Unable to boot external hard drive

Question

Unable to boot external hard drive

I have a PowerBook G4 17" 1.67 ghz and I am trying to install Mac OS X 10.5 on it using an external Iomega hard drive (there currently is no Superdrive in the PowerBook - I have one coming). The PowerBook recognizes the external HD and the "gear" runs for a bit and then the machine restarts. This happens each time it attempts to run off the external HD: recognizes the external HD, Apple symbol and "gear", then restart.

Any suggestions on how to overcome this issue? Many thanks.

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Aug 20, 2011 6:04 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2011 6:27 AM in response to markfromballston spa

By restart do you mean from the PB's own internal drive, not the external HD?

Where did the 10.5 on the external drive come from and how did it get there?

When trying to boot from the external how are you choosing it? Via System Preferences/holding down the option key at boot?

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Answer 2

Aug 20, 2011 6:45 AM in response to Michael Wasley

The PB restarts, but does not go to the internal HD as it is just formatted - there is no OS on it.

It came from a DVD and I copied the image locally to my iMac using Disk Utilities and then put it on the external HD using the Restore feature in Disk Utilities. I have also tried it using SuperDuper, as that has a visible check point to me that shows that the drive is bootable and I had gotten an error on Disk Utilities at the end about allocation of memory, which I understand is common. I cannot recall for sure the exact sequence, but that is the general approach. It was trial and error for a bit.

The external HD is recognized at start up when connected (via Firewire). However, I have also tried to initiate the install sequence via Options. It is recognized, select it and it exhibits the behavior referenced above.

I have another PB (15" 1.67 ghz) and have attempted to see what happens there and I get the exact same behavior. I suspect it is an issue the the external HD.

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Answer 3

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Aug 20, 2011 1:57 PM in response to markfromballston spa

Some older external drives used FireWire bridge chipsets that were not bootable. I have no idea whether yours is one of them, but that's a possibility.

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