Sorta off topic FCS, but Mac question about beloved Disk Warrior.

I used to always make the DiskWarrior CD my startup disk to run it.

I have just discovered that I can copy DW to my System Drive and it works fine on all but my System Disk. The only thing is wants - when you run it for the first time as a copy - is for you to enter your serial number. Fine.

Of course DW works a million times faster on a hard drive and you don't have to wait the normal interminable 15 minutes for the Mac to start up off the CD. And, by the way, I never understood why DW takes so long to get to square one. But that's another issue.

But, of course, it won't run on my Startup/System drive - I expected that.

What I now want to do is to install an absolute minimum SYSTEM on another hard drive so that I can restart from that drive and then have DW work on my System drive. Then I will never have to use the DW CD, right?

My question - at last - is this: What is the absolute minimum required to create a secondary startup system? A million years ago, in the days of the Mac Plus, you only need the "System" and "Finder" and it would start up ok. But now, given the massive size of modern Mac Systems, I suspect that one needs a good deal more.

Can any one give advice. I am reluctant to experiment without input because I'm deathly afraid that I may create a mini-startup system that could cause corruption or other harm.

Any observations, advice or insults would be appreciated.

All the best,

Harry The Idiot.

Why not make a bootable copy of the CD?

Harry-

One of the first things I do when I build up a machine is to create two partitions on the main drive. The second one can be small, 50 gig or so. I do an install of OSX on that second virtual drive, turning off most of the "extras" in the installer. Languages, printer drivers and such.

If the main boot volume needs maintenance I can boot off the second partition. You could then put your favorite tools on that as well.

Obviously if the drive mechanism fails, the second partition is not available. Perhaps a better method would be to make an external drive your second boot drive. OSX is more than willing to boot from a firewire drive. I am not sure about USB.

-V

I would get an external FW drive, and carbon copy clone it. Seems the easiest, cheapest most portable solution.

Don't compare this process to the olden days of OS9 (where you could just strip out extraneous System folders), OSX is a whole different beast. Just do a regular install from your OSX disk and don't sweat it. You can de-select other languages and extra printer drivers, otherwise there's nothing else to "cut."

JK

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SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Thanks very much for the advice, everyone.

It seems, per John K. that I can't do an OS9 thing and make a miniature start-up system or partition so, per advice, I will install a dupe system on an external drive and boot from that when I am "Warrioring" my main start-up drive.

But Andreas, in my massive ignorance, what do you mean by "Why not make a bootable copy of the CD?" How does this work and how it is achieved? Are you suggesting the same thing as John K?

Thank again to all for the useful information and kind advice.

Best,

Harry.

Harry,

Sorry I was bit short on my reply.
I assumed that you will take an external for the minimal system. You can take Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the minimal System from the CD to a external hard disk (or even an USB stick) - but make sure you check the 'bootable' option.

Andreas

Oh. OK. Many thanks.

Harry.