Can’t install OS X on a newly partitioned firewire drive

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Since upgrading to 10.3.5 and Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD I have been having no end of problems with Final Cut crashing on launch (solved that one here) and with “log and capture” freezing toward the end of a tape.

I decided to revert to using OS X 10.3.4, and attempted to install it on a new 200 GB Firewire drive I had laying around.

I started up using the Panther install disk, then opened Disk Utility, and partitioned the drive. Then I opened the installer and attempted to install OS X onto it. However the three partition icons for that drive all had the little red “stop” sign over them, and selecting any of those icons got me this message:

“You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. You cannot startup your computer using this volume.”

Quitting the installer and then restarting it made it recognize the partitions as bootable, and the problem was solved.

UPDATE for Intel-Macs:

I found that the only way to install the Intel-Mac version of Tiger on a firewire drive is to reformat the drive with the GUID option set. Boot from the Intel-Tiger install CD and launch Disk Utility. Select the Firewire drive and “Partition”. Click the Options button and select “GUID” then partition the drive however you wish.

See this article on “You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume…” alert in Installer

and this one on how to make a triple boot firewire drive