Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Resolved Question

Two Operating Systems on one HD (2 partitions)?

Aug 3, 2011 7:23PM PDT

Is it workable to have OS 10.7, (Lion) on one partition (500 GB) in my 1 TB internal HD, and OS 10.6.6 (Snow Leopard) on another partition (also 500 GB) in that HD, and have the computer boot on Lion as the set startup disk, but boot up on Snow Leopard when I want to by restarting while holding down OPTION and choosing it?

Discussion is locked

Steve 1 2 3 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

- Collapse -
Yes, that will work
Aug 3, 2011 9:43PM PDT

Once the drive is partitioned, and you have installed Lion on one and Snow Leopard on the other, you can choose which one to boot into using the Option key at start up.

- Collapse -
I meant time, not money!
Aug 3, 2011 11:15PM PDT

Having a June 2004 G5 with lots of data (Docs, Apps, Pictures, Music etc.) I loaded a lot on to my new iMac (very impressive) using Target Mode, which worked well. (Except I have got a problem with iPhoto, the subject of my other post this morning). I did have to buy some new software where mine was too old to upgrade.

- Collapse -
Ah, that makes sense
Aug 4, 2011 2:07AM PDT

however, Apple built a utility that would have solved you all that time and effort.

When you first fired up that Mac, one of the first questions was "do you have data that you want to transfer from another mac?
Answering Yes would have prompted you to join the two machines together with Firewire and would have moved everything for you.
accounts, mail, pictures (still that problem though), preferences, applications, documents, the whole 9 yards.
Just by pressing the GO button and going off to watch TV for an hour or so.

P

- Collapse -
iMac keyboard won't allow booting on external bootable clone
Aug 5, 2011 7:17PM PDT

On my new iMac, OS 10.7 ("Lion"), I have now made my bootable clone on my external LaCie Firewire drive, using Carbon Copy Cloner. I know that it is bootable because it appears in Finder--Preferences--Startup Disc. But when I hold down the OPTION key on my keyboard while restarting, restart occurs from the internal, not the clone.
without any choice.

- Collapse -
Yes
Aug 5, 2011 11:44PM PDT

Yes, the wireless keyboards are bluetooth, and until the OS loads the bluetooth kext, it's basically non-functional, so you need a wired keyboard around for these things.

There won't be a problem if you wanted to just leave the old wired keyboard plugged in all the time but just normally use the wireless one. Just set it somewhere out of sight. It eats up a valuable USB port, but it won't hurt anything otherwise so long as you don't leave something sitting on the keys of the wired keyboard.

And your other question about the external drive is yes. I tend to always install a disaster recovery copy of the OS onto an external drive. That way, assuming the internal drive craps out one day, I can muddle along until I have time to take the thing in for repairs. Technically I could do them myself, I even have a set of the suction cups needed, but Apple's repair system isn't set up for people like me. Angry Anyway, it's always a good idea to have a second OS install on an external drive for disaster recovery type purposes. Whether that's 10.6 or 10.7 you can decide. Just install the OS, then boot to it, install your basic set of apps, and then you can just leave it.

Another thought just occurred to me on a completely different note. Since you just got a new iMac, you might want to start system profiler (or system information as it's been renamed in 10.7) and check under the Serial-ATA section. Copy and paste the drive model number into Google, and if it's a 1TB Seagate then you may want to arrange to have your new iMac taken in. There's an issue with the Seagate 1TB drives that went into the 2011 iMacs where they fail at a much higher rate than normal. I'm not entirely up on all the specifics, but would probably be a good idea to get someone to check yours, and replace it if necessary. Apple's also offering free data transfer services for this one if you need it, and the drive is still functional anyway. Might want to make it next weekend or at least Monday, since Apple's repair site is down for maintenance this weekend, meaning they wouldn't be able to process your repair anyway.

- Collapse -
Whew!
Aug 6, 2011 12:22AM PDT

"<span style="color: rgb(66, 66, 68); font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; ">Since you just got a new iMac, you might want to start system profiler (or system information as it's been renamed in 10.7) and check under the Serial-ATA section. Copy and paste the drive model number into Google, and if it's a 1TB Seagate then you may want to arrange to have your new iMac taken in. There's an issue with the Seagate 1TB drives that went into the 2011 iMacs where they fail at a much higher rate than normal. "<span style="color: rgb(66, 66, 68); font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; ">

<span style="color: rgb(66, 66, 68); font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; "><span id="INSERTION_MARKER">System Information for the Serial-ATA reports "WDC WD1001FALS-403AAO". I assume that it is a Western Digital drive, and that I am in the clear. (However, Seagate and WD have now merged.)

<span style="color: rgb(66, 66, 68); font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; "><span id="INSERTION_MARKER">

<span id="INSERTION_MARKER">Thanks for the tipoff.

- Collapse -
OS 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") on an external HD? instead
Aug 5, 2011 7:26PM PDT

It occurred to me that, following my post about installing Snow Leopard on a partition on the internal 1TB HD (with Lion on the other partition), I could install SN on an external LaCie firewire drive and do my SN booting on that, so avoiding partitioning the internal (and the worry of erasing my entire Lion). I think I have a spare drive somewhere that is big enough.

- Collapse -
Just done it.
Aug 6, 2011 6:49AM PDT

Working well. Thanks for the help.

- Collapse -
Yep,
Aug 7, 2011 12:01AM PDT

go to Finder preferences, General tab, and make sure that there is a check mark in Hard disks box in the "show these items on the desktop" section.

- Collapse -
Thanks. I Really must...
Aug 7, 2011 2:24AM PDT

...train myself to be more observant, and to dig more. The Mac has so many opportunities to customise.