Is there a way to keep OS 9 if I partition?

[JCLrox]

I would like to make a partition on my iMac G3, but I read that if I did this Mac OS 9 would be erased. (If I am wrong that this would be erased, let me know.) Mac OS X 10.1 is also installed, but I do not think that would be lost. Is there a way to keep OS 9 when I partition? I will not be able to download anything from the web, because the iMac only has ethernet and I only have wireless. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Intell]

When you use CarbonCopyCloner it will save the OS 9 installation along with the 10.1 installation.

 

[minifridge1138]

If you resize your existing partitions, then all of their contents will be lost (OSX and OS 9).
Unless you already have free space, you will need to resize in order to create a new partition.

So what you CAN do is use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the current partitions to a spare drive.
Then repartition the original drive however you want.
Then copy the partitions from the spare to the original.

 

[JCLrox]

I currently have made no partitions, I just have the one disk with OS 9 and 10.1. And I have lots of space, because I have not made any data on the computer since I only got it recently. So I would not be resizing any partitions. Does this mean that if I made the partition I would keep both OS 9 and OS X?

 

[minifridge1138]

If your computer boots, then it has at least 1 partition.

Most people have 1 partition on 1 hard drive. So it looks like 1 single entity.
Most people that have 1 partition also set it up to use all of the space on the hard drive.
From the hard drive's point of view, there is no free space because it is all used by the partition.
From the partition's point of view, there can be a lot of free space because the user doesn't have many files.

You said that you have OS X and OS 9 installed.
Do you mean that you can boot into OS 9 (boot holding the option key and see what's listed) OR do you mean that you can run classic mode from within OS X?

 

[JCLrox]

I can boot into OS 9. I have not done it by holding the option key as I boot up, I boot into OS 9 by going to System Preferences an going to startup disk, then selecting Mac OS 9 and restarting. I can run Classic Mode as well.

 

[minifridge1138]

Alright, the fact that you can dual boot means that you have two partitions.
One partition has OS 9 installed.
One partition has OS 10.1 installed.

I have a G3 iMac with that same setup (except 10.3 instead of 10.1).

Yes, you can use Disk Utility to shrink the two partitions and create a third one out of the empty space. But that will erase the contents of the partitions.

What are you planning to do with the new partition?

 

[JCLrox]

On the new partition, I planned on installing Panther. I want to have Mac OS 9, 10.1, and 10.3. Old software like this is a hobby of mine, I think it would be really cool to have all three on one computer.

 

[minifridge1138]

I have the same hobby.
I did this same kind of shuffle.
I wanted to replace the 6gig drive with a 100 gig drive

I created 2 partitions on the new drive.
I cloned the single partition on the 6 gig to a partition on the 100GB.
Put the 100GB drive in the Mac
Installed OS 9 onto the other partition.

You need to do something similar.
Copy the exist partitions to another drive.
Repartition the original drive.
Then copy the contents back.

It MIGHT be possible to boot into OS X, shrink the size of the OS 9 partition, create a partition out of the new space, and install 10.3 on the new partition.

Try using disk util in OS X.
It may let you resize a partition that isn't the boot volume.
Just pay attention to any pop ups and warnings you get before you hit Apply.

 

[JCLrox]

That sounds like it would work. When you said that I could shrink the size of the OS 9 partition, did you mean that doing that would keep OS 9 and 10.1? But if there are two partitions, wouldn't Disk Utility show two disks in the sidebar? Right now all I see is one disk in the sidebar which is about 70 GB. Because of this, I think I have one partition with both 10.1 and OS 9. When I go to partition this, all of the options are grey and not selectable. It also says "cannot initialize startup disk." This makes sense because you can't change the startup disk when that is what you are booted up into. If I were to take the Panther install disk and make a partition from the disk utility there, could I split the one current partition into two parts, install Panther on one part, and keep the part which has OS 9 and 10.1 intact?