Installing Software App onto External FireWire Drive

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Hello guys, I am new here and I am looking for a little help.

I have a Mac Mini with a modest 60GB internal drive. However, I do have an external USB 500GB beast. Whenever I install (any) new software, I am only able to install it onto the internal drive as the external USB drive is usually greyed out (with a red cross against it) during the installation process (when it asks me where I want to install).

Someone told me however that if I had an external FireWire drive then I could install applications onto it. Is this true?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

T.
 
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G'day and welcome to the forums.

It does help if you provide details of your machine. Minis came in four formats, PowerPC up to 1.5GHz, then Intel and later Intel Solo, Intel Dual Core and Intel 2 Core Duo. If your machine is a PowerPC then firewire is the go for sure. A PowerPC external will only be bootable if formatted to Mac Extended (Journalled) and set up with Apple Partition Map. Then firewire should copy no problems.

Apple Mac machines generally are not too responsive with USB, even USB 2.
 
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Thank you for the kind welcome Harry.

My Mac Mini is an Intel Core Duo. I can get more information tomorrow as I am away from home at the moment. I will return.
 
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When you do get home, check how the external drive has been formatted please?
 
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additional info.... you can have a bootable MacOS installer.. using your external drive.. firewire 800/400 connection is much faster...


i have my snow, leopard and tiger bootable installer and other apps
 
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Hi Guys, I am back. Here is the info for the computer:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM11.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.3f4

The external USB hard drive is a Western Digital device and it is formatted in MS-DOS (fat32). Is this the problem? Is it worth me reformatting it to another standard? I am prepared to try anything to solve my problem as I cannot afford to buy a new Mac right now.

T
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
The external USB hard drive is a Western Digital device and it is formatted in MS-DOS (fat32). Is this the problem? Is it worth me reformatting it to another standard? I am prepared to try anything to solve my problem as I cannot afford to buy a new Mac right now.

T

It would probably would be wise to format that HDD to something other than FAT32. It has a limitation of 4GB files being able to be written.

You don't have to buy a new Mac...>_>" You can simply just find out what kind of HDD your Mac is using now and buy a bigger one. From there, just look for some guides on how to install an internal HDD on your Mac.

Use your system restore disk/back up of your old HDD and you should be back in business in no time.
 
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Yes there is your prob with the WD MS-DOS - do as Harry suggested above
 
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Thanks for the response guys but before I order a new internal drive, is it worth me reformatting my external drive to another format and trying the install again?

All I wish to do is to install a single application, which I do not have the space for on my internal drive. If I could get the application to install (and run) from my external memory, I am sorted. I already have all the parts, I just want to know if it will work.

Failing that, I will look into upgrading the internal memory. Thanks again.
 

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