Any way to upgrade OSX from USB or HDD?

crótach

I think I have a broken DVD drive on my Macbook Pro. I picked up Snow Leopard looking to upgrade from 10.4 Tiger and I don't think it's reading the disc properly.

I can boot off it, but after a few seconds the Apple logo turns into the crossed-out circle and that's the end of it.

I haven't used the laptop DVD drive much, and I've tried playing a DVD on it that I know works on other machines and it is region 2, and it won't play. It also won't play music CDs.

Is there any way I can do a Mac OSX install from a USB stick or external hard drive? I made an image of the Snow Leopard DVD on my Windows PC, then transferred it over to the MAC and tried to get Disk Utility to move it to a USB stick via "restore" option from image, but that just throws errors.

If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it. I have no other macs in the house but I do have a few other windows machines, and could even share the files over the network if it was possible to install Mac OSX that way.

Thanks!

pocketse

As far as i know you cannot install over a network. The only option i can think of is to borrow another mac. Link the two by firewire and put the second in target disc mode. The second macs drive will then appear on you desktop. Other than that i don't know.

acous

My internal DVD drive is dead too. I've installed from a usb hard drive several times. You're on the right track with the "restore" option in Disk Utility, you probably need to do "images - scan image for restore" in the menus first. I can't remember if you're supposed to restore to the drive or the partition, but try both.

If it doesn't work, there might be something disk utility doesn't like about the .iso. I don't know much about making isos in windows, just be sure it's grabbing the mac filesystem off the dvd. I've heard of some cases where only the windows portion of the dvd is imaged.

was.deevey

May need to verify the ISO before attempting the restore.

banquo

I've done it from USB! Consult the Internet.

The Big Gig

If it's from an install disc received with another mac I dont think it will work as they are linked to the mac they are purchased with.

miralize

This should help http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/usbflash.htm

cornbb

Try doing this. Get a business card and wrap it in soft black microfibre cleaning cloth that came with your Mac. Insert it into your superdrive and gently rub it in and out, to clean the lens.

Dunno if its safe/recommended, but it worked for me when my superdrive was unresponsive.

crótach

Thanks lads, I managed to get it working from another disc, I guess my superdrive is quite picky. But I'll try the business card trick, the lens could be dirty, since it's having problems with almost every CD/DVD I put in.