4 ms·

The bootable disk function of iPods was really something else. It saved me multiple times through the years, at one point even functioning as a primary boot dri

The bootable disk function of iPods was really something else. It saved me multiple times through the years, at one point even functioning as a primary boot drive when the HD in my sunflower iMac G4 gave up the ghost. I wish modern smartphones had a similar capability. I know Android phones let you copy files to them via MTP, but that’s not even a fraction as good as the portable HD function of iPods was.

GekkePrutser 5y ago
Well it was really just a fancy external drive. It's more because of macOS happily booting from any kind of external device that makes this happen.
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  That’s true, I remember being a bit confused when I found that Windows was extremely picky about what it booted from, with weird hacks being required to boot a Win2K or XP installer from anything other than an optical disc. Both OS 9 and OS X were pretty lax about that.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Yeah I booted from USB HDD for a while in the XP days but it was necessary to edit the registry to make sure all USB related drivers would load at an earlier stage during boot. And installing any updates would usually revert this, leading to an unbootable system :/ Not sure if this still works like that but it was a total PITA.
- kccqzy 5y ago
  A friend of mine even booted from an SD card.
  - JadeNB 5y ago
    That must have been slooooow.
GranPC 5y ago
If your device is rooted you can use USB Mountr [0] to achieve the functionality you describe. [0]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/streetwalrus.usbmountr/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/streetwalrus.usbmountr/
kergonath 5y ago
It was so cool to boot from it in the uni's labs and get all my home environment.
- kitsunesoba 5y ago
  It never shipped obviously, but back in the day there were a lot of rumors of Apple developing a feature that let you take your home folder and apps with you on your iPod, with any Mac you plug it into making your user account available without even rebooting. So it seems that they saw that use case and almost acted on it.
  - kergonath 5y ago
    IIRC it was even mentioned in the keynote or around that time. It was one of the bullet points in the magazines (remember those?)
    - Lammy 5y ago
      It appeared in Panther dev builds and even briefly on its public "Mobility" features page but was pulled right before release: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/panther-feature-home-on-ipod.41018/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/panther-feature-home-on... Unfortunately the oldest snapshot in Wayback is October 12th 2003 with the blurb already removed. Apple filed a patent application for it in 2002 which was assigned in 2006. It expires this year! https://patents.google.com/patent/US7246226B1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US7246226B1/ https://appleinsider.com/articles/06/10/11/apples_missing_home_on_ipod_feature_resurfaces_in_filing.html https://appleinsider.com/articles/06/10/11/apples_missing_ho...
    - xattt 5y ago
      Surprisingly, there have been a few vapourware announcements by Apple over the years. Another was the “Restart to Windows” item under the Apple menu when Boot Camp was first announced. Would love to have been a fly on the wall after the keynote where Steve chewed out the engineer that left that in.
Aloha 5y ago
I think it could be a killer feature for iPhone + Mac Here is a secure external disk, which you can plug into your mac, it will be secure even when plugged into your mac, even the data over the thunderbolt bus could be encrypted in transit, its all technically possible to do.
- mihaaly 5y ago
  I'd be over the moon if I could use the AirDrop reliably for once when I need that!
  - melony 5y ago
    Imagine being able to do network booting from AirDrop
    - mihaaly 5y ago
      I can imagine it would do it only in good weather when I face north. :) :/
fomine3 5y ago
MTP sucks from the beginning to even now. It's too slow for small files and often stuck. I wish any improvement come in this area (file based wired transfer protocol).
screamingninja 5y ago
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwarebakery.drivedroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwareba... I've used it successfully in the past to serve different Linux ISOs on the fly. It relied on certain kernel features / permissions to act as a USB mass storage device.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

Well it was really just a fancy external drive. It's more because of macOS happily booting from any kind of external device that makes this happen.

kitsunesoba 5y ago
That’s true, I remember being a bit confused when I found that Windows was extremely picky about what it booted from, with weird hacks being required to boot a Win2K or XP installer from anything other than an optical disc. Both OS 9 and OS X were pretty lax about that.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Yeah I booted from USB HDD for a while in the XP days but it was necessary to edit the registry to make sure all USB related drivers would load at an earlier stage during boot. And installing any updates would usually revert this, leading to an unbootable system :/ Not sure if this still works like that but it was a total PITA.
kccqzy 5y ago
A friend of mine even booted from an SD card.
- JadeNB 5y ago
  That must have been slooooow.

GranPC 5y ago

If your device is rooted you can use USB Mountr [0] to achieve the functionality you describe. [0]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/streetwalrus.usbmountr/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/streetwalrus.usbmountr/

kergonath 5y ago

It was so cool to boot from it in the uni's labs and get all my home environment.

kitsunesoba 5y ago
It never shipped obviously, but back in the day there were a lot of rumors of Apple developing a feature that let you take your home folder and apps with you on your iPod, with any Mac you plug it into making your user account available without even rebooting. So it seems that they saw that use case and almost acted on it.
- kergonath 5y ago
  IIRC it was even mentioned in the keynote or around that time. It was one of the bullet points in the magazines (remember those?)
  - Lammy 5y ago
    It appeared in Panther dev builds and even briefly on its public "Mobility" features page but was pulled right before release: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/panther-feature-home-on-ipod.41018/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/panther-feature-home-on... Unfortunately the oldest snapshot in Wayback is October 12th 2003 with the blurb already removed. Apple filed a patent application for it in 2002 which was assigned in 2006. It expires this year! https://patents.google.com/patent/US7246226B1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US7246226B1/ https://appleinsider.com/articles/06/10/11/apples_missing_home_on_ipod_feature_resurfaces_in_filing.html https://appleinsider.com/articles/06/10/11/apples_missing_ho...
  - xattt 5y ago
    Surprisingly, there have been a few vapourware announcements by Apple over the years. Another was the “Restart to Windows” item under the Apple menu when Boot Camp was first announced. Would love to have been a fly on the wall after the keynote where Steve chewed out the engineer that left that in.

Aloha 5y ago

I think it could be a killer feature for iPhone + Mac Here is a secure external disk, which you can plug into your mac, it will be secure even when plugged into your mac, even the data over the thunderbolt bus could be encrypted in transit, its all technically possible to do.

mihaaly 5y ago
I'd be over the moon if I could use the AirDrop reliably for once when I need that!
- melony 5y ago
  Imagine being able to do network booting from AirDrop
  - mihaaly 5y ago
    I can imagine it would do it only in good weather when I face north. :) :/

fomine3 5y ago

MTP sucks from the beginning to even now. It's too slow for small files and often stuck. I wish any improvement come in this area (file based wired transfer protocol).

screamingninja 5y ago

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwarebakery.drivedroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softwareba... I've used it successfully in the past to serve different Linux ISOs on the fly. It relied on certain kernel features / permissions to act as a USB mass storage device.