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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Installing Mac OS X 10 on external drive

jcom7 - Sep 16, 2007 - 1:02 am

I have a G4 running 10.2.8. I need to repair the hard drive using Norton's, but need to boot from an external drive in order to effectively repair. When trying to install my original software, the new external drive is unavailable to install operating system on. Reason given, that " Disk 4s10 is not bootable because there is no firmaware" I tried installing firmware updates via Apple's download site but every update I tried requested prior firmware. This is a new drive formatted via Apple's Disk Utility as HFS with journaling

The operating system install disks I have that came with the computer, are 10.2.1. I have also tried updating with 10.3.9, to no avail. How can I install the operating system so I can boot from the external drive and run Norton's Disk Doctor to effectively repair the Boot volume?

Thanks

nhmac - Sep 16, 2007 - 8:38 am

First of all, I would highly, highly recommend you use something else besides Norton. Norton used to be good in system 7-9, but I manage lists full of techies and basically no one recommends Norton any more, as it often causes more problems than it solves.

Have you tried booting from the system install disk and using Disk Utility? What is wrong with your disk to start with?

--Beverly

jcom7 - Sep 16, 2007 - 12:04 pm

Thanks for the reply. I tried using the disk utility to no avail so far. It verified the disc but did not repair anything. Norton's detected several major corruptions it could not repair on the internal drive as a boot volume, thus the need for an external boot drive. I tried booting from the original OS X 10.2 disk via the control panel selection but it always comes up in the installer mode and when I try to reboot by by reselecting it as the startup disc under the installer menu, it reverts to the installer unless I select a different disk like the internal hard drive.

Overall, the system had become very sluggish and slow to respond to commands. I examined the internal hard disk with Norton's anti virus twice but it did not find any problems. The hard drive appears to be full but I know there is not that much information on it, hence the check for a virus.

I would still like to install the operating system on the external drive, for the purpose of having an additional drive and backup drive since it has a much larger capacity than the internal drive.

I was hoping to boot from the new external hard drive with as close to the existing internal operating system version on it and then repair the internal drive. Once having done this I wanted to install OS X 10.3.9 on both drives.

Any suggestions as to getting the operating system installed on the external drive would be appreciated. I have both OS X 10.2 and 10.3.9 on original install discs.

Thanks for your help

nhmac - Sep 16, 2007 - 12:59 pm

If the hard drive is full that is a major problem. How big is the drive, and how much free space is left on it?

There is close to zero likelihood that this has anything to do with a virus.

What type of external drive do you have, and how is it connected to the Mac?

Booting from a CD or DVD has to be the easiest way to deal with the problem in the short run. When the system disk comes up in the installer mode, you can boot from it and then select Disk Utility from the drop down menu.

--Beverly

nhmac - Sep 16, 2007 - 1:21 pm

Also: what app exactly are you referring to when you say "Norton's"? Antivirus? Or a disk management utility?

DiskWarrior is the only disk utility I would recommend for this kind of issue besides Disk Utility. Disk Utility you already have, and DiskWarrior costs $ but is definitely worth it in my opinion. It still doesn't sound as if you have run disk utility from your original disks, telling it to repair the boot disk, so if that's so I would recommend you do that first.

If you really want to use whatever Norton you have - well, first of all what version of Norton do you have?

--Beverly

jcom7 - Sep 16, 2007 - 2:00 pm

The internal hard drive is a 20gig drive. Get info says all but about 1gig is used which can't be. The new external drive is a Western Digital My Book Mac formatted with 320gigs. I would like to have this as an additional bootable drive but the Mac OS installer indicates that the system can not be installed on this disc. It shows what looks like a red exclamation mark through the symbol of the drive. The only error I can find relates to not having firmware installed.


I have Norton's Utilities including Disk Doctor and the Anti Virus program Ver 1.2 (124).

I used Disk utility, chose First Aid under tab menus, clicked verify disk permissions (only available choice). "Disk First Aid cannot verify or repair the startup disk or repair a write-protected disk..... In order repair or verify the startup disk, please boot from the MAC OS X install CD...

Only verify/reapair disk permissions available for the boot disk/volume.

It also states that the, "startup disk was verified , and repaired if necessary at boot time."

I mentioned the problem with trying to boot form the installer disc earlier.

nhmac - Sep 16, 2007 - 9:10 pm

Here is how to boot from your install disk to run Disk Utility:

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.


--Beverly