Low End Mac Reader Specials
TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com
OWC: Mercury On-The-Go FW800+USB2 up to 1.0TB. Bus Powered, no external power supply needed. Macworld Editors Choice, CNET Very Good Starting from $99.97, 500GB $159.99. Click here
Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how
to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full
Tilt Poker Mac.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
Installing OS X 10.4 'Tiger' on DVD-Challenged Macs Using FireWire Target Disk Mode
A 'Best of Miscellaneous Ramblings' Column
Charles Moore - 2006.07.10 - Tip Jar
Popularity: ![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Short link: http://bit.ly/hmZRR
Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" ships on DVD media, which is great if you have a Mac equipped with a DVD drive (as most of us do these days), since the entire set of installer files can be contained on one disc, eliminating the necessity of disc-swapping in the middle of the process.
However, there are certain older Macs that are officially supported by a Tiger (i.e., that have built-in FireWire) but don't have optical drives that support DVDs - notably some low-end iBooks and early low-end eMacs. My late 2002 iBook G3/700 has only a CD-ROM drive, and some of the education-only Macs were also CD-only.
Mac OS X Version 10.4 (PPC) requires a Macintosh with:
- PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- Built-in FireWire
- At least 256 MB of physical RAM (512 MB recommended)
- A built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
- At least 3 GB of available space on your hard drive; 4 GB of disk space if you install Xcode 2 developer tools
- DVD drive for installation (or get CD media from Apple for $9.95)
There are several possible workarounds. Apple will let you send in your Tiger install DVD along with $9.95 (details here), and they will replace it with a set of OS X 10.4 install CDs. If you don't intend on upgrading your hardware in the near future and have no Mac with a DVD drive available, that may be the most convenient solution.
Another possibility is to purchase or borrow a freestanding, bootable FireWire DVD drive and run the installer from it.
A third possibility is to mount your DVD-challenged computer as an external hard drive from a DVD drive-equipped Mac via FireWire Target Disk Mode and choose its hard drive as the destination disk in the OS X 10.4 installer. That is the method I chose for installing Tiger on my iBook, using my Pismo PowerBook's DVD drive.
FireWire Target Disk Mode is a great innovation, even better than PowerBook SCSI disk mode was back in the SCSI era. It's usually used for fast file transfers between computers and is the speediest interface for doing that, but it also works well for system or disk maintenance that requires mounting the drive from another boot volume and, as in this case, for system installations.
To put my iBook into Target Disk Mode, I shut it down, and
connected it to the PowerBook using a standard 6-pin FireWire cable
(the same on both ends) usually used for connecting my external
FireWire hard drive. I then started the iBook while holding down
the T key, and in a few seconds the yellow FireWire symbol began
bouncing around on the screen.
When I woke up the PowerBook, icons representing the iBook's three hard drive partitions were there on the Desktop.
I inserted the OS X 10.4 install disc in the PowerBook's DVD drive and clicked the Install icon, which made the PowerBook reboot from the DVD. When the installer screen came up, the iBook's partition volumes were among the alternatives presented as an install destination.
The installation itself was straightforward. I chose to do
an Archive and Install, and I checked the option to have the new
system assimilate user settings from a former system, avoiding the
tedium of going through the Setup Assistant routine.
In my case, I also chose not to install the 1.62 GB of printer drivers, the extra fonts, and the language support files in order to conserve hard drive space on the iBook's 20 GB hard drive.
My basic installation took about 20 minutes. After the installer displays its "Installation Of Software Successfully Completed " dialog, it wants to reboot into the new system it has just installed. I discovered no way to defeat this, so the Pismo rebooted from the iBook's hard drive, which was interesting. No problems were encountered, though.
At that point I shut down both computers, disconnected the FireWire cable, and restarted each computers from its respective boot system.
In that instance, the Previous System Folder containing my old OS X 10.3.9 installation turned out to be more than 5 gigabytes, while the new Tiger system folder was less than 1.5 gigabytes. That Panther (10.3.x) install actually dated back to my installation of OS 10.2.3 in January 2003, when the iBook was new and after I had partitioned the hard drive. It had only been updated since then - many times - never with a clean system reinstall.
Doing a clean installation (save for the imported settings), recovered four megabytes of free hard drive space. Emptying the Trash containing the Previous System Folder took nearly half an hour and deleted some 90,000 files!
Using this method proved to be a successful workaround for
getting Tiger into my iBook, and I expect it would work for
installing Tiger on older, officially unsupported Macs using the
XPostFacto installer hack, although I can't say for sure,
having never tried it.
Further Reading
- Using FireWire Target Disk Mode to install OS X on Macs without DVD drives, Charles Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2006.09.14. Two methods for using FireWire Target Disk mode to install OS X on a Mac that can't read DVDs.
Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and began writing for Mac websites in May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
Recent Miscellaneous Ramblings
- WiFi Paranoia, iMac-O-Lantern, Magic Mouse Does Click, Free Clipboard Managers, and More, 11.05. Also strange time stamps, problem with ColorIt on Intel Mac, and the story behind OS X 10.5.4 install discs.
- Google Chrome Mac Preview Has Made a Convert, 11.02. Officially a developer preview, Google's Chrome has finally made it to Intel-based Macs. It's fast, elegant, and could be your next browser.
- Fixing a Narcoleptic PowerBook G4, the Future of Tiger Support, Spam Filtering, and More, 10.28. Also installing Leopard, disappearing features, portable Thunderbird, and web page design issues.
- 2 Wireless Alternatives to Apple's Magic Mouse, 10.27. Whether you prefer buttons to buttonless, are still using Mac OS X 10.4, or don't like Bluetooth, Targus has mice to consider.
- More in the Miscellaneous Ramblings index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
- Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
- November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
- Support Low End Mac
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Quad-Core CPU Makes Sense in MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 Causing Overheating, Overseas Power, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.06. Also Late 2009 MacBook reviewed, how to add RAM to new MacBook, 18.4in Acer notebook used Intel i7, and SanDisk SSD chosen for Sony VAIO X.
- Dumping Macs for Google Apps, SSD in iMac, Late 2009 iMac Performance Problems, and More, Mac News Review, 11.06. /newsrev/09mnr/1106.html
- IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
- QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
- Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
- Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
- Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
- Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
- Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
- More deals in our archive.
About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts
Navigation
Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists
Favorite Sites
MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System
6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
Mac FAQ
Abandonware
Petition
Mac vs. PC Info
Affiliates
The Apple
Store
Mac
Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial
Memory
batteries.com
Advertise
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
Mac FAQ
Abandonware
Petition
Mac vs. PC Info
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com
