddrives.

 

[mach1andy]

Gulp. So I would need 1 drive for ppc and one for intel with guid and apm formats. Any ideas of how to use superduper for something like this to keep everything synced?

 

[xUKHCx]

Gulp. So I would need 1 drive for ppc and one for intel with guid and apm formats. Any ideas of how to use superduper for something like this to keep everything synced?

As far i see it yes you would need two drives.

In regards to Superduper: If you have a disk image on your computer with everything installed inside that, then you can use Superduper to back this disk image up to both drives.



Just a little note: I tried formatting my iPod as GUID in the view of installing OSX on it but the formatting failed everytime. Reporting an I/0 error, so i don't know if it is possible to format an old iPod photo so it can boot an intel.