Installing 10.8 ML on a Separate Partition with Sierra

[Agentgfunk]

Hey guys-

Having a little bit of difficulty finding a known working step-by-step instruction guide on how to install Mountain Lion (or any older operating system for that matter) on a separate smaller partition on my startup SSD from macOS Sierra (this still being my primary booting system).

I want to be able to run my copy of Pro Tools 10 on this separate partition, as many of you know it is HIGHLY incompatible with new OS's. I don't want to use any of those PT installer hacks either, as I have tried them before and PT does not run correctly with the hacks.

I've been able to successfully bring a Mac Pro 1,1 to El Capitan, so I know something as simple as this is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE. Apple just makes things like this difficult for the non-nerd who doesn't know how to use Terminal as well as others.

Can someone either please point me to an instruction guide or a video on this OR post a good set of instructions to walk me through it?

I already ****ed this up earlier by trying to install a bootable USB drive directly to the smaller partition but the computer kept restarting itself with an error... I'm guessing because I guess I technically would have been trying to recover the installer itself to the partition, which in turn just made the partition a bootable partition (HA!).

HELP.

Please.

Thank you.

 

[Fishrrman]

If ProTools is that important to you, why "upgrade" to HS in the first place?

Solution:
Get an external hard drive (SSD would be good)
Install El Cap on that.
Install ProTools on that
Boot it when you need to run PT.
Problems... solved.

I would not recommend trying to partition/install El Cap on the same drive as HS --if-- you have that drive set up as APFS.

 

[Agentgfunk]

If ProTools is that important to you, why "upgrade" to HS in the first place?

Solution:
Get an external hard drive (SSD would be good)
Install El Cap on that.
Install ProTools on that
Boot it when you need to run PT.
Problems... solved.

I would not recommend trying to partition/install El Cap on the same drive as HS --if-- you have that drive set up as APFS.

Hey bud-

Appreciate the advice, although this really doesn't apply to my situation.

I'm not "upgrading" anything... Especially not to HS...

If anything, I'd be partially downgrading.

What I'm looking to do is install a partition on my built-in hard drive to run Mountain Lion. The other partition would run my current OS, Sierra.

Not planning on upgrading to HS.

So, to be very specific, I have a built-in 1 TB SSD; one partition would be running Sierra which is my current OS at 750 GB of space, which I use to run Reason 9, Guitar Rig, Final Cut Pro X, among others, and the other partition would be running Mountain Lion which I would use to run Pro Tools 10 and any after market plugins I have to run with it at 250 GB of space. Does that make sense?

 

[jbarley]

It's pretty simple, call up Disk Utility, select your SSD, select "Partition" and click the "+" button to create a new partition.

Then run your Lion install app and point it to this newly created partition.

 

[dsemf]

Is you machine old enough to run ML?

DS

 

[Agentgfunk]

It's pretty simple, call up Disk Utility, select your SSD, select "Partition" and click the "+" button to create a new partition.

Then run your Lion install app and point it to this newly created partition.

View attachment 733695

Thanks jbarley but I already tried this without success. When I tried to launch the Mountain Lion Installer app, it gave me an error message saying something along the lines of my OS was too new to open the application or something. Any workarounds for this?
[doublepost=1510166160][/doublepost]

Is you machine old enough to run ML?

DS

My machine came stock with Mountain Lion.

 

[chrfr]

Thanks jbarley but I already tried this without success. When I tried to launch the Mountain Lion Installer app, it gave me an error message saying something along the lines of my OS was too new to open the application or something. Any workarounds for this?

You will need to use a USB installer to install ML.

 

[Agentgfunk]

You will need to use a USB installer to install ML.

I have a usb bootable installer which I created following the disk utility restoring technique to restore the USB drive to the Install ESD.dmg file and I'm pretty sure it successfully created it, but then when I went to install it, instead of installing properly to the partition I was directing it to, it literally installed the installer to it. I'll post a pic so you can see what I mean.
[doublepost=1510167493][/doublepost]Here's the pic.
[doublepost=1510167564][/doublepost]The second partition down is what was created. Totally dumb. I guess maybe I did it wrong or perhaps it's more of Apple's pesky anti-tamper functions to block their pro users from customizing their computers.

 

[chrfr]

The second partition down is what was created. Totally dumb. I guess maybe I did it wrong or perhaps it's more of Apple's pesky anti-tamper functions to block their pro users from customizing their computers.

You did something wrong. Apple does no blocking like this.
Without knowing the details of exactly what you tried, we can't help further.

 

[Agentgfunk]

Specifically,

I went into Restore mode by holding 'option' when my MacBook Pro was starting up, then I clicked Disc Utility.

Upon clicking 'Disk Utility,' I was greeted with the standard disc utility menu in macOS Sierra.

I chose the bootable USB installer I mentioned earlier as the 'restore from' disc and chose the partition I created specifically for the process as the 'restore to' disc.

This is how it happened.
[doublepost=1510168634][/doublepost]

You did something wrong. Apple does no blocking like this.
Without knowing the details of exactly what you tried, we can't help further.

I forgot to mention after I did the above, I attempted to boot into the partition I created, assuming the installer would run, and my laptop got stuck in an error cycle of restarting itself, continually giving me the "your computer was restarted because of a problem" message.

 

[jbarley]

I'm finding your posts a tad confusing, so let's try to clear things up...
If you have a successfully created usb install drive, then you should be able to select it at boot-up while pressing the "Alt" key, you need to boot from this usb drive not restore from it.
Once booted from your USB installer you should be able to complete a normal installation.

 

[chrfr]

Specifically,

I went into Restore mode by holding 'option' when my MacBook Pro was starting up, then I clicked Disc Utility.

Upon clicking 'Disk Utility,' I was greeted with the standard disc utility menu in macOS Sierra.

I chose the bootable USB installer I mentioned earlier as the 'restore from' disc and chose the partition I created specifically for the process as the 'restore to' disc.

This is how it happened.
[doublepost=1510168634][/doublepost]
I forgot to mention after I did the above, I attempted to boot into the partition I created, assuming the installer would run, and my laptop got stuck in an error cycle of restarting itself, continually giving me the "your computer was restarted because of a problem" message.

That's exactly the result I'd expect from what you did.
Instead:
Once you've booted from the USB drive, choose the option to install the operating system, don't restore in Disk Utility.

 

[Agentgfunk]

That's exactly the result I'd expect from what you did.
Instead:
Once you've booted from the USB drive, choose the option to install the operating system, don't restore in Disk Utility.

Okay maybe I'm not 'booting' from the USB properly. What would be the proper way to do this, while ensuring it is directed at the second partition?
[doublepost=1510180491][/doublepost]

I'm finding your posts a tad confusing, so let's try to clear things up...
If you have a successfully created usb install drive, then you should be able to select it at boot-up while pressing the "Alt" key, you need to boot from this usb drive not restore from it.
Once booted from your USB installer you should be able to complete a normal installation.

I've attempted several times to just choose the USB be drive as the selectable drive at startup. Instead of starting the installer, it sends me into a cycle of restarting and booting normally, in between telling me the computer restarted because of a problem. I guess I will try remaking a boot USB drive? Perhaps the first one got mucked up during the process but I'm running out of ideas...
[doublepost=1510182079][/doublepost]I tried rebuilding the boot USB from disc utility and using the InstallESD.dmg file inside the package contents of the Mountain Lion installer. Drive was created succesfully, but every time I tried to select the boot USB at startup, it again through me into a cycle of the computer 'restarting itself because of a problem.'

Unless I am again not 'booting' from the drive correctly...

 

[chrfr]

Okay maybe I'm not 'booting' from the USB properly. What would be the proper way to do this, while ensuring it is directed at the second partition?
[doublepost=1510180491][/doublepost]
I've attempted several times to just choose the USB be drive as the selectable drive at startup. Instead of starting the installer, it sends me into a cycle of restarting and booting normally, in between telling me the computer restarted because of a problem. I guess I will try remaking a boot USB drive? Perhaps the first one got mucked up during the process but I'm running out of ideas...
[doublepost=1510182079][/doublepost]I tried rebuilding the boot USB from disc utility and using the InstallESD.dmg file inside the package contents of the Mountain Lion installer. Drive was created succesfully, but every time I tried to select the boot USB at startup, it again through me into a cycle of the computer 'restarting itself because of a problem.'

Unless I am again not 'booting' from the drive correctly...

Exactly which computer do you have, and do you have a 10.8.5 installer downloaded from the App Store?

 

[Agentgfunk]

Exactly which computer do you have, and do you have a 10.8.5 installer downloaded from the App Store?

I have the MacBook Pro 9,2 “Ivy Bridge” model. Mid 2012. And yes I am using an App Store copy of ML.

 

[jbarley]

Maybe try using "DiskMakerX", scroll down a bit to locate the Lion version...

 

[Agentgfunk]

I was able to finally get it installed. It took about a million restarts and unplugging everything from the laptop except the single USB boot drive to get it to work properly.

 

[jbarley]

I was able to finally get it installed. It took about a million restarts and unplugging everything from the laptop except the single USB boot drive to get it to work properly.

Cool...