How to update an external drive from 10.5 to 10.5.8 using the combo updater, without rebooting?

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How to update an external drive from 10.5 to 10.5.8 using the combo updater, without rebooting?

I have an external drive to which I have intalled a fresh copy of 10.5.4 from a universal installer. I would like to upgrade the the installation on the external drive to 10.5.8 using the combo updater (or another method if one exists) so that I can boot from it.

However, I no longer have machines that can run 10.5.4, they all need a higher version of 10.5. Therefore, I cannot boot into the 10.5.4 to run the combo updater. If I could run the combo updater without rebooting into the 10.5.4 partition, I could then boot from the updated external drive partition into 10.5.8

So is it possible to update 10.5.4 to 10.5.8 without rebooting into the 10.5.4 partition?

Thanks,

Mike

Posted on Sep 10, 2012 7:33 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

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Sep 10, 2012 10:34 AM in response to mcheck

Hi Mike,

Have you tried running the Installer & see if it gives you a choice of drives to update?

Possible other solution...

Best way to get an exact bootable copy of your old drive to the new one is with Carbon Copy Cloner...

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

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Answer 2

mcheck Author

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Sep 10, 2012 11:04 AM in response to BDAqua

Running the installer in any other operating system, other than 10.5.x results in the OS complaining that the ComboUpdater needs to be run from 10.5 booted system. So that is a bit of a catch 22.

Good suggestion on CCC, unfortunately, I am installing from scratch to get a system that will run 10.5.8 on a machine that has already been updated to Lion. I need to run 10.5 to run some older software that does not work with Lion or Snow Leopard.

Mike

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Answer 3

BDAqua

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Sep 10, 2012 11:36 AM in response to mcheck

Ah, so you're noted booted from 10.5.8!

So, you don't have access to any 10.5.8 install?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

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Sep 10, 2012 11:38 AM in response to mcheck

AH... wait! 🙂

Get Pacifist...

http://www.charlessoft.com/

then force install to the external from the 10.5.8 Combo PKG!

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Answer 5

mcheck Author

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Sep 10, 2012 11:59 AM in response to BDAqua

Nope I dont have access to 10.5.8 install disks. Is that something that I can find?

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Answer 6

mcheck Author

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Sep 10, 2012 12:00 PM in response to BDAqua

Pacifist is perfect. Thanks. Though I haven't tried it yet, it looks like it will do the job, so I am marking this solved. Thank you.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

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Sep 10, 2012 12:27 PM in response to mcheck

Great news, thanks, & please do report the outcome! 🙂

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Answer 8

mcheck Author

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Sep 10, 2012 1:29 PM in response to BDAqua

Well, it didn't quite work as expected. Forcing the ComboUpdater to install 10.5.8 with Pacifist was good, but the installer will not finish, according to the logs, because the 10.5.4 on that external drive has never been started up. It is looking to modify the BaseSystem and no able to find something because it hangs at the end, while trying to do post-flight.

So again trying to find a machine to boot a 10.5.4 install...

Thanks!

Mike

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Answer 9

BDAqua

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Sep 10, 2012 2:48 PM in response to mcheck

Did you try repairing the drive with Disk Utility yet?

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