[chris v]

I know the drive in these things isn't designed for continuous use. I'm thinking about using my iPod more as a backup/restore/utility drive, so I'd be booted from it for as long as it took to run DiskWarrior, or run an install. Who has any experience with actually installing a bare-bones OS X on an iPod and running it?

I'd severely limit it's use as a boot drive. Maybe once every few months, for say, 15-20 minutes, max.

CV

[ginalee]

I've done it! It saved my life on two occasions if I remember correctly.

The latest time was when my panther install went wrong and NOTHING would work - dead screen city - I booted from my ipod (still has jaguar on it) and saved all my important files onto it - thus backed up impt stuff from my clamshell HD and then did a clean install on the ibook.

Worked like a charm.

I essentially use my ipod as an external HD and save all my important stuff on it.

btw, the instructions on how to do it are in Secrets of the iPod by Chris Breen - i did it using Carbon Copy Cloner.

[chris v]

Okay, it worked great. Mind you, this is on a used 20 gig iPod that isn't under Apple warranty, so no voiding thereof.

I didn't want to back up my entire system, so I just did a barebones install from the 10.3 CD. I turned off iApp installers, all languages except English, and all the printer drivers, and ended up with an OS 10.3.3 that takes up just under a gigabyte. I verified that it will boot, and that DiskWarrior will run from it.

Still 18 GB left for music!

CV

[Link]

There shouldn't be any problem with booting off the ipod as long as it's not something you do often. iPod HDs arent' meant to be used as normal external HDs