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jbleisure · Sep 14, 2005, 08:01 AM

Hi,

I work from a powerbook G4 1.5 on which I run Panther. The emptation to upgrade to Tiger is there but I thought I could do it this way:

I need to install an external harddrive as back up for my work but can I partition it 50/50 and use one half to back up my work and the other to install Tiger on?

Can I then choose Tiger to work from when I am at my desk if I choose to (using the powerbook). Has anyone done this? Is it just a case of swithing to the other hard drive once I've started up? Will it show in the finder? Is the partition obvius?

Is it possible/easy to switch from Panther to Tiger through an external drive running both through a PB? Or do I have to wait for my next Mac in order to use Tiger as I don't want to install it over Panther on the powerbook.

Thank you for the help

rjenkinson · Sep 14, 2005, 08:05 AM

it does work, provided you install the OS on a bootable disk.

-r.

msuper69 · Sep 14, 2005, 08:22 AM

OS X will only boot from Firewire external drives; USB no workie.

jbleisure · Sep 14, 2005, 09:13 AM

OK Sounds Good. What is a bootable disk? Is that like an external hard drive?

So if I do this can I switch OS ie panther to tiget from the finder? Is it really that simple or do I have to select a different startup preference and then restart?

I already figures the firewire only boot, thanks.

wataru · Sep 14, 2005, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by jbleisure

OK Sounds Good. What is a bootable disk? Is that like an external hard drive?

It's not like an external hard drive, it is an external hard drive.

do I have to select a different startup preference and then restart?

Yes.

JKT · Sep 14, 2005, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by jbleisure

Is it really that simple or do I have to select a different startup preference and then restart?

You can do it by changing the pref in Startup prefences, but it would be easier for you to just hold down option as you start up and then select the system/partition to boot from from the Open Firmware UI (you are presented with a graphical interface for selecting partitions with bootable systems on them from).

Personally, if you must have both OSes to work from (but why?) I would keep Panther on the PowerBook and install only Tiger on the external without bothering to partition it in two. There would be no need to have both OSes on the external.

Be aware that there are potential issues with this, mainly that if you use more up to date apps (from the Tiger install) you may not be able to open the files created/saved in the older apps from the Panther install.

jbleisure · Sep 14, 2005, 02:58 PM

Thanks for the advice. Particlary drawing my attention to the potential problems.

Basically as I work for myself it seems getting an external hard drive to back up my system makes sense, as saving things to DVDs periodically doesn't work well for me. Then you see, my desire to run Tiger emerged. I would like to run it but don't want to have to reserve time right now to upgrade on the PB as I am flat out with work and don't want too have to deal with any issues that arise, of course I realise it might be a breeze to move from Panther to Tiger.

So you see I thought that I could kill two birds with one stone by having both. But I can see npw, that might not be the best soution

Big Mac · Sep 14, 2005, 03:18 PM

The only sticky issue is that having two startup drives means that important data may end up on one drive when you need it on the other, since you'll presumably be using two separate accounts (one on the internal, another on the external).

jbleisure · Sep 14, 2005, 03:35 PM

Yes I thought I could manage it but, but you are right. The more I think about it the more I'm realising that if I want to use Tiger I should either bit the bullet and upgrade on the PB or buy another machine which isn't so likely to happen for a while.

However the fact remains that an external harddrive would be a good way to backup my system

Riot Nrrrd · Sep 16, 2005, 05:59 AM

I have a PowerBook (1 GHz, 17", 60 GB, 1 GB RAM) with ... let's say, a few external FireWire disks:

- 120 GB
- 200 GB
- 2x250 GB (RAID1 mirrored)
- 2x400 GB (RAID1 mirrored)

I split the 120 GB disk into 2 partitions, one called "Mac OS X 10.4" (gee, no prizes for what's on here) and the rest of the disk is another partition for data.

Once installed it's quite easy to reboot into Tiger if I choose to do so via Startup Disk in System Preferences. I use the same home directory Folder in both environments (/Users/myname on the Tiger disk is simply a symbolic link to /Volumes/myinternalPantherdisk/Users/myname), which makes life easier.

At this point I'm still running 10.3.9 on the system disk and have not upgraded it to Tiger. I do encourage you to get the external drive and put Tiger on it as it provides a good way to have a playpen to test it out on without having to alter your working setup in any way. It is a trifle inconvenient (two "/Applications" folders; i.e. the default Tiger apps but your other added apps will be on the "other"/internal drive) but if 10.4.3 becomes The First Really Stable Tiger Release, then I can find out ahead of time before commiting myself to upgrading the internal drive to Tiger for good. I'd advise you do the same thing.