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Would this work?

G99

G99

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2006
366
0
I'm about to partition my iPod in 2. One partition for music, and the other for a bootable copy of everything on my mac. I was hoping to do this, so I could boot into my OS, when going around to others, or when my iMac is not available. Firstly, I'm planning on using carbon copy cloner. Is there a better tool to do this? Secondly, would this be able to boot on a Windows machine? I would have thought so, as filetypes etc. won't matter, as the drive it boots from is different. It would be wicked if I could, 'cos, then, I could show off OS X to my friends, even at their house! :eek: :p
 
I'm not sure how possible the first bit is because AFAIK, you can only format the music partition using iPod Software Updater and there's no mechanism in that app to split partitions. Hopefully someone smarter will be able to tell you a workaround though, if there is one. :)
 
mad jew said:
I'm not sure how possible the first bit is because AFAIK, you can only format the music partition using iPod Software Updater and there's no mechanism in that app to split partitions. Hopefully someone smarter will be able to tell you a workaround though, if there is one. :)
Click to expand...
If I partition it, won't OS X "see" it as 2 disks? Because of this, can't I choose one partition, to update music with iTunes?
Maybe I'm completely wrong ;)
 
yellow said:
According to Apple, the iPod won't work if partitioned.

No idea if that's true or not.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60957
Click to expand...
Whoops..
I was verifying the disk earlier, because it would not show up on my desktop, and Disk Utility showed a funny icon:
View attachment Picture 1.pdf
Maybe I should stop fooling around with it, then :D
Anyway, about the iPod being invisible, (shows up on Disk Utility, not on desktop, forces iTunes to open, but iTunes can't find it) what should I do?
 
G99 said:
I'm about to partition my iPod in 2. One partition for music, and the other for a bootable copy of everything on my mac. I was hoping to do this, so I could boot into my OS, when going around to others, or when my iMac is not available. Firstly, I'm planning on using carbon copy cloner. Is there a better tool to do this? Secondly, would this be able to boot on a Windows machine? I would have thought so, as filetypes etc. won't matter, as the drive it boots from is different. It would be wicked if I could, 'cos, then, I could show off OS X to my friends, even at their house! :eek: :p
Click to expand...

There is no reason to do this. There is an option in iTuns called something like "enable disk use". Do this and then you can copy anyhting you want onto the iPod without affecting the music ability. Make sure the iPod is in "mac frmat" not FAT. then enable disk use. After this simply drag whatever you want on to the iPod. The space is shared to dragging 20GB od "stuff" means you have 20Gb less space for music. Now when you are at some friend's place plug the iPod in and all those folders you dragged are still there.

No, you will not be able to boot off the iPod but why care? Any Mac will already be running mac OSX and no matter what you can't run Mac OSX on non-Apple hardware (well OK it's beendone not only in a limited way and my "experts" after much effort)
 
using the ipod as a bootable hard drive will significantly decrease the life of the ipod if you use it for booting
 
lu0s3r322 said:
using the ipod as a bootable hard drive will significantly decrease the life of the ipod if you use it for booting
Click to expand...

This is absolutely true, but really people should be aware that using the iPod for any "disk use", including booting, potentially shortens its life. The iPod is made to access the little bitty hard drive in infrequent, little bursts, not continously. During normal music playback the average read rate is on the order of 1Mb/minute, which is much less than what it does during booting or any other disk use.

Oh, and by the way, as others have said you don't need to partition your iPod to use it as you want to. I have used my iPod as a boot drive and as a portable (non-bootable) drive with my music on it too. I think that whenever I set it up as a bootable drive I wiped it first, but you should be able to copy all you files using CCC or just install OS X from the install disk, selecting your iPod as the target disk (but this doesn't transfer all you files, preferences, etc).

Here's an (old) article about using your iPod for booting: http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/17/how-to-use-an-ipod-as-a-bootable-drive/

They wipe the iPod and install OS X, but I don't think you have to do it that way.
 
lu0s3r322 said:
using the ipod as a bootable hard drive will significantly decrease the life of the ipod if you use it for booting
Click to expand...
I'm going to get a new one this summer.
I'm still learning about computers, so I thought this would be a nice challenge.
Also, if I manage it, I can virtually use my computer anywhere :eek:
 
Funny thing is, Apple had the same idea as what you want to do several years ago. They were going to implement a feature called "Home on iPod" in Panther, but it was quietly cancelled. I bet they called it off when they realized they might be accused of burning up people's iPods. Check out this link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/41018/
 
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