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neil1972

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 20, 2016
3
0
Help needed please! I'm not experienced in technical stuff when it comes to things like this? I have just taken charge of a late 2015 Macbook pro that has Big Sur installed and I wanted to know the following if someone can help? I wanted to install El Capitan to run my older stand alone software (Indesign CS6, Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6) which is all i really use and need but I would like to have the option of being able to run Big Sur and as and when I want to for newer applications that will not run on an older Mac operating system? Is this possible? I understand the two operating systems run with a different filing system HFS+ and APFS, does this stop me doing what I want to do? I hope someone can help. Many thanks. Neil
 
If you want to boot and run El Capitan, you're going to have to make a choice:

One way:
Partition the internal drive, and then install El Capitan onto the second partition (leaving BS on the first partition).

Another way:
You'll have to COMPLETELY ERASE the internal drive, and then install El Cap.

A third way:
Get an external USB3 SSD, and install El Cap onto that.

If the apps that you really need require El Cap
and
If you're not using anything of important that specifically requires Big Sur
then
My recommendation is to erase the drive, install El Cap, and go on that way.

Where are your Adobe apps right now?
On the current drive with BS?
Or... are they somewhere else (on an old Mac, etc.)?
 
Hi and many thanks for your reply - the apps are currently on an older Imac running El Capitan. I do still have the app installers. I'll have a think about which way to go. I did think about using parallels? It would be nice to have the best of both worlds that's all - many thanks again for your reply! B.R. Neil
 
The 2015's came with either Sierra or HighSierra. I'm not sure El Capitan can be installed on them. You would need to check for compatibility with Sierra/HighSierra and your software.
 
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