My first generation MacBook Pro steadfastly refuses to read the dual-layer DVD that Leopard comes on. All my Windows machines can read it (or at least the BootCamp partition) and my G5 can read the disk too, but the MacBook Pro won’t boot off it. However, I do have plenty of external drives kicking about so thought I ought to be able to boot off one of those. And yes, I’m only really doing this to get continued Boot Camp support for the Windows XP install I use more than anything else on the MBP. Here’s what I did:
- Use Disk Utility (on the G5) to create a DMG file.
- Connect the MacBook Pro and G5 to my gigabit network, and boot the MacBook Pro into Tiger.
- Connect the USB drive (a self powered 100Gb 2.5″ drive in this case) to the MacBook Pro (I used the right USB port – not sure if it matters which).
- I erased the (NTFS) partition on the external disk, and created a GUID Apple partition.
- Select the Restore tab on Disk Utility and drag the DMG file to the source field.
- Drag the USB partition (the one I just created) to the destination field.
- Click Restore.
- After it’s finished, you should be able to open System Preferences and find the USB disk in the Startup Disk pane.
- Select it and press restart – the MacBook Pro reboots and boots off the external disk.
- From here on it’s as if you were using the DVD!
The install was pretty swift – without the extra printer drivers, fonts or X11 it took about 10 minutes to install. Since installing Leopard has killed rEFIt the next step is to reinstall Windows and add the Boot Camp 2.0 drivers.
Oh, and the Leopard intro movie is quite pretty, but has really silly music.
You going to give Leopard a try on the G5?
@Richard
Eventually, yes! Since it has two internal drives I might install Leopard to the second one, so I can switch between Tiger and Leopard. The G5 is only really used as a BitTorrent host, and to burn DL DVDs sometimes. Criminal really!