Can powermac g5 boot from USB?

Thats a shame, man! That superdrive is a great little drive for what I use it for and its fast, boots up Tiger and Leopard in no time.. But, alas.. You got the 100.00 OWC external which is nice also.. just bulky. As for the 3TB Barracuda, did you format the drive in Disk Utility as Apple Partition or APM?

Remember, these drives come pre-formatted for PC's, so you need to format it for Mac using PowerPC's APM partition scheme. 2.7TB sounds like the norm as some space is reserved for the operating system, so no problem there. I believe the Apple Partition Map can only accept up to 3TB.. 4TB wouldn't work as you would have to partition it.

devalias also called: device alias - shows what hardware devices are on your logic board.. USB,USB1,USB2, etc.. mean the USB ports.. ud is short for USB DEVICE.. and this is what your would find in order to boot the PowerPC using USB. You also have USB on the OWC External which you ordered.. Try this:

Try to boot from USB when you get it.. Hold down OPT+COMMAND+O+F to get into Open Firmware. Next type "devalias" and search for "ud". Once you find ud with your Leopard or Tiger disk in the drive.. type:

boot ud:,\\:tbxi - This will start to boot from USB.

easy.

Yes, barely.. Just got back from fighting in Ukraine. AZOV Battalion is tough, but they train you and I had to come back for my son. I still have USA Citizenship, but if things in the USA don't change, may go back 🙂

As for my G5, PowerBook G4, etc.. I am just glad to help around here when I can..

And yes, I also used the command "boot ud:,\\:tbxi and USB works perfectly on the PowerPC Macs. Even the Pismo works this way to boot USB, but slow.

Yes, the G5 can boot from USB fine. Hold down Option/Alt and select the USB drive.

https://support.apple.com/kb/TA25908

I've done it myself with my G5. However, for some reason it doesn't appear in the Startup Disk control panel of Leopard.

A G5 as mentioned above can boot from a USB drive provided it the following conditions are met.

1. The image is restored properly through Disk Utility to the drive.

2. The USB Drive is set up as Apple Partition Map.

3. The USB drive is USB 2.0 certified, and at least 8GB in size.

I personally use my USB drive to boot a G5 whenever it needs a fresh Leopard install.

Hi, I have a dual 2.0 and I'm trying to install Leopard from Tiger 10.4.11, but my optical "doesn't read it." I went to Best Buy and got this LG USB op drive (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LG+-+8x+External+USB+2.0+Double-Layer+DVD%26%23177%3 BRW/CD-RW+Drive/5584219.p?id=1218666587572&skuId=5584219), but it says it needs 10.5.4 or higher to run it: a catch 22, as I need it to install Leopard, which I need in order to run the drive to install Leopard, ad infinitum.

I tried anyway and I saw the big black X and folder, but when I restarted it to load it, the same thing came up again and again: "restart to load" Now I'm looking for an internal DL optical drive that will read this Leopard disk and even Mac tech people at the store threw their hands up. Really??!! You don't know one single dual layer optical drive upgrade that will work in a G5??!! Bullcrap. That just means Apple doesn't make one, so you don't care. I'm so ******. But I'm trying to install their software!!! And if I can't, then I have to return Leopard! No sale.

Anyway, rant over. Now I want to try what you suggest, except I don't know how to 1 or 2 or check for 3. Can you help PLEASE???! THANK YOU!!

How about a Firewire optical for the G5?

Firewire should be fine. 🙂

Could you PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE suggest a model (with dual layer) that will work in Tiger 10.4.11, in order to load Leopard 10.5.1? THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRF82SD24S/

Firewire is the only externally bootable solution. PowerPC computers cannot boot from USB reliably, some can't boot it at all without altering OpenFirmware.

BD Aqua and BitterCreek: thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Great to hear, good luck & please let us know the outcome! 🙂

You have the same LG Superdrive I use.. To boot from it, you need to go into open firmware.. Since this is the only USB device connected to your Power Mac.. do a devalias and look for "ud".

Type this: boot ud:,\\:tbxi - Voila! Tiger will boot up.. I have done this just recently and can vouch that it works perfectly..

I have the same LG drive as the OP does.. and I have no problems booting Tiger, Leopard, even Snow Leopard install screen with this drive.. all I do is go into open firmware and type: boot ud:,\\:tbxi and thats it.

Thanks romko23, but I took it back and ordered the firewire one that BDaqua suggested, as I only have one USB port left and no room for cards anyway. I'm also under the impression that firewire 800 is as fast as or even faster than USB (is that true?)

My new problem is the 3TB Barracuda I just bought. It shows up on "about this mac" w/ 2.7 TB (I realize this part is not a problem), but there is no icon for it on the desk top- no way put stuff in it. I don't even know if this means that it still needs to be formatted or not, as it does read it in "about this mac" under "Serial ATA."

I don't know what you mean by "devalias." I just want to get Leopard on there- hopefully straight onto the new HD, so I can just migrate from my two other HDs. My hope is that Digital Performer will run more smoothly and maybe even faster. I do have 6.5GB RAM.