Jack Lear Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 Hi, I've read up on all the different ways to install and run OS X86 on various set-ups and having seen the problems some people have had, have decided the best way to install my Apple OS X86 Dev Kit would be onto a USB 2.0 HD; I've decided to try it on my HP Compaq nx6125 notebook, because it is SSE3 with bootable USB. Obviously a secondry internal HD isn't really an option with a Notebook, and I don't fancy partitioning my HD on a computer I use for work so a USB HD is my best bet. I read the tutorial here and I'd be using a Freecom USB/Firewire drive - this one in particular. So, seeming as this is both firewire and USB capable, does this mean I can simply turn my Notebook on with my Generic Installation DVD in the drive, and my HD in the USB port, follow the instructions on the GUI, format the USB disc and install straight to there, and subsquently boot from the HD plugged into my USB? The questions I'm really interested in having answered are; Does the Installer recognise Firewire devices at the point of install? And am I right in assuming I can manage this without altering anything on my notebook's internal 80gig HD? Will it config itself to my Notebook's hardware okay if installed on an external disc? Could I partition my USB HD's 160gig space before the install, using the GUI installer, say a 120/40 split so that I have 40gig portable Windows storage? And finally will patching it be simple? Has anyone actually done this with any success? It seems like a fantastic idea to me; having fully functioning laptop with what is essentially a mac-in-the-box that I can plug in when the need be with and keep the function of portable storage for Windows. I know I've asked alot - so any answers would be great. I've done my reading, and I'm pretty sure this would work - I'm really just looking for confirmation from knowledgable folk (or slap for getting it so totally wrong, if that be the case!) I know some of the questions are dumb, and I'm pretty sure I know the answer to the more obvious ones, but I really would like to be sure before I fork out for a USB/Firewire 160gig drive. It's a bargain if it will work as I hope (Bootable Mac OSX86 with 100gig+ of HD space, 40+ gig of Portable storage for Windows and nothing altered on my internal HD), but if for some reason one of these things wouldn't work out, I'm best off just forgeting it and running a SSE2 patched version on my old HP Pavillion ZE4400 and being done with it. Thanks, Jack Lear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaddMan79 Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 Hi Jack, I think that it may be possible to install/run OSX to external hard disk. From my experience, I seem to recall seeing my external drive detected by disk utility during the installation process. Not sure... it was a late night... I may have been seeing things. Personally, I've never encountered a BIOS that supported bootstrapping a Firewire device. So, you may have more luck with USB. Why not give it a shot? Attach your external drive and boot-up the DVD and see what is detected. Just as long as your BIOS supports bootstrapping a USB device and OSX can detect your drive, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Just to be on the safe side, remove your internal hard disk to be absolutely sure you aren't accidentally formatting anything you don't want -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Lear Posted November 26, 2005 Author Share Posted November 26, 2005 Cool, I figured it wouldn't be a problem. I'm at Uni at the moment, and plan on giving it a shot over the break (15th Dec - 3nd Jan); I'll let you know how it goes. I miss my Mac when I'm at Uni, and I didn't have the funds to buy a Powerbook (the Mac mini wasn't really an option because of the cost/portability of the peripherals) so I'm stuck with a couple of HP Notebooks (NX6125 and Pavillion ze4400; AMD Turion 64/Althlon XP respectively - both clock at 1.8ghz). They do the job nicely, however having Keynotes for my presentations and ProTools/Garageband/Adobe Audition here with me at Uni would beat the pants off having to use Powerpoint for my presentation and AcidPro/CoolEdit for music recording. Has anyone that posts here actually managed it on a USB HDD? Cheers, Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrrjrr Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 I have been trying in VMware. I made a virtual machine that has access to my internal IDE hard drive, and also a Firewire hard drive, and also an USB hard drive. When I get to the point of selecting an install destination in OSX, none of the drives show, so I go into the Disk Utility to prepare one. The only drive presented for me to work with is the internal IDE drive. It may be that VMware is the problem because it sets the Firewire and USB drives up as SCSI devices, and maybe this OSX will only work with an IDE drive at the installation stage? Another piece of info that might help. The boot order options in my BIOS list "internal hard disk", "CD/DVD", "network card" and "USB storage device". Firewire is not in the list, so I guess the Firewire drive is not available on this machine as a boot device at the BIOS level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Lear Posted November 29, 2005 Author Share Posted November 29, 2005 I have been trying in VMware. I made a virtual machine that has access to my internal IDE hard drive, and also a Firewire hard drive, and also an USB hard drive. When I get to the point of selecting an install destination in OSX, none of the drives show, so I go into the Disk Utility to prepare one. The only drive presented for me to work with is the internal IDE drive. It may be that VMware is the problem because it sets the Firewire and USB drives up as SCSI devices, and maybe this OSX will only work with an IDE drive at the installation stage? Another piece of info that might help. The boot order options in my BIOS list "internal hard disk", "CD/DVD", "network card" and "USB storage device". Firewire is not in the list, so I guess the Firewire drive is not available on this machine as a boot device at the BIOS level. Yeah, that's why I figured that most USB Mass storage devices that came with Firewire also came with USB; Firewire for fast transfer and USB almost strictly for booting (and compatability with other non-fw systems), because I don't think many (if any) motherboards support boot from Firewire. I should find out if OS X is happy with Firewire install this time next week, as I'm heading home so not stuck behind this Uni Firewall (was Http tunelling but got threatened with losing my study room connection - I'm at University of Kent - you've probably downloaded something from our mirror service). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrana Posted November 29, 2005 Share Posted November 29, 2005 I've never had any luck booting or installing to a USB2 device in OS X (kernel panics or just doesn't work). On a PPC Mac, firewire works fine this way, but I've not tried my firewire dvd drive and seen if the kexts for it are loaded during install to check that bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huedrant Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 hey folks! i already managed to install OSX on my external drive, but i just cant make it boot normally, i always have to boot from the DVD an then type mach_kernel rd=disk2s1 on the "command prompt. has anybody aout there an idea how to avoid this and how to boot directly into OSX instead when i choose to boot from the external drive in the BIOS? btw: there seems to be no real bootsector on the HDD: if I choose only to boot from th HDD, it just doesnt work. with the DVD inserted, it works as far as described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuxuser33 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 (edited) Hi, I'm shure. Trico did NOT boot off his external drive. As he wrote, you have to type in "mach_kernel rd=disk1s1". When did he do this? 1. Boot off ofDVD / similar to F8 2. Boot off of internal HD, press F8 or prepare boot.plist a timeout , that gives the time to tapp in anything. Compared to linux (probably any X..system). The BIOS needs access to the drive that contains the bootloader. The bootloader needs access to the kernel, needs the support for the right filesystem, etc. X-Kernels are built modular. They loads needed modules later, if they need. Otherwise you have to build a very big static (monolitic) kernel and initial ram , that includes all the things you may need to boot up. (Or you have a EFI-system,that does this for you.) Oh god! I beleave Trico booted off his internal drive and switched over to the external drive. Am I right? Don't waste your time! Edited January 30, 2007 by tuxuser33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dong Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 I beleave Trico booted off his internal drive and switched over to the external drive.Am I right? Don't waste your time! Well, I installed OSX to a USB external hard drive through VMware way and boot from it natively without problem. Make sure setting the installed partition to active. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huedrant Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 (edited) Don't waste your time!thanks fpr the advice - i'm trying hard, but there's OSX86 to be installed on my external drive.. Well, I installed OSX to a USB external hard drive through VMware way and boot from it natively without problem. Make sure setting the installed partition to active. as i said, its already installed (i installed it natively without VMware) - when i take a look into the WINDOWS disc manager, I see the following layout on disc 2 (which is the external one): - 20 GB primary partition (active, no errors) - 10 GB FAT32 primary partition (no errors) - 10 GB FAT32 primary partition (no errors) might the fact that i have 3 primary partitions be part of the problem? with which tool can i change that? the XP administration tool doesn't work well with that. Edited January 30, 2007 by huedrant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dong Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 might the fact that i have 3 primary partitions be part of the problem? with which tool can i change that? the XP administration tool doesn't work well with that. The 3 primary partitions should not be a problem. It's exactly the same for my USB harddisk. I must admit that the boot failed for the very first time and a message said: Press F1 to resume and F2 into setup. After press F1, it seems fixed by itself and everything went fine. Now I can boot without any problem (no F1, F2 things too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuxuser33 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 (edited) Do you beleave success may depend on the USB-Bridge or the capability of BIOS (emulates a PATA-HD)? Tried to copy HD internaly (yes the copy is bootable) before I placed it into the external USB-case. Faild so far. Or do I ever have to install directly to the external drive? I did the copy internaly after was enfaced with the message "cannot change the partition.." as long as the drive sits int the external case. There after the drive was empty. edit: Got success! Did as before. Made the copy internaly with GPARTED-Live-CD and some preparations. Changed the external enclosure from the expansive to a cheap model with no name. http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry283495 Fine! Saved a lot of time. First did read the posts then did do the work. Don't realy need this for now. But never say never. (Excuse me; I'm not an English man.) Edited January 30, 2007 by tuxuser33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuxuser33 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 (edited) Poor performance? Xbench disk test: 14.79 Intentionaly attached the keyboard and mouse via PS2. No other USB-devices attached. The specs.: USB-ATA Bridge Cypress AT2LP RC42 Intel 945 (ICH7?) Samsung 120 GB Edited January 30, 2007 by tuxuser33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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