OS X on my external drive?

[thedoobieman5]

OK, I've searched for the answer to no avail so here it goes:

I am currently using my MacBook Pro with Leopard.
I'm no computer genius, but I believe it's possible for me to install OS 10.4.9 (the one that came on my computer) on my external HD. If I do this then I should be able to boot from it and it would essentially be like having two different computers that are independent of each other.

I booted from the install CDs that I got with my computer and proceeded to target my external for installation. After installing the first CD, my computer restarted w/o asking me anything about the second CD. I booted from my external HD only to find a black screen with white letters that behaved essentially like the Terminal in the Utilities folder that refused to restart or shut down.

Curiously, after booting from my usual internal drive, I opened Disk Utility to erase my external drive and noticed that its content was the same as the installation CD's.

Surely somebody has tried doing what I have successfully in the past, where did I go wrong?

 

[angelwatt]

One way I know of is to clone your Mac's HD to the drive in a bootable manner. Programs like Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and SuperDuper can create bootable backups.

 

[msevild]

Not sure what might have happened, but I can give you a couple tips. When using disk utility you want to make sure the drive is partitioned in the GUID partition type. You do this by using the partition tab on the drive you have selected in disk utility and then clicking on the options buttons and choosing GUID. I suggest erasing the drive through disk utility this way and then trying to install Tiger onto the external drive. Not sure what happened the first time, but I'd say just try again.

 

[thedoobieman5]

OK, I'll give that a try and see. Now that you say it, it makes a lot of sense. I was actually using a partition on my external HD, since I didn't want to loose my info and thoughtlessly made it a journaled partition.

Hope it works and thanks!