Making Norton Bootable

[huzzlar]

I am trying to make my images of "Norton
Utilities" and "Norton System Works" into a bootable
installer. Someone already recommended the
program "Bootcd." However, on their site http://
www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7957 under "more
information," it reads, "although Norton does not yet
work from the CD." Which are the images Im trying
to create a bootable cd with. Does anyone know if
Bootcd still works with Norton Utilities and Norton
System Works? Or recommend an alternative way? Is
it possible for me to burn my OSx system folder from
my harddrive to make the cd boot up? Thanks for
your help in advance.

-Tony

[Transient]

Boot Cd will make a bootable cd using the system installed on your hard disk. It will then ask you what applications you want to copy onto the cd. If you have Norton installed on your hard disk it should be copied, along with it's prefernce files, to the cd. However if Norton tries to write to the boot volume on startup then it will likely take exception and fail to start. I don't use Norton so can't say for sure. I have used Boot CD to create a startup disk containing Disk Warrior and Tech Tools Pro though, and they both work fine.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

What I used to do in the day was make a floppy disk that had a Ram Drive available, so that I could boot with the floppy disk, and then move the system folder to the Ram drive, from where I could eject the floppy disk out, and load other things.

Today, you might wish to make that CD-ROM, and also burn along with it a utility that you can make a RAM disk on the fly. Copy Norton to that Ram Disk, and then run from there. Granted, this means you are going to need some higher RAM in order to store and work with all this data, but that is what you are going to need to do if you need to write temp files and work on the hard drive.

Christian

[kc0arf]

Hi,

As an addendum... you could also try a USB flash drive (the little USB thumbdrive things that hold 256 MB or something like that) or you could put an external USB/Firewire drive. I like the Thumby idea. New-age and portable.

In the day, I had a Syquest EZDrive that had removable 128MB cartridges that I used.

Christian

[yellow]

I highly recommend that you NOT USE Norton fUtilities or System Works with OS X. It causes many more problems then it solves.

Norton's time with the Mac has passed away into legend. The OS X epoch belongs to Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro.

[huzzlar]

Hello, What I used to do in the day was make a floppy disk that had a Ram Drive available, so that I could boot with the floppy disk, and then move the system folder to the Ram drive, from where I could eject the floppy disk out, and load other things. Today, you might wish to make that CD-ROM, and also burn along with it a utility that you can make a RAM disk on the fly. Copy Norton to that Ram Disk, and then run from there. Granted, this means you are going to need some higher RAM in order to store and work with all this data, but that is what you are going to need to do if you need to write temp files and work on the hard drive. Christian

What is Ram Drive and can you provide the steps in either creating one or finding one? And what do you mean "make a RAM disk on the fly?" I have CR-R and iomega zip 100 both I could use to create it. Thanks for your help.

-Tony

[huzzlar]

I highly recommend that you NOT USE Norton fUtilities or System Works with OS X. It causes many more problems then it solves.

Norton's time with the Mac has passed away into legend. The OS X epoch belongs to Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro.

Could you suggest some links of credible review sites that might backup your claim? This is for my boss, and telling him that someone on the forum claims that Norton isn't good for OS X couldn't sound too nice. I have seen customer reviews on AMAZON.com and they all basically gave it one star, but they were running on 10.3(Panter). What if it is for OS 10.2.8? Thanks for your response.

-Tony

[kc0arf]

Hello,

A RAM Disk is a "disk" that is setup in RAM (memory). It behaves just like a traditional disk, with the following thoughts:

* It is in RAM, so a strict RAM disk will be lost if the computer crashes or reboots
* It is small in size, because it has to compete with other programs in memory
* It is REALLY REALLY FAST
* It is ideal for things that are temporary, and / or placing files that will have a lot of I/O interactions with their programs (such as compiling a program, or lots of little writes to a file).

More information may be found here:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020530084607311

Also, if you are looking for a quick program that does this, take a look at

http://www.clarkwoodsoftware.com/rambunctious/ramb2.html


By the way, Linux can use RAM disks too!

Christian

[yellow]

Could you suggest some links of credible review sites that might backup your claim? This is for my boss, and telling him that someone on the forum claims that Norton isn't good for OS X couldn't sound too nice. I have seen customer reviews on AMAZON.com and they all basically gave it one star, but they were running on 10.3(Panter). What if it is for OS 10.2.8? Thanks for your response.

It makes no difference if it's Panther, Jaguar, Puma, etc..

More (mostly bad) feedback here: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/9182
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/4350

More threads about how crappy it is:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=21134&highlight=norton+systemworks
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=7051&highlight=norton+systemworks
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=25874&highlight=norton+systemworks
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=21415&highlight=norton+systemworks
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=13791&highlight=norton+systemworks
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=13921&highlight=norton+systemworks

There's lots more at other places. Google, you'll find more. All I can tell you is I halp a lot of people on forums and I've read a lot more negatives then positives on NUM and NSW. If you HAVE to use it, DON'T install it, just run it off the CD.
Norton's time has passed into legend. They were the defacto gods of Mac utilities in OS 9 and preOS 9, but that time is over for OS X. They were late to get on the bandwagon and when they did, it was a junk offering. The time now belongs to Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro.
I've also read multiple posts at different places stating that Norton was no longer going to actively support future version of their disk utilities for the Mac.

[huzzlar]

It makes no difference if it's Panther, Jaguar, Puma, etc..

There's lots more at other places. Google, you'll find more. All I can tell you is I halp a lot of people on forums and I've read a lot more negatives then positives on NUM and NSW. If you HAVE to use it, DON'T install it, just run it off the CD. Norton's time has passed into legend. They were the defacto gods of Mac utilities in OS 9 and preOS 9, but that time is over for OS X. They were late to get on the bandwagon and when they did, it was a junk offering. The time now belongs to Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro. I've also read multiple posts at different places stating that Norton was no longer going to actively support future version of their disk utilities for the Mac.

Thx Yellow. What progams would you recommend that would offer something like speed disk and disk doctor for OS 10.2.8? Thats been proven credible, high reviews and now would most likely replace Norton?

[yellow]

As I posted above, Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro.

If you want to defrag, use Tech Tool Pro, there's a bundled defrag utility. Mac OS X defrags itself on the fly, but I think this was introduced in Panther.

I would also suggest upgrading to Panther. It's a very large step forward from Jaguar in speed and usability.

[huzzlar]

As I posted above, Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro.

If you want to defrag, use Tech Tool Pro, there's a bundled defrag utility. Mac OS X defrags itself on the fly, but I think this was introduced in Panther.

I would also suggest upgrading to Panther. It's a very large step forward from Jaguar in speed and usability.

Hey,

Thanks for all your help yellow. We booted up with Disk Warrior v3.0 CD, and rebuild the desktop, but the process got stuck at mid point even though the progress bar was still animating.

We used Disk Warrior in an attempt to fix another problem we're now experiencing.

First off, when our MAC is first booted, the screen isn't fullly lite. It is in a dark dim state, kind of like when an IBOOK goes into standby mode. Only when we put our MAC to sleep, and returning back from sleep does the monitor display return it normal in its bright state.

Also, occassionally, our mouse would just pause for a second or two before being able to move again.

Thanks again,
Tony