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January 11, 2006 10:55 AM PST
Intel-based Macs: FireWire target disk mode, startup keyboard commands retained
Apple officials have informed us that FireWire target disk mode is available on both the new iMac Core Duo and MacBook Pro, eclipsing earlier speculation that this boot option would no longer be available.
Apple also told MacFixIt that startup keyboard commands -- such as holding C to startup from the optical drive, and holding option to pick the startup device at boot -- have been retained with the switch to Intel architecture.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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I boot from several different external FW drive partitions on several different drives, primarily using 10.3.9 for apps I didn't want to update (they go on boot partition)and 10.4.x that's fairly current or stable simply updating it as appropriate as an individual drive. Just keep on top of any upgrades as these drives aren't used that often.
I have two of the OWC 2.5" drives and one of their 3.5" drive with the former travelling singly or together with my PowerBook and the 3.5" is a "stay at home." I use all for an assortment of backups and if limited to one would get an OWC 2.5" 100GB+ size. I have an 80 and a 160 in this size with the 3.5 inch being primarily backup (2 sets on two different drives for complete backups and ditto the /Users directory for daily and weekly backups.
Just install the alternate boot systems with a commercial or dedicated version of the desired OS as you would any other. Check with vendor to verify compatibility and ability to boot with FW first. Avoid el cheapo drives. OWC and LaCie seem to work best as boot drives, but if older OS there may or may not be issues. Keep firmware of drives up to date for best compatibility. Just remember to keep up with those updates.
- by January 11, 2006 7:00 PM PST
- I spoke with an Apple rep at Macworld today about booting to external FireWire drives, and was told the following:
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(4 Comments)The Intel architecture requires a hard drive that has had an Intel "boot loader" placed on the hard drive during the formatting process. Accordingly: Any hard drive that has been formatted from a PowerPC-based system (regardless of whether or not that system has been updated to 10.4.4 or higher) cannot be used to boot an Intel-based Macintosh.
However, a hard drive formatted from an Intel-based Macintosh will contain both Intel-based and PowerPC-based boot loaders, and so will be capable of booting either architecture. So, the trick is that you will have to get your hands on an Intel-based Macintosh, then format your external FireWire drive when connected to that system (HFS+ Journaled remains the disk format). Your external FireWire hard drive can then be used to boot both architectures.