[HOWTO] - Make a Mac OS X Utilities Boot CD

[fryke]

There's a utility called 'Boot CD' which offers just that. You can get it from http://www.charlessoft.com/ - it's free.

The application, once started, asks for the name of the CD, size of the CD-R you're going to write on and the RAM-Disk the booting OS should create.

Then you can add some (not too many) utilities. I usually add Apple's own harddisk utilities, the Terminal application and any harddrive utilities I've bought, such as DiskWarrior, Norton etc.

BootCD then creates a disk image that you can burn either in Toast, DiskCopy (Jaguar) or DiskUtility (Panther).

ATTENTION: BootCD 0.5.4 is not yet Panther compatible.

You can then boot from this new CD and use the disk utilities to perform tests & reparation on your harddrive.

[bobw]

Carbon Copy Cloner will also make a bootable System Cd.

Disk Utility, in your Utilities Folder, will also make a bootable CD.

[pedz]

Bob, could you give more details on how to make a bootable CD with Disk Utility. I could not find anything in the Help or the menus.

[bobw]

You need to use one of the applications mentioned to make a bootable CD.

[ScottW]

I used BootCD and it worked fine on Panther, the latest version does. Granted the original post in this thread is over a year old.

[FLASH1296]

Yes, the current version of BootCD is Panther compatible. A word of warning. The bootable CD's will require you to hold down the 'C' key upon booting for anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. YES, you read correctly. Do not assume that you are NOT booting, as you are simply doing so at a glacial pace. It is absurdly easy to over-estimate elapsed time. Take a peek at an (external) clock before you attempt to boot. Also I suggest that you thorougly read the documentation. In past versions you had to log in as "root" with a password of "bootcd" but I think that the recent versions are set to auto-login.

[ljocampo]

I just read today that the latest version of BootCD breaks 10.3.9 so if your using .9 beware, or at least verify my memory first.

[Slydude]

Before you try anything with Carbon Copy Cloner under Tiger beware. I have seen numerous reports recently that it is not yet Tiger safe. Hopefully that will come son. It's one of my most used utilities