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How can I partition my iMac's hard disk without deleting everything?

LOLZpersonok

LOLZpersonok

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
724
18
Calgary, Canada
I have a blueberry iMac G3 with a 40GB hard drive that I installed. Right now, it's got Mac OS 9.2 on it and I don't want to erase it because it was very difficult to find the updates for it. I want to have Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3 as well as OS 9 but I don't know how to partition the hard drive without deleting everything on it. I know how to do that on Windows by using either the DISKPART utility or going into the Computer Management option by right-clicking My Computer. There was also this nice little utility which worked very well which was called EaseUS Partition Master or something like that.

Can someone please tell me how to do this or direct me to some software that could do that for me?
 
There is no way to do this with the native OS and I know of no software that will do it.

Leopard was the first version of OSX to allow live partitioning.
 
Because you have OS 9, you can simply drag and drop the drive's contents to an external drive for safe keeping and boot from a cd and partition the internal drive. Then drag the external drive's contents back onto the internal. If it is a FireWire drive, you can even boot from it. The external drive must be formatted in HFS+ for this to work and if you want to boot OS 9 from it, it must have the OS 9 drivers installed on it.

eyoungren said:
Leopard was the first version of OSX to allow live partitioning.
Click to expand...

10.4.3 was the first version, but it can along with Leopard can only partition a drive that does not have the OS 9 drivers on it.
 
Intell said:
Because you have OS 9, you can simply drag and drop the drive's contents to an external drive for safe keeping and boot from a cd and partition the internal drive. Then drag the external drive's contents back onto the internal. If it is a FireWire drive, you can even boot from it. The external drive must be formatted in HFS+ for this to work and if you want to boot OS 9 from it, it must have the OS 9 drivers installed on it.

10.4.3 was the first version, but it can along with Leopard can only partition a drive that does not have the OS 9 drivers on it.
Click to expand...

OP - You might have to "bless" the System Folder to make it bootable (just open the folder, then close it). If it's not blessed it will have a generic folder icon, rather than the System one.
 
gr8tfly said:
OP - You might have to "bless" the System Folder to make it bootable (just open the folder, then close it). If it's not blessed it will have a generic folder icon, rather than the System one.
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem with the drag and drop method for backing up and duplicating OS 7.5.X-9.2.2 via external HFS+ formatted drives. Having to rebless a classic Mac system folder as long as the folder remains on a HFS+/HFS volume is something that is rarely needed.
 
Intell said:
10.4.3 was the first version, but it can along with Leopard can only partition a drive that does not have the OS 9 drivers on it.
Click to expand...
Really? I didn't know that. Everything I heard whenever I looked around suggested Leopard.

Granted, I didn't look very much because I've never needed to do this though.
 
eyoungren said:
Really? I didn't know that. Everything I heard whenever I looked around suggested Leopard.

Granted, I didn't look very much because I've never needed to do this though.
Click to expand...

It came with 10.4.3 because of the need for Boot Camp partitioning. At least I think it was 10.4.3. It may have been a later Tiger version, but Tiger does have it. Both PowerPC and Intell versions of it.
 
LOLZpersonok said:
Right now, it's got Mac OS 9.2 on it and I don't want to erase it because it was very difficult to find the updates for it. I want to have Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3 as well as OS 9 but I don't know how to partition the hard drive without deleting everything on it.
Click to expand...

If all you want is for OS 9 and OS X to coexist, you don't need to partition at all; they will play nicely together on the same partition. Just install OS X on the existing partition (do not erase and install) and you can continue to boot OS 9 normally whenever you want by choosing it in the Startup Disk preferences pane in System Preferences, or just use the Classic environment on 10.4 and earlier.

This is how we did it before systems started shipping with OS X as the default; install 9, then X. (The reverse does not work, unless you had the restore discs from Apple that would just copy a working OS 9 system directly from the restore CD. My Power Mac G5 worked this way, as it could not boot OS 9 natively, but still supported Classic.)

Have fun! :)

Incidentally, it shouldn't be hard to update OS9. As of about a year ago when I last tried it, Software Update within OS 9 still worked. Having said that, nothing lasts forever!
 
Soba said:
If all you want is for OS 9 and OS X to coexist, you don't need to partition at all; they will play nicely together on the same partition. Just install OS X on the existing partition (do not erase and install) and you can continue to boot OS 9 normally whenever you want by choosing it in the Startup Disk preferences pane in System Preferences, or just use the Classic environment on 10.4 and earlier.

This is how we did it before systems started shipping with OS X as the default; install 9, then X. (The reverse does not work, unless you had the restore discs from Apple that would just copy a working OS 9 system directly from the restore CD. My Power Mac G5 worked this way, as it could not boot OS 9 natively, but still supported Classic.)

Have fun! :)

Incidentally, it shouldn't be hard to update OS9. As of about a year ago when I last tried it, Software Update within OS 9 still worked. Having said that, nothing lasts forever!
Click to expand...

Edit: How do I not erase and install?

Thanks, I'll definately give this a try, as a matter of fact, I'll give it a go right now. I just want to be able to listen to my M4A music in iTunes without having to format around 500 songs. I also want to see how it runs with the new 512MB of RAM I put in. It was also faster on the Internet with Camino or Firefox or whatever I had before than it is now on Mac OS 9.

It was difficult for me to update Mac OS 9 since the Software Update function was no longer in operation, so I had to find the updates myself, which to be honest is something I don't want to have to do again.
 
Last edited:
LOLZpersonok said:
Edit: How do I not erase and install?
Click to expand...

The default setting should do what you need in this case, but assuming you're installing 10.3, you can explicitly choose the installation method by clicking the "Options" button that appears on the "Select a Destination" screen of the installer.

Hope that helps!
 
Soba said:
The default setting should do what you need in this case, but assuming you're installing 10.3, you can explicitly choose the installation method by clicking the "Options" button that appears on the "Select a Destination" screen of the installer.

Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

It's probably too late because I'm on the second disk now. But I did uncheck the "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" in Disk Utility.

I'm using OS X 10.2 by the way. I don't have disks for 10.3.
 
LOLZpersonok said:
It's probably too late because I'm on the second disk now. But I did uncheck the "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" in Disk Utility.

I'm using OS X 10.2 by the way. I don't have disks for 10.3.
Click to expand...

You should be fine. Let us know how it turns out!
 
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