In a message [EMAIL PROTECTED]: << How do you know which external firewire drives are bootable?, i.e., what is the technical aspect that makes them bootable? Obviously needs proper ROM read and driver load at boot. What do you need to look for, exactly? >>
Generally, "Old World" PCI Mac's lack the ability to detect connected Firewire drives during the startup process. However, depending on how far you want to go with this undetected Firewire ROM deficiency of PCI Mac's, the legendary Ryan Rampel has released Xpostfacto 3.0b2 which claims: <<XPF 3 includes a "helper disk" option which is meant to permit booting from certain devices which would not otherwise be bootable (in particular, Firewire drives). The problem with booting from Firewire drives on older machines is that the firmware on those machines does not know how to access Firewire. XPF 3 solves that problem by copying system files from the Firewire drive to a "helper" drive. XPF then sets up the boot process so that it starts from the "he lper", and then switches to the Firewire drive once enough of the system has loaded so that Firewire is accessible. [Snip]>> See: http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto3. html http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto3. html#firewire for the full details. There may be problems with certain Firewire cards and I'm not sure if you need to be in OS 9 or OS X when using Xpostfacto to boot the FW drive. I don't have a FW drive to check this out so I cannot offer any "Real World" experience -- just some food for thought. --glen (digest mode) -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
