#OSX TARGET DISK MODE HOW TO#
#OSX TARGET DISK MODE INSTALL#

I had no problem going the other way with the Pismo as the host machine for the install, but it might be an issue with computers that arenвЂ™t вЂњclose cousinsвЂќ such as a G3 Series PowerBook and G3 iBook.

#OSX TARGET DISK MODE INSTALL#

They advise going the opposite direction from the method I used, booting the machine with the DVD drive into Target Disk Mode with the Tiger install disk inserted and mounted, which is probably a better way to go, since the installer will tailor any necessary machine-specific system resources to the boot machine.

#OSX TARGET DISK MODE HOW TO#

Installing OS X 10.4 via Target Disk Mode is endorsed by Apple for machines with no DVD drive for OS X Server, as described in Mac OS X Server 10.4.7: How to install if you have no DVD drive. Worst case would be to have to reinitialize the drive and start from scratch.

If the machine remains unbootable from OS X 10.4 on its hard drive, the next step would be to reinstall a system from the restore CD and work back from there.

If you have an Alsoft DiskWarrior or ProSoft Drive Genius CD, it would be worth a shot running a disk diagnosis and repair routine, but itвЂ™s a long shot. If that works, thereвЂ™s a problem with the system install on the hard drive. The first thing I would try is to boot the machine from the original software restore CD or other bootable CD. There are many things that can go awry in an OSВ X install even under normal circumstances, so it may not be the unconventional install route thatвЂ™s the issue. IвЂ™m paraphrasing, because after I read the email preview, I somehow managed to delete the message, so I canвЂ™t reply directly (and I hope the correspondent will read this article). However, this morning I received a note from a reader who said that after attempting an install of Tiger in this manner, his computer refuses to boot and presents a gray screen. And several readers wrote to say that the method had worked for them as well. The iBook is currently running OSВ X 10.4.6 happily. This method worked flawlessly for me, and there have been no subsequent issues over the ensuing 16 months or so.

In July, I posted a column, Installing OS X 10.4 Tiger on DVD-Challenged Macs Using FireWire Target Disk Mode, describing how I had installed OSВ X 10.4 Tiger on my CD-ROM equipped iBook G3 by mounting it as an external hard drive from my DVD drive-equipped Pismo PowerBook via FireWire Target Disk Mode and choosing the iBookвЂ™s hard drive as the destination disk in the installer.

Osx target disk mode