Installing Mac OS 8.1 or System 7.6.1 from CF card?

[FacnyFreddy]

Is it possible to use a CF<->PCMCIA adapter to install MacOS 8.1 onto a 5300? I know the 5300 can boot from PCMCIA (CF card) but can it do the same for OS 8.1?

I'm trying to do a "clean" install of both OS's onto my 5300cs and 5300ce now that I have the mSATA<->IDE adapters installed.

I'd like to try and avoid using the 4x CDROM drive I have as it is slower than I would like.

My goal is to get all the most recent updates loaded on to my 5300's and have them rockin once more. (I might do just 8.1 on the 5300ce)

I dug out my backup Zip disks from college and want to get the data installed and relive some fond memories... 

 

[Cory5412]

The short answer is yes. You should be able to copy the contents of an 8.1 installation CD onto a CF card and then boot from it. Failing that, you can install 8.1, then copy the installer files to it and use that to install.

If you get a pretty big CF card, it could make it very convenient to quickly install different configurations of OSes and software.

The long answer is, how often are you going to be reinstalling all the software? Installing Mac OS onto my 6100, which has either a CD300i or 600i (forget which) isn't fast but it's also not really that bad, given that I do it less than once a year. (I've had my 6100 almost three years now and I've only ever installed the OS once.)

It may not be worth the effort to try to set this up, even for two machines, for the amount of time you'll save installing system 8 once.

 

[Cory5412]

I didn't notice "or 7.6.1" on the top here.

You can make a bootable drive then copy the contents of the installer CDs for any number of different versions onto a big enough CF card. 7.6.1, 8.1, and 9.1 are the versions I'd consider having for 4-digit era PowerBooks. Make the CF card boot 8.1, and then use the 7.6.1 media from either the 2400/3400 or the last-gen 1400 for best compatibility with different PowerBooks.