Can a Mac be started up from another Mac's startup disc?

Question

I've been having trouble capturing in final cut pro due to dropped frames every 30 seconds or so. I've looked at the apple troubleshooting page and have concluded that my harddrive must be fragmented. I'm looking into buying Disc Warrior, but in order to run Disc Warrior to fragment my harddrive it must be run from a separate drive. I only have one internal drive and the external drive I have doesn't have osX on it. Any ideas?

If it's not a fragmentation problem then I have no idea what it is.
I've had my PowerBook G4 for about 4 years now. I've been editing for that same time in Final Cut Pro 4 without any problems until recently. The problem arose after I reinstalled Final Cut Pro along with the Livetype and Soundtrack programs that come along with it. I ended up deleting Livetype and Soundtrack since they took up so much space. The problem: when I capture in Final Cut Pro (from a sony camera using firewire, NTSC) the capture drops frames. I have it set to stop the capture when there is an error, since I don't want dropped frames. However, that means my capture will stop about every 30 seconds. I'm capturing from a Sony Camera with a firewire cable I've already dumped the preference files for Final Cut Pro (which was one suggestion I got). I don't know how to trouble shoot this problem. That's why I was turning to possible disc fragmentation. There isn't any "error" warnings. Any ideas?

Answer 1

It was my understanding that Disk Warrior was a bootable cd. Insert the CD into the drive and reboot hold down the C key, and it should boot off the disk.

If that doesn't work, try Tech Tool Pro I know that one's bootable. It also has a feature that checks the drive for bad sectors.

Answer 2

"I've looked at the apple troubleshooting page and have concluded that my hard drive must be fragmented"

Your conclusion is not correct.

Please re-post and describe your specific problem, with the program name and error messages (if applicable).

If your machine hasn't completely given up the ghost, reboot the darn thing to see if you can re-create the problem, taking careful notes on everything you do along the way. Write down any error messages you encounter and don't leave out any of the "technogobbledygook".

Then, we can try to help.

Answer 3

Why should you have to fragmenting disc? It is special operation used in very rare cases and it is not good because you can not format this disc later. Try with SYSTEM TOOLS (click Accessories, then System tools). When you open Sytem tools frame on the top you'll se TOOLS banner. Click it and then click SYSTEM FILE CHECKER. This operation will restore original system setup and after that you'll haven't problems with dropped frames. Veradisca & Best Regards, Neven.