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-   -   bootable external USB (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3217)

V.K. 11-27-2007 12:08 AM

bootable external USB
 
It's stated repeatedly in the SuperDuper! user guide that to make an external drive back up bootable it should be a Firewire drive. I'm using an USB drive for SuperDuper back ups. I made it bootable and everything seems to work fine. I can boot from it too (it is quite slow though). Is there any danger or are there any potential problems in doing that? If not why the insistence on using a Firewire drive?

dnanian 11-27-2007 10:04 AM

Actually, it says you need to use a FireWire drive for a Power PC Mac.

USB drives won't work as startup drives for Power PC Macs (at least under all OSes before Leopard - we've had some reports that Leopard allows Power PC Macs to boot Intel, but I haven't tested this myself).

In addition, they're significantly slower than FireWire drives, can have power issues when drawing power from the USB port (sometimes requiring "vampire plugs"), step down in speed when low-speed devices are present on the same bus, etc.

So: we definitely prefer FireWire here. But, for Intel at least, USB will work for startup.

V.K. 11-27-2007 11:50 AM

I have a powerbook G4 and I run Tiger.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 15726)
Actually, it says you need to use a FireWire drive for a Power PC Mac.

USB drives won't work as startup drives for Power PC Macs (at least under all OSes before Leopard - we've had some reports that Leopard allows Power PC Macs to boot Intel, but I haven't tested this myself).

In addition, they're significantly slower than FireWire drives, can have power issues when drawing power from the USB port (sometimes requiring "vampire plugs"), step down in speed when low-speed devices are present on the same bus, etc.

So: we definitely prefer FireWire here. But, for Intel at least, USB will work for startup.

I have a powerbook G4 and I run Tiger. As I said in my original post I can boot form an external USB drive without any problems. You are right about it being slow but I can live with it if there are no other drawbacks.

dnanian 11-27-2007 12:04 PM

There are some systems with USB 1 ports or drives that'll work. But not many.

V.K. 11-27-2007 10:07 PM

it's really academic but...
 
1 Attachment(s)
As I said it's all academic and doesn't really matter but my USB drive is USB 2 not 1 (see the attached pic).

dnanian 11-27-2007 11:05 PM

I don't know then, VK: Apple clearly documents this as not working... and it hasn't worked for me.


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