Install lion in a separate Partition?

[Invasion11]

I am wanting to install Mac OS X Lion onto a Separate Partition on my HD. I want to be able to try Lion while still having Snow Leopard. Is this possible?

If so, would I just create a new partition throughout disk utility, Open the Lion installer and be able select that newly created partition? Or, once partitioned, burn a Lion DMG to a Disk and do a clean install on the new partition?

Will this erase my entire computer? i have TimeMachine Backup. Will a SL backup install on a new Lion OS?

Lots of questions, but thanks in advance!

 

[r0k]

I am wanting to install Mac OS X Lion onto a Separate Partition on my HD. I want to be able to try Lion while still having Snow Leopard. Is this possible?

If so, would I just create a new partition throughout disk utility, Open the Lion installer and be able select that newly created partition? Or, once partitioned, burn a Lion DMG to a Disk and do a clean install on the new partition?

Will this erase my entire computer? i have TimeMachine Backup. Will a SL backup install on a new Lion OS?

Lots of questions, but thanks in advance!

Here is something I would try. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up your Macintosh HD. Time Machine sometimes lets you down and the time to find that out is not when it was your only copy! I suggest you try partitioning your HDD as "2 partition scheme" and use the second partition as a clone of the first (assuming you have enough space). You can then run the Lion install on the first partition and it will have Lion. You will also get the Lion recovery partition. But it shouldn't affect your "clone" partition. Then when you boot, you should be able to hold option and pick either Lion, Lion Recovery or your (previously cloned) Snow Leopard partition.

BTW, I would make a safe copy of everything on an external HDD that is UNPLUGGED during this excercise so if your entire HDD gets "nuked" by some fluke event, you still have your copied data as well as your TM backup. Another thing to do is to run disk utility to check the integrity of your TM backup. Switch off Time Machine. Mount the volume where it normally backs up (you should see "time machine backups" on your desktop but TM should not be spinning. Launch Disk Utility and pick "Time Machine Backups" and check the volume. If it passes without errors you should have a good backup. If it hangs, goes into "deep traversal" or fails you will be sooo glad you made a clone of your HDD since your TM backup will have proven mostly worthless.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I am wanting to install Mac OS X Lion onto a Separate Partition on my HD. I want to be able to try Lion while still having Snow Leopard. Is this possible?"

Yes, it can be done that way, if you have the hard drive space to spare.

An even _better_ way would be to get a second hard drive, and then do a "clone" of your current (Snow Leopard) setup to the new drive.

Then, do a completely clean install of Lion to your main drive, and your old setup will still exist "untouched" on the backup drive.

Or, you could "do it the other way around". That is, put the Lion install on the external first, and use it for some testing, before you commit your internal drive to it.

Take the time to do it this way, and it could save you A LOT of headaches in the future, if for some reason you find that you liked SL better.

I'd also suggest one of these devices:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&url=search-alias=aps&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

.... and use that with a "bare hard drive" from the vendor of your choice.

You will find a USB/SATA docking station _very_ useful to have nearby in the future. You can boot from these, too.