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Installing Snow Leopard onto an External Hard Drive

by Dan

When new versions of an operating system are released, its not uncommon to want to test out how the new software will work with your hardware, software, and data. The worst thing to experience is when your “upgrade” becomes a “downgrade” because none of your data is accessible or software available.

Apple recently released Snow Leopard and we walked readers through how to install snow leopard from a USB Drive. Now we’ll explain the steps on how to install snow leopard onto an External Hard Drive so users can test out the new OS X 10.6 without risking the potential negative impacts of an upgrade on their Leopard Installation.

Installing OS X Snow Leopard on an External Hard Drive

The steps to install Snow Leopard onto an external hard drive are very similar to the steps of booting OS X from a USB drive. In fact, if you have a large enough USB flash drive, you can use these same steps to install Snow Leopard on to it. This 128 GB USB Flash Drive can service just as well as a normal External Hard Drive, and may even run a bit faster than your typical HD.

  1. Insert the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD into your Mac, or boot into the USB Snow Leopard Installation we described in an earlier post.
  2. Open system preferences from the menu bar, select start up disks and then the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Install DVD. Click the restart button to start the installation process
  3. After your computer restarts continue through the introduction and agreement pages
  4. The External Hard Drive won’t currently be an option for installation so we’ll need to use Disk Utility to make some configuration changes. Select Utility from the Menu Bar to access Disk Utility.
  5. Once Disk Utility opens, select the External Hard Drive you’d like to install Snow Leopard onto and then Select Partition. From here select 1 Partition and then click Options. To allow the Mac to boot from the external hard drive, the drive must be setup with a GUID Partition Table. Select GUID.
  6. To make sure that you don’t mistake the External Drive for your normal Hard Drive, be sure to name the Volume something like “Snow Leopard”. Apply the changes and continue to the next step
  7. Exit DisK Utility and the installation window will return asking which volume you’d like to install snow leopard onto. Select the External Hard Drive that we partitioned with GUID (Named Snow Leopard) to continue the installation. Follow the instruction until the installation is complete.

The installation requires at least 8.1gb of space, so a normal 8gb flash drive won’t work. If you’re using an External Hard Drive you can install the complete installation (11gb). If this isn’t enough space be sure to customize the installation and remove printer settings and extra languages.

Snow Leopard Installation Time

Once the installation to my External Hard Drive started, it took 30 minutes to complete. The total install time including setting up the External Hard Drive as a GUID bootable device took close to 40 minutes.

This time depends completely on your computer settings and hard drive speeds.

Snow Leopard Installation Problems

I didn’t have any problems installing Snow Leopard to an External Hard Drive with the steps listed above, however after the installation completed it tried to reboot to the external hard drive on its own. It got stuck during the restart but powering off the Mac and starting again holding down alt (option) allowed me to select and boot from the hard drive.

Let us know what problems you’re having with your installation efforts and Maciverse will do our best to Help.

External Hard Drive Snow Leopard Speed

I’ll be the first to admit that I was amazed at the speed of the OS on the External Hard Drive. I expected Snow Leopard to run slower than the native hard drive but that wasn’t the case. Safari opened quickly, finder also was zippy, and the dock functioned without any speed issues. Moving files around and creating video with Quicktime X worked flawlessly.

It functioned so well that I’ve decided to do a fresh install on to my internal hard drive on my Mac. I’ll backup the data on the drive and follow the steps listed above but will select my internal hard drive as the volume.

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Snow Leopard Parental Controls

by Dan

As the internet continues to retain its Wild Wild West characteristics where individuals find ways of posting content that many feel is only appropriate for adults, Parents will continually look for ways to control what their children have access to while browsing the web.

We’ve discussed previously how the Macintosh Operating Systems have built in Parental Controls to help protect children from stumbling across content parents don’t want them to see. This is no different with Apple’s most recent OS, Snow Leopard.

Like the previous versions, Snow Leopardallows parents to create individual accounts for their children and then limit the applications they can use, files they have access to, and websites they can visit. Parental Controls can be configured from System Preferences

Manage Parental Controls from another Computer

One of the newer features in Snow Leopard Parental controls is the ability manage parental controls from other computers. After you’ve entered in your administrative password, you can check the option so that you can control access to accounts on other computers all from one Mac in your home.

Parental Controls.png

System Parental Controls

After you’ve created user accounts for your children, you can set system controls for your child’s account with Snow Leopard’s Parental Control features. In Parental Controls, select the user account and then the system tab.

Parental Controls-2.png

From here you can simplify the Finder interface, and limit the applications your child has access to. If you don’t want your child messing with Printer settings be sure to uncheck the Can administer Printers box.

Macintosh Web Content Parental Controls

The content tab of parental controls allows you to block profanity or inappropriate content from dictionaries and thesauruses on Snow Leopard.

Parental Controls-3.png

It also allows you to restrict website access. You can either setup Snow Leopard to limit adult website access automatically, or be more restrictive and setup the account to be only able to access sites you’re comfortable with. This option may be best for controlling internet access for smaller children who may click into a site you don’t want them accessing.

Protect Against People

The internet has become a great communications tool. Unfortunately it doesn’t have anyway to automatically keep people away from your children’s email or instant messages. Snow Leopard Parental Control features allow you to limit access to email, and limit iChat communications to only people you’ve approved.

Parental Controls-4.png

Additionally, permission requests can be sent to you to approve an email communication with someone you haven’t approved.

Time Limits with Snow Leopard

Sometimes your children will spend too much time on the computer and/or internet. Snow Leopard parental controls has built in capabilities to limit the amount of time and when your child has access to the computer.

Parental Controls-5.png

This includes setting time limits for school days, weekends, and at what time of night their access is turned off. You won’t have to worry about fighting for “5 more minutes” on the computer at bed time because Snow Leopard will just shut off your child’s account at that time.

Review Your Child’s Computer Activities

Snow Leopard Parental Controls also record the activities your child takes on the Macintosh. It stores these in logs that are accessible to administrators so that you can see what and when they’ve been doing on the computer. Find out who they’ve been talking to and what they’ve been saying while communicating on the internet.

Parental Controls-6.png

Conclusion

Like previous versions of Apple’s OS, Snow Leopard includes Parental Control features to help you protect your child from undesired information and content available on the internet.

Be sure to setup their accounts the way you feel best so that they can be productive, but also safe from the dangers found on the internet.

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Install OS X Snow Leopard from a USB flash drive

by Dan

The steps below will guide you through how to Install OS X Snow Leopard from a USB Flash Drive. If you want to skip the steps and get your USB installation drive quickly, check out our pre-configured USB Snow Leopard Installation Drive. Read on if you’d like to create a USB Installation yourself.

Apple officially released Snow Leopardyesterday and consumers could find the latest version of OS X at Apple Stores and resellers across the country.

At version 10.6, Snow Leopard, focused more on improving speed and performance than adding new features to OS X. With the operating system available to customers, individuals are ready for their upgrades.

Installing OS X From a USB Drive

Like other versions of OS X, Snow Leopard can be installed from a USB drive. This is especially beneficial to Macbook Air users looking to install the OS without a DVD drive. To do this, you’ll need to prepare your USB drive with the installation files. Like many of our other Mac Help articles, the steps listed below worked particularly for Snow Leopard but should also work for installing OS X from USB on Leopard.

The installation files sit at 6.2gb on the Snow Leopard DVD, so you’ll probably need a drive that has at least 8gb available. If you want your installation files to last against the elements, check out this 8 GB Water/Shock Resistant USB flash drive.

After you’ve gotten the correct USB device, connect it to your Mac and prepare it with the Snow Leopard installation files by following these steps:

NOTE:Depending on your flash drive, you may need to follow steps 5 – 7 on on installing onto a USB drive to make sure the drive is bootable before you get start.

  1. Open Disk Utility and select the Flash Drive
  2. Select the Erase tab on the right and then set Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Name the partition you’ll be creating Snow Leopard or OS X Install so you can keep track of your installation device. After you’ve done this, click the Erase button.
    3. UNTITLED 1.png
  3. After Disk Utility finishes erasing your old data on the flash drive and setting it as a new partition, it will be ready for the Snow Leopard install files. Select the Restore tab at the top and then drag the Snow Leopard DVD to the Source field. Select your USB device for the Destination file. Click Restore and wait for the restoration to finish (about 20 minutes).
    4. Disk Utility-1.png
  4. If the restoration worked correctly you should be able to open your USB device and see the Leopard installation files. If you try and click the Install OS X Snow Leopard icon, you’ll get the message below telling you you can’ install OS X from this volume. IGNORE the message. The next steps will walk you through the installation steps.
    5. Install Mac OS X.png
  5. Now that the installation files are successfully on your USB device, be sure to remove the Snow Leopard installation DVD from your drive. Next, restart your Mac and when it first starts to reboot, be sure to hold down the option (alt) key on your keyboard. After a few seconds at least two volumes should appear for you to select from for installation. One of those will be the USB drive we just prepared. Select it.
  6. After the Snow Leopard installation software boots from your USB drive, follow the on screen instructions for installation. It took about 38 minutes to install Snow Leopard on my machine from the USB drive. I’m curious to see how this compares to the average Mac users, please leave a post in the comments letting us know how long it took on your machine.
  7. After the installation finishes, it will reboot your computer into your new upgraded version of OS X, version 10.6 Snow Leopard
    8. About This Mac.png

This method works for installing OS X Snow Leopard onto a Mac from a USB Drive. It should also work for installing Leopard or other older versions of OS X on Intel Based Macs. Check back often for additional help and tips for your Mac.

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If the steps above sound complicated or too much of a hassle, we have a solution for you!  Get a pre-configured Snow Leopard Installation USB Flash Drive now!
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