[Diggory Laycock]

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro (6,1) and an external FW 800 drive (iomega eGo)

When I attempt to install Snow Leopard onto the drive it fails - the first phase works, where the initial batch of files are copied onto the drive (into a folder called 'Mac OS X Install Data'), but when the MacBook Pro reboots and attempts to boot from the drive it gets to the gray apple logo and stops - no drive activity at all.

I also, out of curiosity tried installing onto a USB 2.0 drive (also iomega) and it did the same.

Both drives are set-up to use the GUID Partition Table.

Has anyone else seen this kind of behaviour - am I missing something?

[Art Vandelay]

Of course you can install onto external drives. The real question is are you using a version of Snow Leopard that can boot your laptop?

[Diggory Laycock]

Ah - I see...

I was using the retail version of SL from when it was released. My MacBook Pro is more recent than that. That explains it.

I have since used an old macbook to install SL onto the drive, and after SWUpdate it boots my MBP.

Thanks for elucidating.

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by Diggory Laycock 

Ah - I see...

I was using the retail version of SL from when it was released. My MacBook Pro is more recent than that. That explains it.

I have since used an old macbook to install SL onto the drive, and after SWUpdate it boots my MBP.

Thanks for elucidating.

You can also just use your computer-specific disk to install on the external drive.