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Installing OSX on two partitions

Q

Qwerty11

macrumors regular
Original poster
Can I install OSX on two partitions and select on startup which one I want to boot from? Can it be the same copy of OSX or do I need to buy a second copy? Also, will I be able to look in partition 2 when booted in partition 1 for files?

Thanks!
 
try to insert the OS X disk and when it gives you the choice of selecting the partition select the partition you just created. i don't know if this helps but you should try it. please report about your status.
 
"Can I install OSX on two partitions and select on startup which one I want to boot from?"

Yes, in fact I recommend it. It's ALWAYS nice to have a second partition as an alternative boot source.

"Can it be the same copy of OSX or do I need to buy a second copy?"

Same copy is just fine.
Another way to do it is to use CarbonCopyCloner to "dupe" the contents of one partition to the other. Of course, this doesn't insulate you from a drive hardware failure, but if for some reason there is a _software_ problem, you can often just boot from the other partition and "attack" the problem at a moment's notice.

"Also, will I be able to look in partition 2 when booted in partition 1 for files?"

Yes, no problems at all.

In fact, I keep a separate (no OS on it) partition solely for my main data files. This keeps them separate and apart from my "home folder", in a smaller partition than an OS partition would be. Makes backing them up VERY quick and easy.
 
Yes ... you can have several bootable OS X disks. I have my Mac Pro set to normally boot from the SSD drive, but if something goes wrong, I can boot from the hard disk instead (which contains my home directory and all the large data items like music, photos, videos, etc.). You can set which disk image you want to boot from in "system preferences / startup disk".

You can also make a bootable external (removable) disk that you can plug in and boot from if something goes wrong.

I always set up an extra Administrator account as well, so if something were to corrupt my user account, I can select the admin account at login and attempt to determine what went wrong. This should be on all bootable disks, physical or logical partitions.

-howard
 
Thanks guys!

Is there a way to do the partition without deleting everything on the drive?

Also, what are the steps I need to take to do it? I couldn't find any directions after searching.
 
Last edited:
Qwerty11 said:
Thanks guys!

Is there a way to do the partition without deleting everything on the drive?

Also, what are the steps I need to take to do it? I couldn't find any directions after searching.
Click to expand...

You can use "Boot Camp Assistant" in your Applications/Utility folder to create a new partition on your OS X disk without destroying anything on your OS X installation. Of course, you must have enough free space to create the partition size you desire. It will non-destructively shrink your active partition and create a new empty partition. You can use this partition any way you desire (Windows, Linux, OS X ...).

-howard
 
hfg said:
You can use "Boot Camp Assistant" in your Applications/Utility folder to create a new partition on your OS X disk without destroying anything on your OS X installation.
Click to expand...

I don't know why everyone fixates on the BootCamp utility. It does not do anything that Disk Utility can't, but Disk Utility is a much more flexible tool.

As long as the front of a partition does not move, Disk Utility can do a lot with shrinking and growing volumes on a GUID/GPT disk. You can add volumes, or even delete them. The only thing is that it can't move volumes, and it does not know how to move data within a volume, so sometimes you get old volumes where data is written towards the end that DiskUtility (and the BootCamp assistant) can not shrink.
 
larkost said:
I don't know why everyone fixates on the BootCamp utility. It does not do anything that Disk Utility can't, but Disk Utility is a much more flexible tool.

As long as the front of a partition does not move, Disk Utility can do a lot with shrinking and growing volumes on a GUID/GPT disk. You can add volumes, or even delete them. The only thing is that it can't move volumes, and it does not know how to move data within a volume, so sometimes you get old volumes where data is written towards the end that DiskUtility (and the BootCamp assistant) can not shrink.
Click to expand...

The reason BootCamp is often recommended is that it is pretty much foolproof and a novice really can't screw up their system by doing something unintentional. People who understand the power of Disk Utility usually aren't asking this question.🙂
 
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