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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Can't Install MAC OS X To My LaCie ext.

Steve Hyland - Oct 25, 2006 - 5:02 pm

I tried to install the software that came with my iMac 2GHz Intel Core Duo.

When I get to the point where I select a destination it says "it can't install to that drive". Do I have to erase the LaCie Drive first?

Steve

zek - Oct 26, 2006 - 12:12 pm

Hi, a bit more info would help eliminate some things. Is it firewire or USB? How much free space is there? Does it not give any more info as to why it can't install to that drive?

Also, do a 'get info' on the mounted drive you want to install to, and see if the permissions are correct. (Should say you can read and write).

That's all I can think of for now. You could run repairs in disk utility too, just to be sure.

Andy

Steve Hyland - Oct 26, 2006 - 2:50 pm

It's a USB and I haven't used it at all. I am going to use it as my backup HD. It has 238 GB available. Get Info does say I can Read and Write to it. I ran Disk Utility and Tech Tool Pro and there is no problems coming up. No it doesn't give any informationas to why I can't install tto it.

Steve

zek - Oct 27, 2006 - 2:59 am

OK, I read the comments too so no need to go into that. I'd recommend carbon copy cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
because it is free and will do incremental backups after the initial one (which might take a long time). Also the instructions and website are very informative. I learnt a lot there.

I thought the booting from USB had been resolved now; apparently not, but I am asking around because some people were claiming to have done it. Will report back if this is true.
Andy

zek - Oct 27, 2006 - 7:03 am

deleted--seems what I said only applied to powerpc. Sorry
Andy

Steve Hyland - Oct 27, 2006 - 7:03 pm

Can I use the LaCie Drive as it is already formatted to backup my data to? What about Apple Backup or the LaCie backup or Retrospect 5 all of which I have. Which do you recommend?

zek - Oct 28, 2006 - 1:56 am

Yes, you have read and write permissions. Re-format it first just to be sure (if you aren't) that it is in the correct format. Disk Utility will tell you if it is.
It's a matter of opinion. I recommended carbon copy cloner because it makes the disk bootable, which a straight copy won't. I'm still not convinced this is impossible. On the page http://rentzsch.com/tidbits/intelbas...ncompatibility
Dan Knight says: "You can boot off USB drives on Intel-based Macs. This opens the world of USB 2.0-only drives to Macs users as bootable backup devices." but unfortunately doesn't elaborate. I've seen numerous stories of people being able to boot from a cloned usb drive on G5 macs too. I'd say give it a try because it would be really handy in case of internal drive problems to have all your tools available, albeit a bit slow.

If you're not bothered about booting, I found the Lacie backup utility good, retrospect was too much for me. The only one I know for sure makes a bootable backup is CCC, check your docs with the others, they might too, but it is not just a straight copy that will do it.

I think I'll re-open this in case someone with an intel mac has ideas.

Andy

Steve Hyland - Oct 28, 2006 - 9:29 am

Well, I double checked with System Profiler and it is a FireWire after all. However when I tried to install it gave me this response, "Mac OS X cannot install to this drvie it isn't a Startup Disk". Sorry for the confusion. Now what?

DeltaMac - Oct 28, 2006 - 3:20 pm

If you want to simply copy files to that external drive, there should be nothing preventing you from doing that. It sounds like you are trying to RESTORE to that external drive (so that you could boot your iMac from that), and you can't boot from that drive, The older Apple Partition will not boot an Intel Mac, You must erase he drive and format with the GUID partition scheme (It's in the partition options) That's why you can't select it as a destination.
If you still want to do that, you must choose the option to erase the drive first. Then you should be OK!
-Dale

zek - Oct 28, 2006 - 3:26 pm

Right, if it is definitely firewire then it should definitely work. It sounds like the installer you're using might just be an upgrade, or something like that. It sounds like it is looking for an already existing system. Make sure you have selected to do a full installation. Disks that come with the computer often have an option to 'restore' and if that is selected, it would look for something to restore, not find it and return a message like that.

Steve Hyland - Oct 29, 2006 - 9:59 am

I do use the full install, it doesn't give me a choice. It gave me the same response even after ersaing the disk with Disk Utility. "Mac OS X cannot install to this drvie it isn't a Startup Disk" Now What?

zek - Oct 29, 2006 - 10:45 am

I'd suggest clone your entire drive to it, then see if you can start up from it. I'll open the ticket again cos I am baffled. Are you sure it's not a usb-AND-firewire disk, but you've got it hooked up via usb?
Andy

Steve Hyland - Oct 30, 2006 - 7:52 am

I don't know how to check if it's firewire that's set up as a USB. I am physically disabled so my nephew is the one who hooked up this iMac for me last July.

How do I clone the entire drive?

zek - Oct 30, 2006 - 10:42 am

First (if you haven't already) get carbon copy cloner from
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
The instructions are very thorough and clear, but they've made the thing very easy compared to doing it all manually.

I think if it shows up in the 'about this mac' window as firewire it probably is plugged into the firewire bus. I just unplugged mine and put it in the usb port just to make sure and it now shows as usb.

Once the clone is completed, have a look at the startup disk preference pane. It should show there as having a bootable system. then you can tell it to start up from that disk.

(You could try just holding down the alt (option) key during startup, I'm not sure if the intel macs still let you choose in this way,or if it is just an open firmware feature on the older macs. That, if it still works, gives you the choice of disks to start from without having to change your usual settings in system prefs.)

If it works you can just go back to the preference pane and set it back to the internal disk. Hope it does!
Andy



Hope it works, and good luck. Report back if no joy.

Steve Hyland - Oct 31, 2006 - 8:42 am

I used CCC last night. I opened up that disk and there is just one file in there. It's named "Freebird_asr.dmg" and it's not listed in my startup disk prefrence pane. Maybe I did the wrong type of cloning. I've never used CCC before so I may have had the settings wrong. I'll try another clone after I hear back from you.

zek - Oct 31, 2006 - 10:03 am

Ok, it sounds like it worked but you had it set in the preferences to create a disk image. .asr is 'apple software restore'. So you could probably use software restore on a system disk to restore the whole thing. I've never done that but I think a usable clone is better anyway.

Start up CCC, select source and target, then click on preferences, The only things that should be checked are 'make bootable' and for later backups, 'synchronize source to target' (won't do anything this time but next time it will save writing everything again, just the changed files) and 'delete items not on source' (this one's a bit confusing, it will not delete anything already on the target disk with a different name, just the things that were deleted from the source disk since your last backup). If you hover the cursor over the writing, it tells you this.

Unless there is loads of space on your target disk, you'll probably need to delete the .asr image.

Sorry this is so messy, but once you get used to doing backups it will be fine.

Sounds like we're nearly there now. Shame the remote desktop/talk thing isn't working on macosx.com, it would make things a lot easier!
Andy

Steve Hyland - Nov 2, 2006 - 8:55 am

I used CCC as you suggested and it worked. My only concern is whether or not it coppied my Documents folder to the LACIE Disk? I don't see them in that HD. Now I'm going to set up CCC to do incremental backups. Thanks.

BTW How can I change/edit widgets so I can get the weather in my city to show up rather than Cupertino, CA?

zek - Nov 2, 2006 - 1:01 pm

Great, glad it worked. You documents folder is under your username in the /users folder, so it should have copied everything in that folder. You can check easily enough though, using command f to get the find utility up. Near the top of that window you'll have some locations alreadt, like servers, computer, home... click on 'other' you'll get a list of mounted volumes. Make sure only the lacie is checked, then type documents in the search box. If it's there, just have a look in it to make sure.

Or you could go through the file hierarchy in the volume itself: [lacie drive]/Users/Your name/ - Documents will be in there. Folder and volume sizes is another way to check. I think backup paranoia is very healthy!

All the best
Andy

Oh, the weather widgets, I'm not sure, the one I use seems to be UK and Ireland only. Suggest start another ticket.

Steve Hyland - Nov 3, 2006 - 8:31 am

Everything is where it should be. Thanks for all the help!