Install osx from usb

My dvd drive on my powerbook just broke is there a way i can boot from a 8gb flash drive and install OSX. I found instructions on the net but their for use on a mac, and i can only use a pc at the moment to install osx on the flash drive.

please help!!

Normally, you can't boot a powerbook from a USB device - you're stuck with only being able to boot from HD, CDRom, firewire device and possibly over a network.

That being said, there is a "work around" that involves fiddling with some nvram settings. I can't guarantee functionality, and that you won't completely hose your machine, but you can look here:

macosxhints.com - Boot PowerPC Macs via USB 2.0 drives

Nethfel said:

Normally, you can't boot a powerbook from a USB device - you're stuck with only being able to boot from HD, CDRom, firewire device and possibly over a network.

That being said, there is a "work around" that involves fiddling with some nvram settings. I can't guarantee functionality, and that you won't completely hose your machine, but you can look here:

macosxhints.com - Boot PowerPC Macs via USB 2.0 drives

Click to expand...

thanks am going to give it a try, but i still don't know how to install the os on the usb on a pc.

Was the 10.6 a misprint? 10.6 will only install on an Intel Mac and not a Powerbook. Just letting you know in case.

dtravis7 said:

Was the 10.6 a misprint? 10.6 will only install on an Intel Mac and not a Powerbook. Just letting you know in case.

Click to expand...

yeah sorry i dont know how to edit it

edit:fixed the title

I know there's a way to make a bootable usb key from the OSX DVD even on a PC, but I can't find the directions atm =(

First of all, you would have to enable booting from USB on the PPC.
The, basically, what you want to do is copy the DVD completely -block by block- to the USB drive. You might be able to trick some live USB creator (for linux made to run on windows) in to thinking that your DVD is Ubuntu or something, and getting it to create a Live USB of it.
A quick read-over of this page gives me the idea it's what you're searching for:4 Ways to Create Bootable Live USB Drives (For Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) ~ Web Upd8.
If I see some mac specific instructions I'll post back.
You might also need a tool to transform the DVD to a disc image, like ISO CD DVD image creator, editor and ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO converter - UltraISO can extract/create/edit/convert CD and DVD image files directly, make bootable CDs and convert ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO., which I got from google, I have not tried it.

An 8GB USB Flash Drive will not hold the contents of a Leopard DL DVD install system, and the instruction about booting from a USB drive are for very limited machines only, G5 mainly, and G4s are notoriously difficult to boot from any USB device.

Perhaps a Firewire external optical drive might be the go, but suggest if you intend to keep the 'book, see if you can run to getting a new internal fitted. Necessary for installing OS, running Repair Disk etc under Disk Utility.

Good luck and keep us posted?

Ummmmmm... I booted 10.6 from an external HD, and had 10.4 on my MAC HD. When I held down OPTION key on reboot, I was able to choose what I wanted to launch -- which happened to be MAC HD, external USB and CD/DVD - if any was plugged in. maybe u could try that.

I have a MBP, Intel dual core etc...

..but yes, random keys on startup are awesome.

You have a different system Bamava - the OP has a PPC based Mac which by default doesn't support USB based device booting, much less, he can't boot snow leopard even if the OP could boot from USB.

To harryb: if you're making an install USB drive, the Leopard DVD will fit on an 8 gig thumb without a problem - it just won't fit if you try to install to the thumb drive. Leopard, even tho on a DL DVD does not use the entire space available to it. I do know this because I had put Leopard on a 8 Gig thumb drive to do an install once (although I used my Mac Pro to make it, not a windows based PC; I know there are instructions out there on how to make one using windows or Linux if that's all you have available.)

Why the heck would I want to do the above?