Bootable external hdd

Question

Bootable external hdd

Hi,

I'm have a MacPro running Tiger at work, and have copied the entire hard drive to my external firewire hdd via SuperDuper, and made it bootable. When I take this external hdd home and try to boot from it on my 24" iMac running Leopard, it completely freezes up giving me that gray screen (the one with all the foreign languages) and tells me I need to hold down the power button to restart. I've tried it numerous times with the same result. Is this happening because you can't run a bootable copy of Tiger on a machine that has Leopard on it?

I figured I could just run my work computer at home on my iMac. I actually need to figure this out because I will be working from home 3 days a week and need to be able to access my files. I was planning on just booting both machines from the external hdd and working off of it, wherever I am, home or office.

Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeff

3.06 Ghz 24" iMac; 14 iBook G4 1.33, MacPro running Tiger (work), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 23, 2008 8:14 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Dec 23, 2008 8:24 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

The Mac models are different enough you can't rely on a clone from one Mac booting another.

You can run a bootable copy of Tiger on a machine that has Leopard on it, if the machine shipped before Leopard was released on October 26, 2007. However, that bootable copy of Tiger has to be an installation done from a similar machine of model and vintage. Otherwise it won't necessarily run reliably.

Mind you, you should carefully read the license agreement with the operating system. While that itself is not a technical restriction as far as what can boot, it is a legal one.

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Dec 23, 2008 8:25 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

For a further explanation of what machines can run what operating systems, see my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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Answer 3

Király

Level 6

10,025 points

Dec 23, 2008 8:47 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

Your iMac (3.06GHz Intel) cannot run Tiger. No Mac can boot an OS that is older than what it shipped with, because the older OS is missing the required hardware drivers for the newer Mac.

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Answer 4

Dec 23, 2008 9:30 AM in response to Király

Thanks guys for the explanations.

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Answer 5

Dec 23, 2008 9:53 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

BTW, just because your home machine won't boot Tiger doesn't mean you can't do pretty much what you want to do, depending on the licenses for the software you use. Boot your home computer with your work drive attached and just access your files and programs from that drive. I run any number of programs that reside on a Tiger disk in Leopard just fine. Then save your work on the external disk, or better, save in a folder which you keep synchronized between the internal disk and the external one.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 6

Dec 23, 2008 10:29 AM in response to Francine Schwieder

Thanks Fancine. I was going to just use my work drive and save everything on it, the problem is having 2 or more versions of the same projects in different places.

Can you elaborate more on the synced folder between the two drives? This sounds promising but I'm not sure what you are talking about.

Thanks.

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Answer 7

Dec 23, 2008 10:38 PM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

Hi Jeff, you just have a folder on the external drive that you have your work projects in, then you use a program such as Chronosync to keep that folder "in sync" with a folder on your home machine and your work machine. Although Chronosync does cost money, I like it because:

1. Once you buy it and get a license you can upgrade it forever without paying any more. Not sure how long I've had it, but it has been YEARS

2. You can install it on both machines with the same serial number

3. You can set it to suit yourself, for instance, I've told to NOT synchonize deletions, so my backup folders contain all the files I've worked on, even if some files have been trashed from the original folder

Take a look at their web site here:

http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html

You could even use it to keep something synced between an Intel and PPC machine. It is very versatile. I use it to sync my startup drive and my cloned backup, and also to keep my data files synced between my Leopard drive and my Tiger drive.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 8

Jan 13, 2009 10:16 AM in response to Király

A Brody/Király:

So if I upgrade my work Mac Pro to run Leopard, I should be fine using my external HDD as a bootable drive on both machines?

I really need to keep my files in order.

Thanks.

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Answer 9

Jan 15, 2009 6:29 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

Ok, so I upgraded my work Mac Pro to Leopard, used SuperDuper to copy my HDD to my external drive, made it bootable, and brought it home and my iMac (running Leopard) will still not boot from the external HDD. It gives me that gray screen that tells me I need to hold down the power button to reboot, in many languages.

This is getting very frustrating, as I really need to have my iMac boot from this external HDD. Is there something that I'm missing? I booted my work Mac Pro from this ext HDD yesterday and worked all day from it. I have it connected thru FW800.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks.

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Answer 10

Jan 15, 2009 7:27 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

Hi Jeff Finn (home)

"that gray screen that tells me I need to hold down the power button to reboot, in many languages.

That is a kernel panic. If you open Console and look at the CrashReport that should give the reason why you had a kernel panic.

Allan

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Answer 11

Jan 15, 2009 7:44 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Allan,

Can you tell me how to do that? I'm clueless.

Thanks.

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Answer 12

Jan 15, 2009 7:56 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Does this tell me anything useful?

Date/Time: 2008-12-21 18:42:39.746 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.5 (9F33)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC BADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN PROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000050
Crashed Thread: 3

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Answer 13

Jan 15, 2009 9:12 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

Can anyone make sense of this? I really need this to work.

Thanks.

Process: coreservicesd [43]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
Identifier: coreservicesd
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]

Date/Time: 2008-12-21 18:01:26.117 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.5 (9F33)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC BADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN PROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000074
Crashed Thread: 0

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 DesktopDB.service 0x007a8d4a BTInvalidateHint + 15
1 DesktopDB.service 0x007ad91a SetBTreeRecord + 173
2 DesktopDB.service 0x007a53b3 ServerDTDBSetComment_rpc + 283
3 DesktopDB.service 0x007a8700 XDTDBSetCommentrpc + 195
4 DesktopDB.service 0x007a7cf2 DesktopDB rpcserver + 117
5 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x936f004a scHandleMessage(mach msg_headert*, int ( )(machmsg_headert, mach msg_headert*), unsigned long*, unsigned char*) + 116
6 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x936f1178 SCServerSession::handleMessage(mach msg_headert*) + 472
7 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x936effa3 serverCallback(_CFMachPort*, void*, long, void*) + 361
8 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x917cd635 __CFMachPortPerform + 117
9 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x917f1908 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 3896
10 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x917f1d54 CFRunLoopRun + 84
11 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x936efb43 _CoreServicesServerMain + 795
12 coreservicesd 0x00001f6e 0x1000 + 3950

Thread 1:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90ee4f66 kevent + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90ee56f5 pthreadstart + 321
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90ee55b2 thread_start + 34

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0xffffffce ebx: 0x007a52a9 ecx: 0x00000088 edx: 0x00000070
edi: 0x00000087 esi: 0x00000302 ebp: 0xbffff278 esp: 0xbffff278
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010202 eip: 0x007a8d4a cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x00000074

Binary Images:
0x1000 - 0x1ffd coreservicesd ??? (???) <aeffa8f4fb078184e5b703c4a99fb0d2> /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
0x7a3000 - 0x7adffd DesktopDB.service ??? (???) <ec4c2ab48e202df2b5a2915fa5f711d9> /System/Library/CoreServices/SKPlugins/DesktopDB.service
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe2da53 dyld 96.2 (???) <14ac3b684fa5a31932fa89c4bba7a29b> /usr/lib/dyld
0x90003000 - 0x90003ffa com.apple.CoreServices 32 (32) <2fcc8f3bd5bbfc000b476cad8e6a3dd2> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/CoreServices
0x90105000 - 0x9013cfff com.apple.SystemConfiguration 1.9.2 (1.9.2) <8b26ebf26a009a098484f1ed01ec499c> /System/Library/Frameworks/SystemConfiguration.framework/Versions/A/SystemConfi guration
0x90794000 - 0x907bffe7 libauto.dylib ??? (???) <42d8422dc23a18071869fdf7b5d8fab5> /usr/lib/libauto.dylib
0x90df0000 - 0x90e77ff7 libsqlite3.0.dylib ??? (???) <6978bbcca4277d6ae9f042beff643f7d> /usr/lib/libsqlite3.0.dylib
0x90eb3000 - 0x91013ff3 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) <98fc91f31f185411ddc46d3225e9af55> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
0x9101e000 - 0x91022fff libmathCommon.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib
0x912e9000 - 0x91368ff5 com.apple.SearchKit 1.2.1 (1.2.1) <3140a605db2abf56b237fa156a08b28b> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SearchK it.framework/Versions/A/SearchKit
0x913a7000 - 0x913aefe9 libgcc_s.1.dylib ??? (???) <f53c808e87d1184c0f9df63aef53ce0b> /usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib
0x91429000 - 0x91509fff libobjc.A.dylib ??? (???) <7b92613fdf804fd9a0a3733a0674c30b> /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
0x91628000 - 0x916acfe3 com.apple.CFNetwork 339.5 (339.5) <c6565c13b0356e1d4bb99a68398d558b> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CFNetwo rk.framework/Versions/A/CFNetwork
0x91746000 - 0x91754ffd libz.1.dylib ??? (???) <5ddd8539ae2ebfd8e7cc1c57525385c7> /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib
0x9177f000 - 0x918b1fff com.apple.CoreFoundation 6.5.4 (476.15) <e2869ad6dc1dd289f21b305b0bea9158> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation
0x92a0d000 - 0x92b45ff7 libicucore.A.dylib ??? (???) <3d8fdaf51c2664ab620f1688203caf26> /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib
0x92bb0000 - 0x92c6afe3 com.apple.CoreServices.OSServices 226.5 (226.5) <2a135d4fb16f4954290f7b72b4111aa3> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/OSServi ces.framework/Versions/A/OSServices
0x9368b000 - 0x93965ff3 com.apple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 786.6 (786.6) <5682aae1e2cf5ae750d5a4dea98c084c> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CarbonC ore.framework/Versions/A/CarbonCore
0x93966000 - 0x939f2ff7 com.apple.LaunchServices 290 (290) <61af37aac50984d220dd176f777e3b72> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchS ervices.framework/Versions/A/LaunchServices
0x94f8c000 - 0x95017fff com.apple.framework.IOKit 1.5.1 (???) <324526f69e1443f2f9fb722cc88a23ec> /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit
0x95018000 - 0x9503cfff libxslt.1.dylib ??? (???) <ea5c8d349a3934ecc2b936f9cdfaba04> /usr/lib/libxslt.1.dylib
0x9507c000 - 0x950c5fef com.apple.Metadata 10.5.2 (398.22) <a6b676925dd832780daf991e79adfebd> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Metadat a.framework/Versions/A/Metadata
0x9529b000 - 0x952b9ff3 com.apple.DirectoryService.Framework 3.5.5 (3.5.5) <4b81063df189bc462f012a169474fcbc> /System/Library/Frameworks/DirectoryService.framework/Versions/A/DirectoryServi ce
0x95b4f000 - 0x95c30ff7 libxml2.2.dylib ??? (???) <d69560099d9eb32ba7f8a17baa65a28d> /usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib
0x95e9a000 - 0x95eb0fff com.apple.DictionaryServices 1.0.0 (1.0.0) <ad0aa0252e3323d182e17f50defe56fc> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Diction aryServices.framework/Versions/A/DictionaryServices
0x95ec6000 - 0x95f23ffb libstdc++.6.dylib ??? (???) <04b812dcec670daa8b7d2852ab14be60> /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib
0x95fb3000 - 0x95fe2fe3 com.apple.AE 402.2 (402.2) <e01596187e91af5d48653920017b8c8e> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/AE.fram ework/Versions/A/AE
0x9626f000 - 0x96276ffe libbsm.dylib ??? (???) <d25c63378a5029648ffd4b4669be31bf> /usr/lib/libbsm.dylib
0x96ddf000 - 0x96de7fff com.apple.DiskArbitration 2.2.1 (2.2.1) <75b0c8d8940a8a27816961dddcac8e0f> /System/Library/Frameworks/DiskArbitration.framework/Versions/A/DiskArbitration
0x96de8000 - 0x96fb6fff com.apple.security 5.0.4 (34102) <f01d6cbd6a0f24f6c13952ed448e77d6> /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security
0xfffe8000 - 0xfffebfff libobjc.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
0xffff0000 - 0xffff1780 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

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Answer 14

Jan 15, 2009 9:59 AM in response to Jeff Finn (home)

Jeff, it may be that you can not do what you want to do because the two machines are different and have different "innards" with system code specific to each machine--although I was once astonished when I accidently booted my iBook G4 off a clone drive of my G4 tower, so I won't say it is impossible. I really think the best solution is just have a data drive with a copy of your home folder, and synchronize your two machines home folders to that.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 15

Jan 15, 2009 10:21 AM in response to Francine Schwieder

The problem with what you are suggesting Francine, is that I don't have the time to wait for the machines to sync up. I need to grab the external HDD and boot the computer from it and get working. I can't wait for all the files to be copied over to the new machine.

I've booted from a LaCie external drive before. I just can't seem to do it on this iMac.

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