Bootable HD enclosure?

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pailface88@yahoo.com - 22 Jul 2005 01:48 GMT

I bought an external firewire/USB 2.0 hard drive in an enclosure and
after getting it I discovered that it cannot be used as a boot drive. I
emailed the company and they confirmed this.

I just asked a seller on eBay if his external firewire HD enclossure
was bootable and he responded saying no, and that he thought most were
not. News to me!

Can anybody recommend a 3.5 inch Firewire 400 HD enclosure that IS
bootable, that I can use with my G4 iBook?
TIA

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TaliesinSoft - 22 Jul 2005 02:37 GMT

> I bought an external firewire/USB 2.0 hard drive in an enclosure and
> after getting it I discovered that it cannot be used as a boot drive. I
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> bootable, that I can use with my G4 iBook?
> TIA

My understanding is that the controller in the enclosure has to use the
so-called Oxford chip set in order to boot. As did you, I found out the hard
way that not all enclosures are bootable. I have in the past been able to
purchase enclosures that would boot, but I honestly can't remember the
brands.

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James L. Ryan -- TaliesinSoft

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pailface88@yahoo.com - 22 Jul 2005 14:30 GMT

An enclosure that I asked an ebay seller about and was told "non
bootable" says this in the ebay add:
· FireWire - Oxford Semiconductor OXF911-TQ-A
So at least the seller says this one is not bootable for whatever that
is worth to anyone reading this thread.

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Fred McKenzie - 22 Jul 2005 17:02 GMT

> An enclosure that I asked an ebay seller about and was told "non
> bootable" says this in the ebay add:
> =B7 FireWire - Oxford Semiconductor OXF911-TQ-A
> So at least the seller says this one is not bootable for whatever that
> is worth to anyone reading this thread.

Pailface-

My StarTech model IDECASE35F has the OXFW911-TO-A chip, with date code of
0321. (I assume that means it was manufactured the 21st week of 2003.) I
can't swear that the "TO" isn't a "TQ", but that is the way it looked to
me.

With a 125 GB Seagate drive, I used the OS 10.4 installation disk's Disk
Utility program to "restore" my PowerBook's HD to the Seagate in the FW
enclosure. I was then able to boot the PowerBook from the external FW HD,
which had OS 10.3.9 installed.

It is my understanding that StarTech subsequently changed their chipset to
support larger HDs. Mine doesn't. I don't know if the new chip set is
bootable or not. You might check out http://www.startech.com/ if you are
interested. If you call their support line, be prepared for being on hold
for a while.

Fred

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Gregory Weston - 22 Jul 2005 22:35 GMT

> I bought an external firewire/USB 2.0 hard drive in an enclosure and
> after getting it I discovered that it cannot be used as a boot drive. I
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Can anybody recommend a 3.5 inch Firewire 400 HD enclosure that IS
> bootable, that I can use with my G4 iBook?

I've got a few 2.5" and 3.5" enclosures that are bootable. In fact, I
frequently boot my iBook from a bus-powered 2.5" drive. I'd recommend
going to <http://eshop.macsales.com/>.

G

Signature

Goal 2005: Convincing James Hetfield to cover the Strawberry Shortcake
"Are You Berry Berry Happy?" song.

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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / July 2005

Bootable HD enclosure?