[GillyF]

Am awaiting delivery of a Dell mini 10v, bought on eBay; have an intel core duo iMac, a Snow Leopard retail DVD and an 8GB Flash Drive.

The Gizmodo advice on configuring the USB Flash Drive is that Master Boot Record should be selected at the partition stage, but each time I've tried to do this, the Restore finishes with 'Restore failed. Could not allocate memory.'

If I select GUID for the partition, the restore is successful.

The mechdrew instructions don't specify either GUID or MBR for the partition. Please can anyone give me some guidance here...?

One further question: I'm confused about the difference between NetBookBootMaker and NetBookInstaller - which to use and when to use it...?

With thanks,
Gilly

[will h]

Netbook Bootmaker is an app for making the bootloader USB. NetbookInstaller is an app for patching the kernel so that all your hardware functions properly. I think.

I avoided the former and used the latter after install and before and after updates. I followed the steps in the "USB NO MAC" guide and created a USB bootloader as described there using my PC.

[krs9999]

I used the Gizmode instructions, an 8GB USB Flash drive and my MacMini running SnowLeopard to create the installation Flash drive.
I was told one needs to use Master Boot Record since the Dell Mini won't be able to read the GUID partition.
I tyhink your problem is that you are not setting up the MBR properly in Disk Utility - on Tiger it was straight forward, on SL it's a bit convoluted - I initially had trouble setting up the partition properly as well.
You need to go into partitions, select "1" then go into options on that window and select MBR and then to the erase "FAT 32" exercise.

[underwhelmed]

Originally Posted by GillyF

...have an intel core duo iMac, a Snow Leopard retail DVD and an 8GB Flash Drive.

... 'Restore failed. Could not allocate memory.'

Some 8 gig USB thumb drives aren't actually 8 gigs in practical use. Use a SanDisk 8 gig and it should work fine.

By the way, both of those guides are rather old and showing their age, you might look at this one as it is more current and Oscar is a frequent poster here should you need assistance-
GUIDE: Installing OS X on your MINI with a mac (revisited)

[GillyF]

Thanks to all who replied to my question and for the link to the more up-to-date instructions.

Re the problem with the Flash Drive apparently unable to Restore successfully to an MBR partition, in the end I ignored that error message and went ahead with NetbookBootMaker, which recognised the flash drive and prepared the boot drive.

Pleased to say Dell mini arrived this afternoon and Snow Leopard is safely installed on it and, after a download and install of the different NBI, Software Update is currently doing its stuff.

Very exciting and thanks again.

Gilly