02-09-2009, 11:17 AM

I have a powerbook g4 (gigabit ethernet), an external firewire harddrive, and an OSX installer DVD.

The DVD drive on my powerbook is busted - is there any way I can do a clean install of the system from the external drive?

I want to do a clean install merely as a spring cleaning exercise, to get the computer running at optimal speed

02-09-2009, 11:37 AM

Hmm, you could buy a USB External Disc Drive and install that way. Or you can make an image of OS X Leopard on an external hard drive and run the installation from that, formatting and then re-installing on the internal drive.

Personally I'd recommend the USB External Disc Drive until you can invest in a newer system or get your Powerbooks DVD Drive fixed.


Hope that helped!

02-09-2009, 05:43 PM

Make that an external Firewire optical drive as most PPC Macs will not boot from USB2. Intel handle USB2 just fine but for we older PPC users, Firewire is the go.

02-14-2009, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Granny Prime

...make an image of OS X Leopard on an external hard drive and run the installation from that, formatting and then re-installing on the internal drive...

I would like to try this on my external firewire HD. Can someone describe step by step how this can be done?

02-14-2009, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by josh1090

I would like to try this on my external firewire HD. Can someone describe step by step how this can be done?

I've never done that myself but I'm sure someone will have a tutorial on how to do it. Just try Google