Is Leopard bootable from external FW drive?

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Is Leopard bootable from external FW drive?

I was wondering if I can boot into 10.5 from an external FW HD? I am wanting to have the option of booting to 10.5 for a specific need AND keep my dual boot capability for 10.4/9.2.2. I was going to install 10.5 on a second internal HD, but it is a SCSI drive and does not show up as available for installing 10.5. An option I have is a spare 20 Gb drive I could hook up internally and install to that. The only thing I would be putting on either drive is the OS - nothing else. Can anyone offer thoughts on how best to proceed and/or problems with either scenario (ext HD install if possible to boot or internal HD)? Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.

G4 MDD, Mac OS X (10.4.11), M-Audio Delta 44, A1038 Display

Posted on Mar 20, 2013 7:15 PM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Mar 20, 2013 8:42 PM in response to THX1136

Hi, yes, it is quite possible, but depends on Chipset in the external enclosure, in my experience the last year, recent FW chipsets are not bootable on PPC Macs, but find an older one & you'll be golden if it's Mac compatible.look for an Oxford chipset.

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Answer 2

Mar 21, 2013 8:33 AM in response to THX1136

My G4 has its internal drive split into 8 partitions with a range of different OSs for various purposes. It is sometimes possible to partition a Leopard drive without reinstalling the OS. Disk Utility rarely lets you do any harm without warnings - make sure you read its messages very carefully.

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