Generic and universal test drive

Rford

New member
so I've been using an old HDD with Sierra on it and a USB adapter as a stand alone test drive. It has stopped working correctly. I would like to do know what people are using as a test OS? Is there one that will boot on 2010 up? I would like to use an SSD for this. Does it matter what I do in this regard? I will buy an ssd with OS on it already. Is one better than the other? (This is of course only referring to Apple laptops)

TIA
 
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PhilipC

New member
I use a 120gb ssd, with Sierra and el Capitan (for older machines) installers for both of them and the os efi. You can only have something like 16 partitions per drive I put the efi asd on a thumb drive
 

G.Beard

New member
A single drive with lots of ASD partitions is all well and good but if you have "screw monkies" working for you, or if you don't remember off the top of your head what ASD is for what machine... It don't half get fucking confusing when you're looking at 10 different ASD boot options on a 13" inch screen!
 

PhilipC

New member
No Title

It's not that bad if done like this, Thinking of making icons with the machines that each asd supports dont know if it will all fit though
 

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smiba

New member
How did you manage this without breaking the EFI/OS ASD's?

I've had this exact idea before but I didn't manage to make it work. the OS can't find the partition and crashes and the EFI just stays blank.
 

PhilipC

New member
No Title

Just partition the drive and restore the images, somewhere in the pdf's with the asd stuff it mentions how big a partition needs to be for OS and EFI.

Just finished a set of new icons, if anyone want them i'll put them up. This image is on a 11" air
 

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G.Beard

New member
Just partition the drive and restore the images, somewhere in the pdf's with the asd stuff it mentions how big a partition needs to be for OS and EFI.

Just finished a set of new icons, if anyone want them i'll put them up. This image is on a 11" air

Well, that's a jolly good idea! The simplest solutions are always the best.
Would you upload those icons somewhere please?
 

iambehr

Member
We set up a Mac Mini running the server app and added all of the AST images to it as netboot images. It limits the images to only show for the correct models I believe. Also have netboot images of 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, and 10.12. Set up the install apps as net install images for 10.7-10.12.
Option booting from the network for diagnostics is a lot more convenient.
Also have a 2.5" ssd w/ several test installs of various versions, and the two latest OS installers.
 

PhilipC

New member
Well, that's a jolly good idea! The simplest solutions are always the best.
Would you upload those icons somewhere please?

They sure are! Sorry its been a while got caught up in moving.
 

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smiba

New member
Just partition the drive and restore the images, somewhere in the pdf's with the asd stuff it mentions how big a partition needs to be for OS and EFI.

Oh hey it seems my setup actually worked but my copy of ASD I tested it with was just bad haha

It worked on other models

I just named the partitions something like 148E or 148O, simple solution without having to screw around setting up icons.
 

PhilipC

New member
For some reason names wont show up on some machines, it will just show up as "EFI BOOT" thats ultimately why i ended up doing it with icons.
 
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