Intel OS X drives not bootable on PPC Macs
Here's something no one seemed to
consider about Apple's move to Intel: Can you use an external drive to boot OS X on both Intel- and PPC-based Macs? Jon
"Wolf" Rentzsch says nooo, sir. According to
Rentzsch, if you have a bootable drive with a copy of Intel OS X, you cannot use that drive to boot PPC-based Macs --
and vice-versa. Why? Because Apple changed the boot partition scheme used on newer Macs: "GPT [Intel's boot
scheme] replaces Apple Partition Map (APM) as the boot partition scheme for Intel-based Macs. And therein lies the
rub," writes Rentzsch. "Intel-based Macs can't boot from older APM drives, and PowerPC-based Macs can't boot
from newer GPT drives."Rats. This could certainly complicate things for tech supporters who rely on bootable drives to troubleshoot machines, as well as average folks who own both Intel- and PPC-based Macs.
Rentzsch outlines the grim details in his article for TidBITs -- definitely worth a read if you're curious.
[via rentzsch.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
justin said 7:52AM on 2-01-2006
Meh, old news - though it wasn't like it was shouted from the rooftops by Apple, but a lot of news sites picked this up right away.
"This could certainly complicate things for tech supporters who rely on bootable drives to troubleshoot machines..."
Chances are tech supporters like myself already have to have multiple builds for PPC-based Macs already, so what's one more? Heck, we've got a completely separate image just for the scrolling trackpad iBooks, as older builds cause issues on these machines.
"You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. Mac OS X on Intel startup requires GUID Partition Scheme."
Good article buuuut, that's a total Windows error message. The average user wouldn't know what the heck that means - this is Apple, remember?
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Chris Meisenzahl said 8:03AM on 2-01-2006
Very interesting. There will be some minor hiccups and growing pains. But in the end, I think this will be a successful transformation. The move from the 68000 series to the PowerPC platform didn't get enough press imho. I think it was an engineering feat in that customers were harldy interrupted.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/Very interesting. There will be some minor hiccups and growing pains. But in the end, I think this will be a successful transformation. The move from the 68000 series to the PowerPC platform didn't get enough press imho. I think it was an engineering feat in that customers were harldy interrupted.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
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Peter Mankarious said 12:05PM on 2-01-2006
Just have two installs on external disks...
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Felix said 12:18PM on 2-01-2006
GPT sounds like "I farted" in french (J'ai p?)
Not that you need to care...
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Wheels said 12:31PM on 2-01-2006
I assumed this from the beginning. It is an inconvenience, but not Earth Shattingly so, IMHO.
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Andrew Montgomery said 2:52PM on 2-01-2006
The GUID Partition Table is part of the new firmware that Intel Macs are using: Extended Firmware Interface (EFI)... which is super cool. Yes, a bit frustrating during the transition. But worth it, I think. No complaints from me. =)
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Sam said 9:18PM on 2-01-2006
Slightly more confusing is the fact that Intel Macs format external drives with APT by default, so if left in the default mode when formatting they won't be able to boot from those drives. On an Intel Mac, you'll have to explicitly set it to GPT to get a bootable external drive. (On the plus side, yay booting from USB!)
Something I haven't seen any mention of one way or the other is whether PowerPC Macs can read GPT (Intel Macs can obviously read APM).
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