The first thing we're going to need to do is erase the drive, formatting it- in preparation to install the new OS to it. Now that's out of the way, let's get started.įor our example, we're going to use a 3G, 30GB iPod. You may not need to erase the iPod completely, in our tests we found that it worked better (in most cases) and if you're going to use a PC iPod then you need to format it to a Mac File system any way.

But, even with that said- the biggest reason thus will eventually kill your iPod is-the heat that will be generated inside the iPod from this much use isn't what the iPod was designed for, so at some point you can and will fry your iPod.Īlso, to do this we're going to completely erase the iPod, making it useless for anything else beside booting in to another operating system (until you restore it using the iPod update utility).>

It's okay to boot from it from time to time, but the little drives are rated to about 20,000 hours while desktop drives are usually rated to 750,000 hours or more. The reason is that the little iPod hard drive wasn't meant to be a full-time operating system drive. Operating System to install to iPod (we used Tiger and Mac OS X)īefore we get started, we should warn you that doing this can and will use your iPod in a way it was not intended and may severely shorten the life of your iPod. Mac OS X 10.3.5 is what we're using for the target machine IPod (most iPods should work, but the mini will not) At the end of this article, we also point to a way to simply back up your home directory (or anything else to your iPod) which can be handy too, and even used in conjunction with this HOW-TO). This HOW-TO is also helpful for trying out new software (on another OS), running developer versions of Mac OS (like Mac OS X Server or Tiger) as well as having a way to repair your Mac if for some reason it cannot boot on its own.

This week's HOW-TO is a handy one for the Mac folks out there who want to run multiple operating systems, but not install them to their hard drive, all using an iPod as a bootable FireWire drive.

For ipod instal Inside Out