Booting from a different partition of an external hard drive

Further update: Favourites and personal files copied to partition 1 of the ext. HD from partition 2 (failed to boot) which was copied using CCC from oirginal "faulty" internal HD. So can now see all my emails, pics, favs, etc. when the iBook boots up from ext HD partition 1.

The remaining things to do are:

Update OS on ext. HD partition 1 to Mac 10.3.9
Install 1GB RAM card
Try to repair the internal HD using disc utility, failing this wipe and reformat and see if OS can be re-installed which will then boot. Failing this use it as a storage drive if poss. Failing this if it is farked, then replace with a new internal drive (Western Digital) which I have ordered from Amazon.

Questions:


What is the most recent OS system that the iBook G4 will be able to run? Is OS X 10.3.9 the limit of it's capabilities? 10.4?

To replace the internal HD, taking the casing of the ibook G4 apart, which hex/cross head screws do I have to undo? There are what appears 3 hex screws on the underside (1 in the middle and 2 along the back under the hinge for the screen), 3 cross head screws in the battery compartment and worringly around the each of the base pads 3 holes which look like they might need a special 3 pronged tool to unscrew them?

And once the casing is off, how easy is it to get the old internal HD out and the new one in?

Apologies as my questions now depart from my thread title.

Message was edited by: AlAlexander

The post just arrived. An extra 1GB of RAM has now been installed, total 1.25GB. It runs a bit quicker. Whooo hoooo!

Reading Burdo's nearby post about what OS systems the iBook G4 can run, it seems I could upgrade it to 10.4.x?. The processor in mine is a 1.07GHz PoweriPC G4, unfortunately not the 1.42GHz one.

Reason why the laptop wouldn't boot from the external portable drive was it was probably the OS which was corrupted/gone down so when this was clonecopied onto the new external drive the fault was taken with the copy. Solution was to re-install the OS from the recovery disc on the other partition of the new drive and copy only the library folders with favs etc onto the re-installed OS on the other partition.

Update.

hopefully this will be of help to those of you with iBook G4s that have also had the hard drive fail.

After 10 days of ordering numerous IDE/PATA enclosures from Amazon and being supplied with ones which are NOT compatible with the IDE pins of the HD that the Mac iBook G4 takes I thought I was going insane as I wanted to test whether the replacement Western Digital Scorpio 250GB IDE drive was actually ok and NOT dead meaning I could point the finger at the Mac.

This evening having drawn a line under either the HD in an enclosurer route or indeed a working internal drive for my iBook, I thought what the **** strip it all down again take the original HD out which I had previously put back and now totally dead, and again re-fit the new replacement Western Digital Scorpio drive hoping it would fire into life. I wasn't hopeful.

Got the iBook back together, didn't bother with the external casing screws just in case I had to strip it again ............ fired it up from the external portable Iomega 500Gb drive and this icon comes up "there is already a disc installed - ignore, cancel or what ever I cannot remember. Anyway I clicked "ignore" and let the laptop fire up fully. I go to disk utility and there it is - the Western Digital 250GB. Yeahhhh!!!!!!!!!

What I did this time re-fitting this hard drive was to get down on my knees and pray, plus I might have uttered some profanities and threats at my iBook plus I fettled some plugs. The latter seems to have done the trick. So now I have more storage space than I know what to do with. I'll install the OS updates tomorrow onto the external Iomega hard drive I am currently booting from. Then clone/copy this onto partition 1 of the new internal hard drive which I have partitioned 3 ways - approx 80GB each. I am not a pro so don't know if this ideal or wise, but it is a start. Yay!! I am sooooo pleased.

So people there is light at the end of the tunnel if your iBook hard drive packs up.

To summarise.

I have:
1) Using the OS recovery discs created a bootable drive from my new Iomega portable 500GB hard drive.

2) Recovered the current OS and files from the faulty original internal hard drive using CarbonCopy Cloner and installed this on the new external Iomega portable drive (which has Firewire 400 and 800 ports - important) from which you will need to boot from while partitioning the new internal drive.

3) I will now CarbonCloneCopy the working bootable drive on the Iomega external drive back to the NEW internal drive and then wipe the external drive and partition it more than 2 partitions that I set at the outset say 5 partitions of 80-90GB each or what ever I decide when doing the partition.

4) I have increased the RAM from 250MB to 1.25GB buy adding a Kingston 1GB card to the slot uner the keyboard. This is really really easy! It took all of 10 seconds, well a little more, and the iBook is so much quicker now.

Total costs (All in GB Pounds Sterling):

Iomega portable drive with firewire 400/800 ports and leads. £66
RAM Kingston 1GB £45
Replacement internal Western Digital Scorpio IDE 250GB hard drive £64.
Screwdrivers including Torx £16.50
Total : £191.50

Various enclosures totalling about £25, but which have all been returned to Amazon as they were incompatible despite the descriptions stating they were.

Anyway I am cockahoop that I don't have to spend any more time dismantling and rebuilding my frikin' iBook save for using it as it should be. The Youtube videos on how to replace a hard drive in a Mac iBook G4 by Smalldog.com were really really helpful. I couldn't have done it without their very thorough step by step instructions, plus she's a babe ...... Thanks, many thanks.

That's about it folks. There is life in those iBook G4s yet.

Thanks to all those who offered help and advice.

Happy fettling ;@)

Alex

A babe .......... very easy on the eye. ;@)