Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, Freeware
DasBoot makes iPod into a bootable drive
Jason O'Grady over at ZDNet posted about DasBoot from SubRosaSoft. (Don't you love both the name of the product and the company!?) DasBoot allows you to turn your iPod (or a spare flash drive) into an OS X bootable disk. Feed it any third-party bootable CD, like the ones shipped from Disk Warrior or Data Rescue II, and DasBoot will set up your iPod to boot and access those utilities. After all, what are you more likely to carry around in your pocket, Your Disk Warrior CD or your iPod?
Best of all, DasBoot is free. Thanks SubRosaSoft!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
his noodly appendage said 6:26PM on 2-07-2007
Funny name. Quick fact, Das Boot is German for "the boat", and is actually pronounced like "boat". It is also the name of one of the greatest war movies of all time.
I like the boot icon though, even if it doesn't have anything to do with "Das Boot".
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adm said 6:31PM on 2-07-2007
i thought i had read somewhere that the hard drives in iPods were not really designed for the constant writing that using it as a boot disk required.
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Rafita said 6:32PM on 2-07-2007
Would it boot those Linux LiveCDs?
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Random said 3:27PM on 2-08-2007
Who DOESN'T carry around a disk warror CD in their pocket? All the cool kids are doing it
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Gerard van Schip said 7:49PM on 2-07-2007
I don't follow, I have been booting of my iPod for ages... or is that something that is no longer possible with newer iPods?
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Matt said 7:47PM on 2-07-2007
My 3g iPod can boot my Mac without third party software ;-p
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Josh said 10:25PM on 2-07-2007
Booting from an iPod has always been possible and has ALWAYS been a BAD idea. As a previous poster commented the disks are NOT designed for the intensive read/writes that take place on a boot disk.
Building software that make this all the more easy is very irresponsible and I hope that post a warning that this could kill your iPod!
Don't believe me? Install an OS on your iPod. See how long it lasts. Then post back here so we all know...
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kameleon SubRosa said 1:40AM on 2-08-2007
I do love the name,...
http://kameleon.typepad.com/subrosa/2005/03/le_sens_des_mot.html
http://kameleon.typepad.com/subrosa/
Thanks, Merci! for your technical advices...
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Zimmie said 1:21PM on 2-08-2007
Josh - My 10 GB touch-wheel iPod lasted for over a year as a boot drive. The only reason I'm not using it anymore is that it was stolen just about a year and a half ago.
Cool story. At that point, I was working with some guys on an experimental curriculum meant to train information security admins. We were using my PowerBook for all of the materials we generated. Well ... my PowerBook's hard drive died. Fortunately for us, I'm obsessive about backups, so we only lost a few hours of work. I ran my PowerBook exclusively from my iPod for over a week of constant use so that we could present our results before shipping it off to Apple for repairs.
We ended up giving a presentation to some higher-ups from my PowerBook booting from my iPod. We even brought it in as an example of why proper backup policies are a necessity.
Better yet, my newer, 80 GB iPod with video actually runs *much* cooler than my 10 GB used to.
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