Can I install two OSX’s on one computer?

[Silly John Fatty]

I always like having the latest system, and also (for security reasons) I always update everything.

The thing is, there’s a game I really want to make run. It’s only supported on Lion. A year ago, when I upgraded to Mountain Lion, everything worked fine, even though it wasn’t supported on ML. Now I can’t make it work, probably because the installation itself is where the problem lies. Probably if I would install Lion, install the game, and then update the system, it would work. Maybe!

But this is quite complicated and it doesn’t guarantee the game properly working. (although it did before)

So I was wondering something else… can I install two versions of Mac OS X on my Mac? I was thinking of creating a partition just for the game, with Lion installed on it. That would be around 10 GB.

What do you think? And how would I swap between both OSX?

 

[maflynn]

The downside as I see it now is that with Lion and Mountain lion you create a recovery partition. I'm not sure how that will play into the issue. Before, all you needed to do was create a second partition and install the different versions on their own partition.

I believe if you put the install on a thumb drive, the steps needed to do that, stop the recovery partition from being installed (good or bad I don't know) and this may be a way to ensure that installing two versions of OSX on one computer won't mess things up

 

[MacUser2525]

And how would I swap between both OSX?

Holding the option key during boot gives you the ability to choose the system you would want to boot too or you could use the Start Up Disk option in the System Preferences.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

The downside as I see it now is that with Lion and Mountain lion you create a recovery partition. I'm not sure how that will play into the issue. Before, all you needed to do was create a second partition and install the different versions on their own partition.

I believe if you put the install on a thumb drive, the steps needed to do that, stop the recovery partition from being installed (good or bad I don't know) and this may be a way to ensure that installing two versions of OSX on one computer won't mess things up

So it’s possible to install it on a USB flash drive? Will this solve the issue?
Because I don’t mind buying one just for this, they’re so cheap these days anyway

Holding the option key during boot gives you the ability to choose the system you would want to boot too or you could use the Start Up Disk option in the System Preferences.

Thanks!

 

[maflynn]

So it’s possible to install it on a USB flash drive? Will this solve the issue?!

Yes, buy cloning your drive onto a thumb drive, i.e., using Carbon Copy Cloner (the old free version is still floating around in the interwebs). You may not like the performance however, since USB is slower then the SATA connection your drive enjoys

 

[benwiggy]

why not just run it in a virtualised copy of Lion? No partition, no problem, and if the game gets updated or boring, then you can just delete the virtual image.

Also, if it is only an issue with the installer, then you might want to take a look at Pacifist. It lets you inspect installer packages and install the components, regardless of any checks that the installer normally does.

 

[old-wiz]

why not use an external HDD and install on that?

 

[Fishrrman]

"Can I install two OSX’s on one computer?"

Simple answer:
Yes.

However -- I would recommend that they be on
1. separate drives, or
2. separate partitions

I've done this for many many years without problems.

Actually, it is a good idea to have a second, bootable installation of the OS around, for emergencies.

If you ever get into an "I can't boot" situation with your primary drive, just switch-boot to the backup or secondary drive/partition, and you'll be running again in a couple of minutes...