Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ltpitt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 18, 2020
110
40
Hi all,

I am happily fiddling with my eMac G4.
I would like to decrease OS X partition without losing its content / functionality.

What kind of software can I use?

I also have another mac so I could use the eMac in target mode and do the resize from there.

Thanks for your suggestions :)
 
You got an eMac too?

If you don't particularly want to use third-party software, you can resize an HFS+ partition in-place using a Leopard Disk Utility; either a full install or by just booting into installation or recovery media. TDM will work as well.
 
You got an eMac too?

If you don't particularly want to use third-party software, you can resize an HFS+ partition in-place using a Leopard Disk Utility; either a full install or by just booting into installation or recovery media. TDM will work as well.
I would *love* that but I've burnt a million leopard dvds and I cannot get a single one that boots :/
 
Or better yet, restore the DMG to an external FireWire hard drive and boot from that. Much less of a hassle than the DVD or USB way.
I've actually never managed to install Leopard using a burned dual layer dvd and this is the one thing that works without any trouble at all.
 
No problems using a burned Leo DL DVD here fwiw but I've since switched to Firewire as it's much faster.
I got Open Firmware stuff to work to get an USB flash drive to work once, and decided I never wanted to deal with that much trouble ever again. A Firewire Compact Flash drive has proven to be exactly what I needed, and writing all major CD and DVD install disk images to Compact Flash makes reinstall really easy.
 
I seem to recall that later version of Tiger can resize partitions without a problem on PowerPC Macs. But I do know that both Tiger and Leopard will not resize the partitions if OS 9 drivers are present on them.
 
This is terrible news!

Can it be done by iPartition (resize partitions if the OS 9 drivers are installed)?
 
Or better yet, restore the DMG to an external FireWire hard drive and boot from that. Much less of a hassle than the DVD or USB way.

I got Open Firmware stuff to work to get an USB flash drive to work once, and decided I never wanted to deal with that much trouble ever again. A Firewire Compact Flash drive has proven to be exactly what I needed, and writing all major CD and DVD install disk images to Compact Flash makes reinstall really easy.

No trouble or hassle with an eMac G4, you merely hold down the option key post-chime and it boots from USB. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
You got an eMac too?

If you don't particularly want to use third-party software, you can resize an HFS+ partition in-place using a Leopard Disk Utility; either a full install or by just booting into installation or recovery media. TDM will work as well.
Leopard (and up) will only resize partitions that were created in Leopard (or higher). Partitions created with Tiger disk utility will behave exactly like the same way on Leopard as it would on Tiger.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Amethyst1
Leopard (and up) will only resize partitions that were created in Leopard (or higher). Partitions created with Tiger disk utility will behave exactly like the same way on Leopard as it would on Tiger.

Leopard's Disk Utility will resize any APM/GUID HFS+ drive, no matter what formatted it as long as it does not the OS 9 drivers installed. Later versions of Tiger can partition any GUID HFS+ drive. And I seem to recall later versions of Tiger will resize any APM/GUID HFS+ drive as long as OS 9 drivers are not installed.

When stating "resizing" in the above, it is implied that it is a non-descriptive, live, resizing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Project Alice
Leopard's Disk Utility will resize any APM/GUID HFS+ drive, no matter what formatted it as long as it does not the OS 9 drivers installed. Later versions of Tiger can partition any GUID HFS+ drive. And I seem to recall later versions of Tiger will resize any APM/GUID HFS+ drive as long as OS 9 drivers are not installed.

When stating "resizing" in the above, it is implied that it is a non-descriptive, live, resizing.
Interesting. I’ve never been able to do it. I usually make a point of using Leopard to partition all my drives even if it is for use in a G3 just in case I want to add a partition later.
Unless I’m crazy I’ve been able to resize drives with the OS 9 drivers installed (such as my 750GB FW drive I use for Tiger and Leopard installs; initially created using Leopard with OS 9 drivers) using Leopard.
If I try to resize I drive I formatted with Tiger it’s always thrown an error. I remember reading that somewhere as well that it was only supported with drives created on Leopard. But possibly you’re right and I’m misremembering. But I definitely get an error when trying to resize a disk created on Tiger or lower. Usually if I have a drive made with Tiger it has had OS 9 drivers installed though.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.