How to Install Leopard from External Firewire Hard Drive
Here I will show you briefly how to set up the external partition correctly for the OS X Leopard Install, make an image of the Install Disc, restore that image to the external partition, and finally how to boot from an external firewire drive.
It is a good idea to place a partition called “Mac OS X Install DVD” on an external hard drive for several reasons. The foremost is for DVD challenged Macs. Perhaps your Superdrive or Combo Drive is broken? It provides a handy method of fixing disk permissions, updating Firmware passwords, and whatever else you can do off the Install, without the actual DVD. In OS X Leopard, Time Machine can be used to Restore Backed Up versions of OS X. The catch is, it needs the Leopard Install DVD to do this. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a copy of the Leopard Install partitioned right next to our backup data on an External Hard Drive? Installing from an external hard drive can also be faster than booting off the DVD.
You will need the following:
- OS X 10.5 Leopard Install Disk and/or .dmg Disk Image
- A Mac Running OS X 10.4 Tiger
- A working DVD Drive (for those copying from DVD to External)
- External Firewire Hard Drive + FW Cable
Backup OS X Tiger 10.4 Before You Install
Before you install any new Operating System on a Mac it is highly recommended you backup your entire hard drive first to another hard drive, usually an external hard drive. I used SuperDuper! to clone OS X Tiger onto a bootable Backup Partition. You should do the same. This means we will take all our files and duplicate them onto another drive. It is really handy to own an external hard drive, mainly for this purpose and also if we want to take advantages of the instant backup nature of Time Machine in Leopard. So, before you install Leopard go out and purchase a Lacie or similar External Firewire hard drive. If you have a Mac Pro, G5 or MacBook Pro 17″ or most 15″ and 17″ PowerBooks, you should be shopping for an external hard drive with Firewire 800 connectivity. All other Macs should be connected to a Firewire 400 Hard Drive. USB 2.0 Externals will not boot on a PowerMac, but will boot using an Intel Mac.
iUseApple.com or any of it’s writers are not responsible for the damage caused to files or to a hard drive that anyone formats or partitions.
The Steps:
- Make a Disk Image (.DMG) from Install DVD using Disk Utility
- Partition External Hard Drive for Install Partition
- Restore the Partition from .DMG of Install DVD
- Restart, Booting from Install Partition
For those who have the OS X Leopard Install DVD:
Skip here if you already have a .dmg file.
Make a .DMG from the Leopard Install DVD
First, you need to make a disk image of the DVD using Disk Utility. Disk Utility is found in /System/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app. Put the Install DVD into your Mac’s Combo Drive, Superdrive, or External DVD Reader.
You will see the Install DVD appear on the left in Disk Utility. Single Click the listing from Mac OS X Install DVD. Then select New Image from the Tool Bar. Change the Image Format to “entire device”. Find a place to save the disk image, name it Mac OS X Install DVD. Click Save. Wait until the process is complete (This can take a while, so go outside and play).
When it is finished, you will have a .dmg of the Install DVD on your hard drive.
Make a 10.0GB Partition on the External Hard Drive
Do you have files on this External Hard Drive? If so, you will want to back these up before proceeding. When partitioning a drive in Tiger, it means you must erase the drive and segment it. If you have a fresh Hard Drive, this process is much easier in OS X Tiger, since you will not lose any data.
A Brief Note About the Difference Between Partition Maps for
PowerPC and Intel Macs
You may need to change the Partition Table for the drive. The Partition Table you are currently using is highlighted in Disk Utility, under the Partition Tab, in the Options… menu. If you are making a bootable partition for PowerPC, you will need to select Apple Partition Map if it is not already selected. Intel Mac users should select GUID Partition Table. If you have to reformat the Partition Table, this means you will need to completely format the drive and will lose all data. Other World Computing has a detailed explanation about Partitioning Drives on PowerPC vs. Intel Mac.
If you have the Leopard Install DVD and can boot from it: Restart the Mac and hold down the C key while starting up. Right after you select the language (the first install window), you can use the Leopard version of Disk Utility to resize existing Partitions on the External Hard Drive. Disk Utility is found in the menu bar. In the Leopard version of Disk Utility, you can divide existing Partitions and resize them accordingly. On screen instructions for this are found in Disk Utility itself, but I’ll tell you anyways. In Disk Utility, Select the Hard Drive you wish to Partition (not the name of the drive, but the device name). Click on the Partition Tab. Single Click on an existing Partition under the Volume Scheme. Click the Plus Sign just beneath that. Click on the new Partition and name it “Mac OS X Install DVD”, Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Size: 10GB. Click Apply. After you are finished resizing the partitions, exit the installer and startup regularly in OS X Tiger. Skip the next paragraph.
If you cannot boot from the Leopard Install DVD: In Disk Utility, Select the Hard Drive you wish to Partition (not the name of the drive, but the device name). Click on the Partition Tab. Directly under Volume Scheme, select the number of Partitions you want. Make sure one of the Partitions is named “Mac OS X Install DVD”, Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Size: 10GB. Why these settings? I’m ultra paranoid that it won’t work without the name and 10 GB is ample room for the DVD. Partition the rest of the drive as you wish. Click the Partition button in the lower right only when you are sure of the settings and have backed up any data that was on the drive.
Restore the External Partition from the .DMG
Select the “Mac OS X Install DVD” Partition from the left in Disk Utility.
Now Select the Restore Tab. Drag the .DMG into the Source field. Drag the External Partition into the Destination Field. Click Restore in the lower right corner.
Once this is finished, the Auto Start Screen from the Leopard Install DVD should appear. You now have a copy of the Leopard Install DVD on the External Hard Drive.
Boot Leopard Install from External Hard Drive
I suggest if you have the Install DVD inside the Mac still to eject it. Make sure the Firewire External Hard Drive is connected. Restart the Mac, while holding down the Option key until a blue screen appears. Wait for the waiting cursor to change into a mouse cursor. Select the “Mac OS X Install DVD” partition from the list. The Mac will now boot the Leopard Install from the External Hard Drive.
Read Step by Step How to Install OS X Leopard for screenshots from the entire install process.
What did you learn in this post?
Or did it leave you with further questions?
Comment here to Ask Steve Blue!
Written by Steve Blue
steveblue@iuseapple.com
JB
What partition scheme should the external drive that is being restored have to have in order to boot using PowerPc? So far I have restored to GUID formated drive and my powerbook doesn’t recognize it when booting. I have looked around on different forums and nothing is mentioned about having to format the external drive as either GUID or APM. I am reluctant to reformat the external disk and apply the APM because of the files on other partitions of the same disk.
Oct 30th, 2007 8:28 am
steveblue
JB,
Backup any files before you format or partition the drive.
To make it a bootable drive for OS X on a PowerPC, use APM.
To make a bootable partition for Intel Macs, use GUID.
I will update the post to address this issue, but in the meanwhile here is an amazing site that describes the process of formatting and partitioning a bootable drive for PowerPC and Intel Macs using Disk Utility.
Steve
Oct 30th, 2007 9:03 am
Hedi
Thanks a lot for this tutorial, will carefully follow it as soon as my external Hard Drive arrives
Oct 30th, 2007 3:37 pm
JB
Figured it out. I formatted the disk as APM, restored the leopard .dmg to an 8GB partition. Now i can boot off of that leopard partition (the partition i’m talking bout here is the partition the installer was restored too) either using an Intel mac or PowerPc mac. In my first post, the drive was formatted as GUID and only intel macs could boot off of it. For some reason, when the drive was formatted as APM, intel macs could also boot off of the partition the leopard .dmg was restored too.
Oct 30th, 2007 7:41 pm
steveblue
Apparently, “The only condition under
which a drive needs to be formatted as GUID, is when you run Apple’s OS X installer to install an Intel version of OS X onto it.”
Oct 30th, 2007 10:01 pm
skfurn
The first thing I did when I received my new external drive was to clone my existing hard rive to it as a back up. Now I’d like to partition this external hard drive in order to place Leopard on it, as described in the above comments. Was it a mistake to place my cloned hard drive on first? Will this need to be erased prior to partitioning? If so, can I set up a separate partition for my existing hard drive clone back up or does time machine do the exact same thing?
Oct 31st, 2007 4:11 am
sshg123
Hi,
I am a little stuck on your method. In the first step, I open disk utility and when i try to make a new disk image, it does not have to option in image format to choose “Entire Device”. It only has “read only”, “compressed”, “read/write” and “DVD/CD Master”. Any tips on what i should do?? Thanks.
Oct 31st, 2007 5:05 am
steveblue
SSHG, I think you should choose DVD/CD Master…
Steve
Oct 31st, 2007 8:02 am
Panamajack
I’ve heard conflicting reports on the ability to do this using a USB external drive, what is your take on it ?
Nov 1st, 2007 8:30 am
steveblue
Use a Firewire Hard Drive.
Nov 1st, 2007 3:28 pm
samet
i have same problem with “sshg123″ he already said this (In the first step, I open disk utility and when i try to make a new disk image, it does not have to option in image format to choose “Entire Device”. It only has “read only”, “compressed”, “read/write” and “DVD/CD Master”. ) and same thing to me.. how can i find this..
Nov 1st, 2007 9:54 pm
AngelArs
The article says:
“You will need the following: OS X 10.4 Leopard Install Disk”
Please note: Leopard is 10.5 - not 10.4 as reflected by your article…
Other than that misprint it’s a great article!
Nov 1st, 2007 10:32 pm
steveblue
Samat,
I would use DVD/CD Master.
Steve Blue
Nov 2nd, 2007 4:08 am
AngelArs
How did you get it to make a 10 GB partition? Under the Leopard Installer the smallest it allows us to make is a 27 GB partiton. Same with the Disk Utility from Tiger…
Nov 2nd, 2007 9:15 am
andrew
Do I need to make a .DMG first or can I simply clone the entire Leopard DVD to an external partition?
Nov 2nd, 2007 10:35 am
Kim
Hi Steve, nice guide.
Is there no workaround to use an usb hd instead? I have successfully installed Leopard on my intel macbook with an usb hd, but i cannot seem to boot on it from my iMac G5. Is the only solution to use a fw hd?
BR
Kim
Nov 2nd, 2007 12:04 pm
James Harrison
Hi,
Great guide, but having problems using a USB disk. I can’t use the option-command-shift-delete ‘Boot into the next disk’ startup command and have given the wait cursor 10 minutes to go away with no avail.
Any ideas?
James
Nov 2nd, 2007 3:41 pm
Tom
I tried the DVD/CD master route. Can’t get resulting cdr to work as source. Any suggestions? Thanks, though. I was clueless on leopard partitions prior to reading this.
Nov 2nd, 2007 6:08 pm
Tomtom
Does someone think I could possibly format my 20Gb iPod as a GUID Partition Table. And restore Leopard on it ?
Nov 3rd, 2007 11:41 am
Mark
I installed it from my USB harddisk. Works also, only got a little Java error, but that’s a problem of my downloaded image i guess
Leopard works fine though!
Nov 4th, 2007 4:35 am
Serafim
hey Mark,
how did u get it to install from your USB hard drive, i just can’t get it to boot from it. Please help me!!!
Nov 4th, 2007 10:36 am
Basil
Hi!
This article realy helped me to install OS X Leopard. I used an external USB drive on my Intel based MacBook Pro. Because copying with the disk utility didn’t work for me (error 2 and 16), I tried SuperDuper! and that worked perfect!
Nov 4th, 2007 1:08 pm
tatnai
no problem booting from USB hard drive here either on macbook.
Nov 4th, 2007 6:52 pm
Moiko
For the people who fixed this on a usb boot
i also have a macbook, can i follow the same steps on a usb drive? then my next question is how i can unpack the dmg to that usb hdd partition in a right manner
please if you know it, reply
Nov 5th, 2007 1:03 am
Adam
Hi guys i made a mistake i dident partition the hdd, but i restorted the drm file to my hdd and rebooted, now my mac wont boot into mac os whats wrong? my drm file is on my usb hdd
Nov 10th, 2007 8:48 am
steveblue
Adam,
Do you mean dmg file? Did you restore the drive partition using Disk Utility from the .dmg, or just place the .dmg file onto the drive? I’m a bit confused. Are you attempting to boot from the USB HD and it is not booting properly? You Partition Table may need to be set properly, whether you are running OS X on a PowerPC or Intel Mac. Also, USB HDs are not always reliable for booting, firewire drives are best for this task. Did you try to start up the computer by holding down Option and select the old OS X Tiger that is still on the computer? Or did you accidentally restore the .dmg to the drive on your Mac? If so, you have written over all your system files and are out of luck for booting from OS X Tiger.
Nov 10th, 2007 10:59 am
newbie
hey please if someone can help me i’m getting an error 16 when i’m trying to put the image in my external hard drive???? plz help
Nov 10th, 2007 7:58 pm
josh
I am getting an error when i click on the icon : To install Mac OS X, please use the application provided on the Mac OS X installation disc.
I know i need to select my startup disc and reboot but it doesnt work it just takes me back to tiger.
Nov 13th, 2007 12:49 am
jason jacobsen
thanks a lot that really helpt me
Nov 13th, 2007 1:32 am
scientifics
same error as josh. anything we can do about this?
Nov 13th, 2007 4:12 am
steveblue
Are you trying to install out of the .DMG or a partitioned drive? I have never tried to click the icon in the Auto Start Screen. Did you try to Start Up, holding down Option, then select the Leopard Install Drive?
Steve
Nov 13th, 2007 7:56 am
gp
I’m getting the same errors as others here.. when trying to restore, first when specifying image format there is no “entire device” option, and I’ve tried every other option including master dvd/cd, read only, etc. to no avail. After clicking the ‘Restore’ button I get one of these errors:
1) “Restore Failure: Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned/scanned for restore”
or, 2) “Restore Failure: Could not validate source - Resource busy”
I’ve tried it with the dmg files pulled from the Leopard DVD, even tried restoring to my partition (10 GB) directly from the Leopard DVD. Nada…
Any ideas?
I’m wondering what version of Disk Utility it is that has the “entire device” option.. maybe the more recent ones (like from Leopard that I am using) have mechanisms built in to keep them from doing just what I’m trying to do, and an older version doesn’t have those mechanisms…. just a thought.
Nov 13th, 2007 6:23 pm
kilgore trout
Enable hidden disk image formats in Disk Utility:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050601181738987
To activate the hidden formats, just open the Terminal and enter this command (make sure Disk Utility is not running):
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility advanced-image-options 1
Now launch Disk Utility and try to create a disk image from folder, or convert an existing image (the advanced options are not available for new blank images). In the Save dialog (after choosing a folder), pop up the “Image format” menu and see the additional formats listed. To know more about various formats, try to consult the man page for hdiutil (man hdiutil in the Terminal).
Nov 14th, 2007 11:09 am
matthias
Thank you for this helpful article - it works geat!
Nov 15th, 2007 5:55 am
Ilanbigfoot
Re: gp’s problem,
I had the same issue. I double-clicked the image file (a .cdr in my case) to mount the drive, ejected the drive, then tried restoring again and it worked…..
Nov 19th, 2007 4:34 pm
Luis
how long do i have to wait so the whole disk imag restore finishes? cause mine is taking forever…
Nov 19th, 2007 11:37 pm
USB Possible solution
This is certainly a YMMv sort of solution…
here is how booting from USB worked for me on a strange hardware configuration…
I have a sawtooth G4 Graphite which has undergone many upgrades. I also have a external DVD drive which is Firewire and that does work also,
However… never say never… so I tried this… I connected a USB 500GB SATA hard drive to my third party USB 2.0 PCI buss (via the most wonderful connector). I cloned my Tiger system to that and booted from it…
here are the steps.
Carbon copy cloner… (donation ware)
I did it while the system was live, there were no errors
then I suspected that there would be problems, and Startup Disk in System Preferences does not list the disk.
so I figured to Manually Bless the system
say what?!?!?
Open terminal app (LOL)
first you may want to read the internal documentation
at the command prompt type
man bless
there are a few options…
and some examples
for this assume MYDisc has an OSX system installed (and leave out the spaces in names you make for things… would’ya)
type:
sudo bless –folder /Volumes/MyDisc/System/Library/CoreServices –bootinfo
input your admin user password…
last option will change accordingly
–bootinfo for PPC
–bootefi for MacIntel
if you want to verify this operation —> type:
bless –info /Volumes/MyDisc/
should return approx…
finderinfo[0]: 0 => No Blessed System Folder
finderinfo[1]: 0 => No Blessed System File
finderinfo[2]: 0 => Open-folder linked list empty
finderinfo[3]: 0 => No OS 9 X blessed 9 folder
finderinfo[4]: 0 => Unused field unset
finderinfo[5]: 696742 => OS X blessed folder is /Volumes/Mydisc/System/Library/CoreServices
64-bit VSDB volume id: 0×8E5ECBEBBEB9A43B
then after you think you are happy… restart the machine and hold down option key
The name Mydisc may appear corrupted… (???)
but click it and start from it…
it worked for me…. and I was then able to temporarily use that disk while repairing the other…
I hope it helps someone, and again, YMMV (e.g. a 1.x USB only interface may be too painful)
Nov 20th, 2007 3:20 am
Nash
Hi, thanks for this I have been scouring the net for some idiots guide to installing leopard off my external hard drive and after re-reading yours I have successfully installed it.
Thanks again
Nov 20th, 2007 5:59 am
Leotard
Is it possible to do this if you have os x 10.3.9? You say that you must have Tiger, so do I need to first upgrade to tiger to then be able to upgrade to leopard from my external hard drive?
Nov 21st, 2007 2:56 am
steveblue
GP and to everybody getting the error “Restore Failure: Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned/scanned for restore”:
Ctrl Click the DMG in the Sidebar of Disk Utility, you will find the option to scan the image in the drop down menu.
Sorry for the late reply, been busy…
Steve
Nov 22nd, 2007 10:22 am
steveblue
Leotard-
I believe you need Tiger to upgrade to Leopard. But if you install Leopard onto a clean drive (Erase and Install), Tiger is not necessary. You will need to manually transfer user information over to the new copy of Leopard from the Backup of Jaguar after you install.
The reason I chose the Upgrade method was because it preserves User settings and is usually the easiest.
Steve
Nov 22nd, 2007 10:26 am
i24teen
Everything worked as described until Restore. Repeated got Restore Failure error 16 - resource busy. Restarted Disk Utility, unmounted disk image, etc with no luck. I was able to use Disk Utility to restore directly from the DVD (not the image) to FW partition. I am using G5 with 10.4.11 So is it necessary to create a disk image first? Any ideas about error 16?
Nov 23rd, 2007 1:53 pm
steveblue
i24teen-
You must be trying to restore a drive from itself as a source? You need to follow the steps a little more closely and make a .dmg of the Install Disc, use that as a source for the Restore.
Nov 23rd, 2007 4:11 pm
i24teen
Sorry - not clear. Since I could not figure out how to solve Error 16, I did a Restore with the Leopard Install DVD as the source and a FW volume as the destination. It took about as long (15 min /-) to copy the DVD to the drive as it took to create the original .dmg to the Desktop but it is one less step. I tried to follow your instructions exactly. BTW when i tried to empty Trash with the .dmg in it an error message said it was still in use. Had to restart and then I was able to empty Trash.
Nov 23rd, 2007 5:00 pm
i24teen
Footnote - I successful installed Leopard from FW partition copied with Disk Utility directly from DVD, no intermediate .dmg creation. Reading blogs one suggestion to fix error 16 Restore Failure is to unmount & mount the FW partition. I have not verified.
Nov 24th, 2007 1:29 pm
Dave
In 10.5.1, at least, before you can restore the disk image, you have to
Images > Scan Image for Restore…
Now why couldn’t Disk Utility do that for me on the spot?
Nov 25th, 2007 1:24 pm
sasatps10
what would happen if i used a usb hd would it be slower, or would it just not work. i really dont have the money to but another hd i have a 60gb usb hd and a intel macbook running osx 10.4 is it really bad if i do it with a usb hd. also once i do the original start up from the hd, do i have to boot from the hd everytime or does it install
Nov 25th, 2007 7:02 pm
tntlus
i found an answer to the source image not being imagescan error that gp and steveblue seemed to have.
select the dmg in the disk utility and select the image menu from the menubar. at the bottom you should see scan image for restore. do it and you should be able to restore the image just fine.
Dec 1st, 2007 5:43 am
lotza
i need some help, i have my imac g5 backed up on an external.
however, i want to use this external which has 118.4 gb free space in order to install Leopard.
what should my plan of action be?
should i use this external and back it up with time machine in leopard?
or could installing with this external and losing those files affect my internal hardrive.
basically i don’t wanna lose anything i have. but i really want leopard.
any help appreciated.
thankyou,
lotza
Dec 3rd, 2007 5:36 pm
steveblue
Lotza,
You probably don’t want to lose the backup files, right?
Do you have a Leopard Install Disk?
I would suggest using Disk Utility on the install disk to partition the external drive, careful not to delete the existing partition. Make a new partition, per the instructions in this tutorial for the Leopard Install. Disk Utility in Tiger is not able to partition a drive without formating it first.
If you don;t have a disk and have a .DMG, things get trickier…
Dec 4th, 2007 4:04 pm
lotza
thanks steve blue.
i do have an install disc. what do you mean by using Disk Utility on the install disk?
kinda confused.
thanks for your time.
lotza
Dec 4th, 2007 8:17 pm
Benchmark Media
Thank you for your assistance in this article.
I have created a .dmg file from the Install DVD (by choosing ‘read/write’ from the file-type menu). I have created partitions on my firewire drive, with all of the parameters you suggest in the article (GUID, 10GB, name=”Mac OS X Install DVD”).
PROBLEM: Upon restoring from the .dmg to the ‘Install’ partition, I am receiving error 16 (”Resource is busy.”)
Attempted solution: Re-doing everything except enabling the extra options for creating the .dmg file (this time I used ‘entire device’).
PROBLEM: error (2): No such file or directory. Tried again, error (16): (”Resource is busy.”)
Other notes: Each time, I could not drag the destination partition from the desktop into the restore ‘Destination’ field. I had to drag it from the list on the left column of Disk Utility.
Any solutions?
Thanks!
Dec 11th, 2007 10:57 am
tigeruser
Unfortunately the process outlined doesn’t work. IA few key steps were left out and error 2 and 16 abound for several people. f someone has a process that actually works could you please post a link here.
Dec 15th, 2007 12:29 am
Frakety Frak
@tigeruser: The process worked worked great for me on a PPC Mac mini. Are you sure you created the right kind of partition?
Dec 16th, 2007 3:46 pm
Mojo Toe
I have the same error. An error (16) occurred while copying. (Resource busy)
I’ve read that ejecting the External HDD, and then re-mounting it would fix the error. But after a few dozen tries it seems it does not. More Googleing.
Dec 17th, 2007 8:09 pm
Dennis Christopher
This worked for me–thanks. I tried also to restore my Leopard disk image file to a (dual layer) DVD, but my Tiger OS doesnt see it as a bootable volume, in particular Disk Utility does not regard it as a volume it can restore to (though I can burn the disk image onto the DVD from the Finder). Any idea how to do this?
Dec 20th, 2007 1:00 pm
Bill
I Followed your directions worked perfectly except i get the error “To install Mac OS X, please use the application provided on the Mac OS X installation disc.”
I also noticed a differnece in icons, in your disk utility you had the hard drive icon, mine i have the orange fire wire icon for external hard drives, i think that it wont let me boot b/c it’s not configured to be a bootable hard drive
Dec 23rd, 2007 12:38 am
javier
In addition to a very big thank you for this article,
2 things:
Firstly, I too was getting various combinations of errors (2 and 16)when trying to restore. I finally found that if I mounted the image by CTRL-clicking the icon and choosing “Mount It” from the bottom of the menu, I could then restore in Disk Utility without a problem.
Secondly, I suddenly started wondering whether more useful than having the install disk on an external drive would be having a bootable version of Leopard on an external drive? Is there something I’m missing here? What’s the advantage of having a bootable install disk rather than a bootable OS?
Thanks in advance.
Dec 25th, 2007 8:30 pm
Michael
can this be done with vista or xp too?
Dec 26th, 2007 7:54 pm
steveblue
Javier,
The advantage in having a Bootable Install is mainly for diagnostic and the obvious Install of OS X. It is fastest to install OS X over a Firewire 800 connection. Firewire 400 is faster than off the DVD. This is mainly for Macs with a broken Combo or Superdrive. Or perhaps you backed up the install disk to a DMG. This would mean you cannot burn it back to a standard DVD because of the 4.37GB restriction.
A Bootable OS could run alongside the Bootable Install on a properly partitioned Hard Drive. The advantage here would be the ability to continue work in Applications in the case of a Hard Drive failure in the Internal HD. Making Scheduled Backups with SuperDuper! is great for this purpose.
Dec 30th, 2007 11:15 am
steveblue
Michael,
No. Boot Camp is to be used exclusively for the partitioning and Install of Windows on a Mac.
Dec 30th, 2007 11:18 am
EMB
Any idea how to use the partition to update winxp/bootcamp?
Dec 31st, 2007 2:19 pm
iMC
This is one great article, I was able to follow the instructions and got it to work. Thanks Steve Blue for this awesome and informative tutorial………
Jan 1st, 2008 10:08 pm
indroo
this is the coolest trick installing leopard i ever seen. Thx bro!
Jan 15th, 2008 2:33 pm
MKO
Trying to instal Leopard from internal partitions.
I backed up my OS X 10.4.11 files on an external HDD. I also copied the Leopard .dmg file there, too. I set the disk startup to my Tiger 10.4 DVD. Restarted. Used the Tiger DVD to access Disk Utility. I partitioned my internal HDD into 2 volumes. One was 10GB and the other was the remainder of my internal HDD space. In preferences, I made sure the 10GB volume was GUID. I highlighted this volume in the left panel and clicked RESTORE. I mounted the Leopard.dmg. I dragged it to “SOURCE” and then I attempted to drag the 10GB drive to the “destination” but wasn’t able. Disk utility wouldn’t let me drag any of the drives to “destination” for that matter. This of course wouldn’t let me “restore” the 10GB drive as it was grayed out, or at least not clickable yet. I’m sort of in a catch 22 here. Any advice?
Jan 30th, 2008 12:06 pm
BillyWhizz
Further to Javiers comment
“I suddenly started wondering whether more useful than having the install disk on an external drive would be having a bootable version of Leopard on an external drive?”
I made a disk image as you said, and then had the same idea as Javier. Is it possible to install Leopard from the .dmg onto a partition on a FireWire external HD, and run it as an additional system to Tiger (which would be on internal HD) by booting between OS’s. Could I put Leopard onto a 50G partition on my external HD, and add and delete programs, as I can in Tiger on my internal HD? In other words, use it like a 2nd internal HD with a different OS? By this I don’t mean a “bootable clone” (as in SuperDuper), as I don’t beleive you can add data to the clone? Hope this makes sense.
Feb 4th, 2008 7:36 am
Steve Blue
Billy,
Your idea will work. But I would turn it around, clone Tiger to the external and use that as a backup in case the Leopard Install on the Internal isn’t to your liking. Then you can still use both OS.
Why do you want to do this?
Steve Blue
Feb 4th, 2008 8:36 am
cRuNcHiE
I too get the resource busy problem…
SOLUTION!:
If you get the “image needs to be scanned” error, double click .dmg to mount it.
But then you will notice if you have the .dmg selected as source it will give the resouce busy error!
When you mount the DMG, the mounted disk will show just under the DMG in the list, but as you may have noticed it doesnt let you drag this to the source box?
BUT it if you Ctrl click/right click on it and choose set as source, it works!
Feb 11th, 2008 3:59 am
MsRcAm
i did everything per the instructions, and when i restart it takes me back to my desktop every time. os x 10.5 wont boot from my fw drive! please help!!!!
Feb 16th, 2008 9:36 pm
yungwun
I did everything as stated. However when I restore the partitioned drive, it gives me a “restore failure - error 6 occurred while copying. (Device not configured).” I am not sure what else to do. Someone please help. Thanks
Feb 17th, 2008 10:20 pm
Hangman
Hi, Ive followed all your instructions fine but when I click on the “install Mac OS X” a window pops up telling me I cant install from this drive (my FW external HD)…?
What I noticed is that your screen grab shows a logo of a DVD on your installer window and mine shows and external HD logo. How did you get your Mac to recognize your external HD as a DVD?
Thanks
Mar 6th, 2008 9:36 am
Hangman
Ok, Ive done it, I was just trying to open the file om my external HD and not boot from that drive, duh!
Leotard: I installed from version 10.3.9 straight to Leopard and it worked fine, all my files are still there too…
Thanks 4 this guide blue!
Mar 7th, 2008 8:17 am
ZZZ
I assume given the timing that you’re trying to install the DMG file that Apple just published for Leopard. I had the same problem, and the solution was to Eject the disk image before trying to burn it or restore it to a disk partition, otherwise it is “busy” when you try to Restore it to a partition in Disk Utility to get the thing install-able.
Mar 18th, 2008 5:27 am
ALDRICH
after a few hours of googling around and a bunch of errors that everyone else got… its finally ‘copying blocks’
all i had to do was format my external to be Mac Extended
cheers for this article! =)
Mar 18th, 2008 9:11 am
Adam
Great guide, very precise, I used an external HD connected via USB, worked a treat! thankyou.
Apr 14th, 2008 4:05 am
dave
I am able to restore the image file (mine is a .iso) to a partition on my external. It is usb, but tiger recognizes it as a bootable volume. However, when I try to boot into the backed up install dvd image, I just get the apple loading screen thing forever. I have left it for an hour and nothing happens. Any ideas?
Apr 14th, 2008 11:54 pm
Ray
I have been trying to get this to work for a long time but ran into many problems and seem to have gotten a little help from here as well.
http://www.macosx-forum.com/?p=5
Thanks for you help steve!
Apr 23rd, 2008 2:20 pm
Olly
Hey, get this…. macbook, with a broken optical drive, a G5 (powerPC) with working drive. empty external usb drive.
i have a copy of leopard bought legit. Leopard installed properly on g5 then tried to install via target disk mode in both directions on the macbook and no luck. eventually went and deleted evrything in the hope that a new install might work better but it said there maybe a problem with my hd in macbook so bought a new replacement HD!!
found ur site and did as u instructed but still no luck. it seems that after the apple symbol and chime and the spinning icon it turns into a “no-entry” sign. so even after leaving it for ages nothing.
so now i have an expensive white piece of plastic which turns on to show me a question mark folder!! a dvd with no where to go, and an almost empty, bar the copy of leopard external hd. …. bargain.
help
Apr 29th, 2008 11:15 am
steveblue
Olly,
Try to run the Install Disk again, but instead of doing the Install, open Startup Disk and see if the drive w/ Leopard is there, then select it. It may just be the new OS is not mounted properly, thus producing the Folder w/ the question mark at startup.
Steve
May 8th, 2008 10:37 am
Olly
sorry confusion…
the no-entry sign appears when trying to load off the external hd, so i havent even got to the install part yet!
heard that target disc mode wont work from a g5 to macbook cos of the partion table problems, so meeting a friend with another macbook today to try if hers. if no luck i’ll be back!
May 14th, 2008 2:55 am
Olly
Finally managed to get it done via target disc mode. Thanks for all the help and informative page. some notes: USB hd’s with no power adapter dont work, because they switch off off for miliseconds during startup; PPC to Intel doesnt work, find similar computers to work between!
cheers
May 16th, 2008 4:06 am