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Installing OSx86 on a External USB Drive


~pcwiz
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Hi,I want to install and boot a full installation of OSx86 on an a External Comstar Platinum 3.5" 250GB External USB 2.0 Drive. I read a few guides and all of them seem to say that I need to use the tiger-x86-flat.img Deadmoo file and write it to the drive. Is there any way to put OSx86 on the drive without the Deadmoo image? And If I have to use the Deadmoo image, I've heard that If you write the IMG file to the drive, then since the IMG file is a 6.0GB virtual disk drive, it will recognize my big 250GB External as a 6.0GB drive. Is this true? If it is true, can I make a seperate 6GB partition on the external hard disk and Install OSx86 Deadmoo on that so that I don't waste space on the HD?Thanks in advanceP.S. I already have JaS 10.4.8 installed on VMware Workstation if that helps.Another thing: I have already tried to install OSx86 using the JaS 10.4.8 DVD directly to the USB hard drive with VMware. The problem is that Disk Utilty won't recognize the USB HDD...I'm opening the tiger-x86.tar file with WinRAR....Taking a long time just to open.....Anyone know why?EDIT: Alright...The Deadmoo tar file opened..extracting it now..wanna see if its faster than my JaS 10.4.8 :D

 

EDIT:

 

Oh I found this guide here: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.ph..._USB_Hard_DriveI am thinking of using this method on the guide:

Method 1 Sadly, the only way to install OSx86 on a USB Hard Drive is using VMware right now. Hopfully soon somone will find a way to install Darwin to the external hard drive (USB or Firewire), but until then it will need to be done using VMware... Step 1. Make a Generic OS X install DVD. Step 2. Make a VMDK file linking to a .img file (heres a great tool to make img files :blink: (if you make say a 70 gb img, it will only be as large as the stuff you put on the file, so when your done installing it'll only be 6 GB) http://dev.int64.org/buildhdd.exe ) Step 3. Open up VMware 5, make a emulator for BSD (IDE HD, IDE CDROM) Step 4. Put the DVD into your DVD-rom drive (or open up a emulator like Alcohol 120% and emulate the iso...and select that as your CD-rom Drive) Step 5. Boot up the machine, open up disk utility, format the HD and then quit the Disk utility, and continue installing OS X Step 6. When it is done download [dd for windows] extract it where your .img file is at Step 7. Go into Control pannel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk management (Local) there you will be able to find which hard drive is your External one, it will say somthing like disk 2, the 2 (if its 2) will be the number you enter in the next step Step 8. open up cmd, go to the directory and run dd if=tiger-x86-flat.img of=//./physicaldrive# b=1M replace tiger-x860-flat with what ever you img is called Replace # with the number your hard drive is and run! after a few min (like 30..) it should be done and you will be ready to try and boot your computer :(
Will it work? If it does, how do I find out the "physicaldrive#" of my USB Drive? I'm pretty sure its "physicaldrive1" because my internal hard drive on my PC (I only have one internal drive), I'm assuming is physicaldrive0. Am I right? I really don't wanna destroy the contents of my internal drive doing this.... :angel: The Deadmoo image is a million times slower in VMware than my JaS...I really don't wanna use Deadmoo now...
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I just started a thread in another subforum telling how today I installed OSX86 on a USB stick drive. I bought an 8gb thumb drive from eBay and set my bios to boot from USB first. Then I just installed uphuck's v1.4iR3 and it booted up on the first try.

 

I installed CopyCatX on the thumb drive so I can use it to back up my system easily. Works like a charm.

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I'm not sure how long ago that method was suggested, but I've never used that. If you simply have an install disk of one of the newer uphuck versions (available on usenet and the green demon), it appears you can save yourself a lot of headaches. VMWare isn't necessary unless you just want to use it for the sake of using it. Sorry if I'm missing something here.

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Why do you want to use VMware?? If you have a 250gb external drive why not just install it natively? Do like BJ Moose said and get uphuck's v1.4iR3. Works like a charm. Format that 250gb drive to fat32 and then throw the install disc in and boot it. Then in disk utilities partition and format the drive again in HFS+ Journald. Also make sure that when in disk utilities you also go to the partition tab and then options near the bottom and set it to "Master Boot Record". This will make the drive bootable on your PC. Close out disk utilities and continue with the install. Choose the appropriate patches and drivers for your system.

 

What are your PC's specs?

 

Chevy

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OK, I'll try installing natively with the uphuck image. My only concern is: When I install OSx86 on the external drive, will the installer overwrite the Windows Vista bootloader on my internal drive with a Darwin bootloader? Because you mention something about the master bood record. Will it install the Darwin bootloader on the internal drive or the external hard drive?

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What are your PC's specs?

 

Chevy

 

Specs:

 

Motherboard: ASUS P5ND2-SLI

Processor: Intel Pentium D 830 Dual Core 3GHz

Video Card: ATI Radeon X1650 PRO 512MB PCI-Express

RAM: A-Data DDR2 667MHz 512MB x 2 (Total 1GB)

Internal Hard Drive: Samsung SP2504C Sata 3Gbps 250GB

External Hard Drive: Comstar Platinum 3.5" 250GB USB 2.0 Drive

Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-110DBW DVD-RW/Dual Layer

Sound: Integrated Realtek AC'97 7.1 Channel

Ethernet: Integrated Intel 10/100/1000 Gigabit

USB: 6x USB 2.0 ports

 

No Wireless/Bluetooth, etc.

 

If you need any more specs, tell me.

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No it shouldn't. What you'll do is after the install is finished OS X will ask for you to restart. Upon restart you will press esc, F8 or something like that to bring up the bootloader from your BIOS. Check you PC's manual to find out what you need to press. Since you have an Asus and so do I, it should be F8 key. So right when the computer starts booting you will press the F8 key and that will bring you to a list of boot options. You then find your external drive and select it. OS X should now start booting. I have OS 10.4.10 installed on an external drive and that's how I do it.

 

 

Chevy

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Yes that's right, it should not affect your windows boot drive at all. You may have to press the F8 key several times because it can be kind of a timing thing to get the menu appear sometimes. Of course you might just do what I did with my usb drive. Set it in the bios to boot first, and that way, when you want it, just plug it in and it will boot. When you want windows to boot, unplug the usb drive and windows will boot. Good luck.Yes that's right, it should not affect your windows boot drive at all. You may have to press the F8 key several times because it can be kind of a timing thing to get the menu appear sometimes. Of course you might just do what I did with my usb drive. Set it in the bios to boot first, and that way, when you want it, just plug it in and it will boot. When you want windows to boot, unplug the usb drive and windows will boot. Good luck.

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Yes, I have an option in my BIOS Setup to 'boot from Removable Drives' and that gives me the option to boot from a USB device. I guess I'll just select my external drive, save the changes and reboot. Am I right?

 

I'm pretty sure that the OS X installation will go well..Its just the booting from the USB drive that I'm not so sure about..Oh, another couple questions

 

1) My External USB HD is formatted as FAT32. Will the OS X Disk Utility recognize the drive? (Sorry, I think you guys already covered this..Just confirming)

2) Will running from a USB External hard drive be fast (no use doing this if its as slow as the VMware installation) as running native on a internal drive?

 

EDIT: I also Googled some stuff and it says that right after the POST beep, at the logo screen, to tap F8 to access a boot options menu...Is this correct?

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Yes, rebooting after making the change in the bios will take care of things.

 

Yes, Disk Utility will identify your FAT32 drive. Partition it how you want, but as OS Extended Journaled and under options, check that it is MBR.

 

USB external drives will be slower than your internal drives but probably faster than a VMWare installation.

 

Have you ever tried to create a partition on your internal drive and just install it straightway on that drive? Why VMWare in the first place? That would be your fastest method. You could then dual boot using the chain0 method or Acronis boot loader.

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No offense Pcwiz, but as I've told many others, I think there comes a time to stop testing the temperature of the water and just dive into the pool. You've got all the stuff and it only takes 15 minutes to install the operating system (skip the installer disk check). The worst that can happen is you learn something from actually doing. If you don't like it, just reformat your hard drive and you're none the worse for wear. As the Nike commercial says, "Just Do It!" Good luck.

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Alright, I'll "dive into the pool" and install OSx86 on my USB drive right after the Uphuck image finishes downloading, which is in about 1.5 hours. If the speed is unusable, then I'll just return the USB drive (30 day return policy no matter what :D) and ;)... install it native on my precious internal HD.

 

I would have installed it on my internal hard drive if it hadn't been for the formats. One of the things I really don't like is when you format a drive with a format that can't be recognized by other operating systems and then you have to do work on it through a command line interface :( The bootloader doesn't concern me much because I'm not installing the Darwin Bootloader to my MBR, I'm using a chain0 method on the Windows XP Boot.ini file. Nope, its just the format that I don't like.....

 

Anyway, as soon as my image finishes DLing I'll burn it to DVD-R, pop the disc in, install, and hope everything goes well... ;)

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The speed of a USB drive is a little bit slower, but not G3 slow. It will be useable. Get used to it and then install on your internal drive, or better yet buy another internal drive and install OS X on that drive. Windows on one drive, OS X on the other. You can use that same bios bootloader to boot the OS X drive no problem.

 

 

Chevy

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Thanks chevy,

 

You understand my uneasiness about installing OS X on a internal drive. I'll install it external, get used to it a bit, and if I find necessary, I'll install it on my internal drive, buying another one if I have to :P

 

Once DL is complete, I'll burn it and post back when I start the installation :P Can't wait to install native...VMware provides a good way for users to sort of feel around OS X but its absolutely no good for any real work, even editing a simple text document.

My Progress:

 

Downloading - Complete

Burning - Complete

 

**Alright now I'm gonna go offline while I restart my computer and install OS X. Will update everyone on the results when I get back (Hopefully on my Hackintosh :D)**

 

Installation - Started

Boot from Drive - Not Started

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I got the mouse problem fixed by swapping the PS/2 mouse with a USB one but I encountered another problem. So I formatted the USB drive and selected the Master Boot Record and everything. Then I installed the 10.4.9 v.1.4iR3 with the neccessary drivers for my hardware and the installation completed successfully. When the computer rebooted after installation, I got the normal Loading Darwin/x86 thing but right after the Loading Darwin/x86 screen, a panic screen (You need to restart your computer in 4 languages) came up. So I reformatted the USB Drive and installed a copy of JaS 10.4.8 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE2 PPF1 + PPF2 with the on the drive. Again, the installation completed successfully but again I got the same panic screen after the Loading Darwin/x86 screen. Next, I tried reformatting the drive installing the 10.4.9 v1.4iR3 WITHOUT any drivers or patches, just the main system. I got the same panic screen again.Anyone know what to do?

 

So, I started OS X up in safe mode with verbose (-x -v) Everything loaded and then it came to this screen and just stopped. Here are screenshots of the error screen:

 

Picture 1 (Full Error Screen)

 

pic1.JPG

 

Picture 2 (Error screen zoomed, first half)

 

pic2.JPG

 

Picture 3 (Error screen zoomed, second half)

 

pic3.JPG

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Boot the install dvd again and in.... I think the system tab there will something called "remove intel cpu power management" or something very similar to that. Check it and don't check anything else. Then continue with the install. DON"T check off anything else! You just want the power management checked. Once done reboot as normal. If all goes well it will boot into OS X.

 

 

Chevy

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I formatted and reinstalled, choosing the Remove CPUPowerManagement option and just the base system. The Power Management error went away but now I get this new error screen. Here are screenshots:

 

[pics deleted]

 

It seems to be some sort of kernel panic debug error. Anyone have a solution?

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Ok you didn't get what i was saying. I didn't want you to reinstall the base system, just the "remove power management kext".

 

Go back and boot the install dvd again and check off the patches that apply to you system. Meaning video, ethernet, remove power mangaement, login window, and depending on what sata chipset you have you might have to check off sata drivers. Check your mobo user manual for what have. Also read the instuctions right before you choose your install options.

 

I didn't know you have an nForce4 chipset and creates some problems as well. If there are some patches in the sytem or somewhere else for nForce4 you will need to check them as well.

 

Chevy.

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Failure again. This time I tried 3 configurations. All of them failed, but got a little farther than the first time. Here are the configurations and screenshots of the errors:

Configuration #1

 

Selected the following to install:

  • v1.4i Main System
  • logonwindow 10.4.4
  • Remove CPUPowerManagement kext
  • ATI X1x00 (VGA Driver for ATI Radeon X1650 PRO PCIe card)
  • nForce 4 SATA
  • PS/2 (Driver for my Logitech PS/2 mouse)
  • Azalia Audio Driver (For Realtek Audio)
  • USB Driver
  • Intel Pro 100 VE (Driver for Intel Pro 10/100/1000 82540EM Gigabit LAN)

With this config, I got this error screen:

 

I formatted and reinstalled, choosing the Remove CPUPowerManagement option and just the base system. The Power Management error went away but now I get this new error screen. Here are screenshots:

 

[pics deleted]

 

It seems to be some sort of kernel panic debug error. Anyone have a solution?

Configuration #2

 

Selected the same options as Config #1 except with these modifications:

  • Did NOT install the USB Driver
  • Installed the Natit X1600 VGA Driver instead of the ATI X1x00 Driver

I got this error screen (different from Config 1 error screen):

 

I formatted and reinstalled, choosing the Remove CPUPowerManagement option and just the base system. The Power Management error went away but now I get this new error screen. Here are screenshots:

 

[pics deleted]

 

It seems to be some sort of kernel panic debug error. Anyone have a solution?

Configuration #3

 

[/b][/u]Same as Configuration 2 (with Natit X1600 driver) except I did install the USB Driver this time

 

I got the same error screen as Configuration 1

 

********************************************************************************

************

 

Well, thats how it went. I'm close to giving up :( because I've tried everything I could. If anyone sees anything I could do to fix this or something that I am doing wrong, please post back.

 

blacknight, Sorry I read your message after trying all these configs. Do think that checking the SATA Support with the nForce4 SATA will make a difference after these errors?

 

Thanks in advance

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