How To Burn Bootable Disks & Install OS X from External Volumes 

Create a Bootable Disk Image with Disk Utility, Toast, or on a PC & How to Install OS X from a Partition, External Firewire Drive, Second Computer in FireWire Target Disk Mode, or iPod 

These instructions are tried and true and provided specifically for those who prefer the least number of problems in the long run, those who prefer a step by step guide, and those are new Mac owners. 

  As always, a Clean Install/Erase & Install is the *best choice* to avoid potential problems 
The other choices are "Archive and Install" or "Update Mac OS X" 
This way, you can start fresh and - if you want to - use Disk Utility to create partitions before you install. Partitions can come in handy especially when needing to troubleshoot your Startup Volume. If you have at total of at least three partitions, you can have two sized specifically for OS X installs. This way, when a new one comes out, you can perform a clean install on the one that is not your startup volume. You can familiarize yourself with the new OS and make sure your regular applications are stable before erasing your existing system. Other partitions are for media and applications which do not require being installed on the startup volume. 

  Do I need to back up my drive before installing or upgrading? 
The choice is yours (it is highly recommended). It only takes once to lose valuable data and wish you had performed a backup. The most recommended software for this is Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html There are plenty of threads on this so do a search for more info. 

  How to BURN bootable disk image using Disk Utility 
Easier, less steps than using Toast 
 1) Launch  Disk Utility 
 2) Click Burn (upper left) 
 3) Navigate to and select the DMG file (do not drag and drop). 
 4) Click "choose" 
 5) Insert disk when prompted and BURN. 

  How to BURN bootable disk image using Toast 
Yes, it really is possible. 
 1) Get Info on the .dmg and "lock" it, then double clicking on the .dmg to mount it 
 2) Launch  Toast 
 3) Select "Data" 
 4) Show Disc Options window (upper left corner) and click "Advanced" tab and elect "Mac Volume" button 
 5) In main winow area click "Select", then highlight the mounted volume to be burned (do not drag and drop) 
 6) Uncheck "Optimize on-the-fly" 
 7) Click "OK" and Burn. 

 What do I do with an ISO (disk image) that contains RAR files? 
Mount the ISO image on your desktop. Use  UnRarX (http://homepage.mac.com/pnoriega/unrar.html) to join the segmented RAR files into one complete DMG (disk image) file. (Avoid Stuffit to join .rar files.) DO NOT MOUNT or open the DMG file before installing. 

 How to install OS X from a Partition, External Firewire Drive, Second Computer in FireWire Target Disk Mode, or iPod 
USB will not work 
1. Mount your partition, external firewire drive, second computer in FireWire Target Disk Mode or iPod as a volume on your desktop and make sure you have at least three gigs of free space available. 
2. Launch /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility 
3. In the left window of Disk Utility, select the volume mounted on your desktop that you want to install from. 
 4. Click Restore tab (upper right of window). 
 5. Drag the icon (left window) of the volume you want to restore from [Example: Tiger.iso or Tiger.dmg] to the Source field. (.iso & .dmg are both disk image files) 
6. Drag the icon (left window) of your partition, external firewire drive, second computer in FireWire Target Disk Mode or iPod to the Destination field. You have a choice to checkmark "Erase Destination" so that it will erase the volume first, before restoring the installer onto that volume. If you do not wish to erase the volume and you want to keep your existing files on that volume, do not checkmark the "Erase Destination" option. Erasing a volume results in a clean volume. Erase Destination is NOT necessary, just be sure you have at least three gigs of free space available on that volume first or errors will result. 
 7. Click the Restore button (bottom right). 
 8. Go to Finder and rename your "Destination Volume" to:  Mac OS X Install DVD 
9. Go to the Apple in the upper left corner of the menu bar at the top. Scroll down to System Preferences. In the fourth row down select Startup Disk. Select the Mac OS X Install DVD. 
 10. Reboot. 
[Thanks to bobster] 

This method runs the installer as if you were booting directly from the Mac OS X Install DVD (acts as a virtual DVD installer). If you do not need more than your language, don't install extra languages or printer drivers, etc you can save well over a gig of space on your startup volume. You'll also save yourself installation time. For more on this, do a google search, go to http://macosxhints.com, http://macfixit.com, http://macintouch.com, or see the Take Control Series eBooks on Panther or Tiger: http://www.takecontrolbooks.com (Link to Tiger exerpt below.) 

 What if I get an error while restoring? 
 If you don't have a root account set up, here's what you do: 
 1) Restart your computer. 
 2) Open  NetInfo Manager, it should be located in Utilities in your Applications folder 
 3) Open the Security menu and select Authenticate 
 4) Enter an Administrator's username/password 
 5) Open the Security menu again and select Enable Root User 
 6) Create a secure password for 'root' 
 7) Login as root using the password you just created 
[Thanks to macaddct1984] 

 "Update" or "Archive and Install" Tips 
Be sure to use Disk Utility to Repair Disk and Repair Permissions. If you have used these methods in the past and had problems with applications that should work, there is a good chance it is because permissions were not repaired immediately before and after updating. If you choose Archive and Install, make sure you have enough hard drive space. Less than 3GB free is not enough. If you'd like detailed explainations of these methods before deciding, see the Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger link below. 

 Mac OSX System Update Procedure should always be as follows: 
 1) Make sure your hard drive is in good shape: Boot from the OS X Install CD and run Disk Utility's Repair Disk function (or use a third-pary drive utility such as DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro). 
 2) When booted from the volume containing Mac OS X, run Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions function. 
 3) Install the update. 
 4) After rebooting, again run Repair Disk Permissions. 
"We've found that using this update procedure avoids many of the common problems reported by readers after each update to OS X," MacFixIt reports. Not skipping any steps in this update procedure creates less headaches in the long run. 

 What if the disk I just burned is giving me an error? 
Hint: Burn at 1X, 2X or 4X. The slower the burn, the less room for errors, it takes time to do things right. 

Hint: Use DVD-R media, not DVD+R media. For many years by default, Apple's DVD drives were DVD-R only. Apple's default drive hardware has only moved to DVD+R within the past year or so. If you have an older Mac, you need to swap out your internal drive or get an external DVD+/-R(W) drive to view or record DVD+R. 

Hint: Use quality DC/DVD media. There are many variations in media and it really can make a difference. To find out what media works best for your specific brand and model of burner, go here:  http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia?&all=1 Under the "Burnt with this DVD Writer" pull down menu, click on the pull down once to open it and then use your keyboard to type in the brand you have and then use your up/down arrow keys to scroll to the specific model number. Hit return on your keyboard once you've specified the burner you are working with. Click the "Search List or Media" button. 

You now have a list of media that consumers have commented on when used with your burner. And you can sort the view the results by selecting any of the following for example: 
View all ordered by Comment 
View all ordered by Compatibility       
View all ordered by Popularity 

This way you can find what media works best with your burner. If you have your own experiences with different brands, please contribute your own comments to their database to help others in the future.

Hint: If you're considering a new optical drive, NEC and Pioneer are highly recommended brands by many Mac users. At the time of this writing:
Rated NEC writers are receiving an 8.1 thru 9.4 out of 10 here: 
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDname=nec&cdrs=&cdrws=&dvdrs=&dvdrws=&dvdrsdl=&dvdprs=&dvdprws=&dvdprsdl=&dvdrams=&buffer=Any&cdrom=&dvdrom=&orderby=Name&hits=25&Submit=Search&Search=Search 

Rated Pioneer writers are receiving an 7.4 thru 9.0 out of 10 here: 
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDname=pioneer&Submit=Search&cdrs=&cdrws=&dvdrs=&dvdrws=&dvdrsdl=&dvdprs=&dvdprws=&dvdprsdl=&dvdrams=&buffer=Any&cdrom=&dvdrom=&orderby=Name&hits=25&Search=Search 

The difference is that Pioneer optical drives are natively supported with OS X and NEC is not (unless this has changed with any new drives or updates within the last few monts) but this is easily solved with PatchBurn http://www.patchburn.de/ 

Price differences are going to be in speed and capability. Dual layer and DVD+R capability will increase your price. Internal will be less expensive than external.

 Help! What do these error codes mean? 
Mac OS System Error Codes: 1 to 32767 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=9806 

   Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger: Choosing an upgrade method for OS X 10.4 
http://www.macworld.com/2005/04/features/takecontroltigerupgrade/index.php 
Highly recommend for novice and advaced users. 

  Everything You Need to Know to Install Tiger 
 http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/04/29/tiger.html 
From O'Reilly's Mac Developer Center 

  Troubleshooting Mac OS X installation 
Straight from Apple. 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106693 

  Housecleaning Tips for Tiger 
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/04/26/tiger.html

  Tiger's 200+ New Features
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/over200.html 

  What is Firewire Target Disk Mode? 
You can use FireWire to connect your computer to another Mac and have one of the computers appear as an external hard disk on the other computer. This is sometimes called Target Disk Mode. 

To transfer files using FireWire Target Disk Mode: 
1) Shut down the first computer and leave the second computer on. 
2) Connect the two computers using a 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable. (If both computers have higher-speed FireWire 800 ports in addition to the standard FireWire 400 ports, you can use a 9-pin to 9-pin cable with the FireWire 800 ports to transfer data at higher speeds.) 
3) Start up the first computer while holding down the T key. A disk icon for the first computer appears on the desktop on the second computer. Drag files to and from the disk to transfer them. 
4) When you finish, eject the first computer's disk by dragging its icon to the Trash. 
5) Push the power button on the first computer to shut it down an disconnect the FireWire cable. 

What if I have a third party internal dvd burner or external burner? 
Both Toast and Dragon Burn http://www.ntius.com/default.asp?p=dragonburn/dburn4_main support external dvd burners natively. 
However, for Disk Utility to burn to an external dvd burner you need to add your paticular dvd burner to your Mac OS X profile. Do this with PatchBurn http://www.patchburn.de/. 

   How to burn a bootable Mac disk image on a PC 
Yes, this one really is possible too! 

Prepare the disk image on your Mac first: 
 1. MOUNT on your desktop the disk image you want to burn with your PC 
If you get info on the mounted image and it says [HFS in input/output] go straight to step 7. 
 2. Launch Disk Utility and highlight the icon of the disk image you just mounted that you want to burn in the lower left area of the Disk Utility window. 
 3. In the Disk Utility menu bar under Images Scroll down to New> Image from (mounted disk image name here). 
 4. In the "Save As" field, type: Mac OS X Install DVD and change the "Format" drop down menu to "read/write disk image". 
 Click the "Create" button. 
 5. Launch Toast. Under "Utilities" in the menu bar, scroll down to "Compare". 
 Drag and drop the original mounted disk image to to the "Original" field. 
Drag and drop the new mounted disk image to to the "Copy" field and click the "Start" button. 
 If any files are missing, drag and drop them from the mounted original onto your new mounted disk image. 
 6. Unmount both the original and new disk images by selecting them on your desktop and hitting [apple] + [E] on your keyboard. 
 7. In Disk Utility, select the "Convert" icon. Navigate to and select the new DMG file. 
 In the "Save As" field input: Mac OS X Install DVD and change the "Image Format" drop down menu to "DVD/CD master". 
 Click the "Save" button. 
 8. In Finder, go to the file you just created. 
 In this case is should be named as follows: Mac OS X Install DVD.cdr. 
 Change the name to: Mac OS X Install DVD.iso 
 9. Transfer the "Mac OS X Install DVD.iso" to the PC you are using to burn to disk. 
10. Burn as raw ISO image using any application of your choice (Nero for example). 
[Thanks to dmucie & Xcalm]

 What is the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R? 
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html 
http://www.americal.com/pg/dvd-r-faq.html 
http://macforum.torrentskickass.com/viewtopic.php?p=54626 
http://www.americal.com/pg/dvd-r-faq.html 
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso 

Good luck! Hope this helps!

Spire