[Macworld]

Post your comments for Can an SD card startup disk be used on any Mac? here

[don731]

Could this work on a Macbook Pro using the expresscard slot with an appropriate card reader?

[cycomachead]

I think all the Intel macs can boot off SD cards...I wonder if the macbook that didn't work was simply because of different hardware codes used? Using the combo update was a smart idea, but I wonder if there might be something else.

[fds]

The failure on the MacBook is most surprising.
All Intel Macs should be able to boot from USB.
Most of the later model PowerPC Macs could do it too, as long as the drive is formatted to use the Apple Partition Map scheme rather than GPT.
You could also try to use a FireWire or a PC Card reader for old PowerBooks.

[CanyonWeasel]

For older Mac laptops with a PCMCIA slot, can you boot off of an SD card plugged into an adapter in the PCMCIA slot? Also, same question for Compactflash cards.

[TheBum]

I can affirm that USB booting does work on a first-generation MacBook Pro (Core Duo).

[effe]

I would guess that whatever intel mac is able to boot out of a SD card, compactflash, usb flashdrive as easily as it can out of a usb HD… as it's recognized as an external usb storage…
Never tested other than a usb hd though, but will make a test ASAP :)

[gandhi]

besides the size and durability question, what significant advantages would there be? Would it be more than 2x faster to do that vs a laptop dvd drive? How corrupt-able are SD cards???

[Dan_Crane_II]

What about iMac or Mac Pro?
The practical use for this is really as a portable emergency boot disk.
Keep up the great investigation!

[effe]

Well, tested on a 2007 macbook pro (2.33) with an 8Go UDMA 300x compactflash card, with standard usb reader. It works seemlessly, if a bit on the slow side? Maybe one can get a better speed using a fast flashdrive ??

cheers

[rloyola]

cycomachead said:

I think all the Intel macs can boot off SD cards...I wonder if the macbook that didn't work was simply because of different hardware codes used? Using the combo update was a smart idea, but I wonder if there might be something else.

I was thinking that same thing you were regarding the MacBook. I ran out of time, otherwise I would've tried creating a startup SD card using the MacBook's OS installation disc. Something on my to-do list.

[rloyola]

don731 said:

Could this work on a Macbook Pro using the expresscard slot with an appropriate card reader?

I didn't test this because I don't have an ExpressCard reader available. I'm looking for one, though.

[CVBruce]

So I guess the next question is, what is the impact on the SDHC card? Will running /swap, or whatever Mac OS X uses for VM cause premature failure of the card?

[melgross]

How about my SanDisk Firewire 800 reader and a Compact Flash card?
I'd rather try that. I don't have an extra card right now to try it with though.