Need to boot/reinstall system from external hard drive

J

jay5782

Registered
I'm selling my old Powerbook G4. Before I let it go, I want to wipe the hard drive and reinstall OS 10.4. I also would like to run disk first aid because I suspect there may be some corruption.

The problem: I still have the original system install DVDs that came with the laptop, but the DVD drive no longer works. It just spins the disks for a bit then spits them back out.

I do have an external USB hard drive with plenty of free space. Is there a way I can copy the install DVDs (there's a Disc 1 and Disc 2) to the external hard drive, then boot from that drive and treat it like I'm installing from the DVDs? I also have my new MacBook Pro with a working DVD drive. Can I make my Powerbook boot from a CD in the MacBook's drive? If not, how else can I wipe my system and reinstall the OS without a working DVD drive? I've searched and searched for solutions with no success.

Thanks!
 
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Have you tried to place the install DVD in your MacBook Pro and then connect with FireWire and in FireWire mode (CMD+T, hold while the MacBook Pro is booting then when you start up your PowerBook G4, it should see the MacBook Pro and you will be able to see the discs/hard drive on that computer and install. It may take longer but it should work.
 
I have not tried that. Will it work with an Ethernet crossover cable too, or do I have to go out and buy a firewire cable?
 
It will only work with a FireWire with on OS X 10.4 Tiger. Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard opened the door/way for USB to work as well. I have not tried the option of ethernet. You can try to do it with (CMD+N). The only reference I have on that is that it will attempt to boot from the network server (using BOOTP or TFTP). Further keys combos can be found at http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html
 
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