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Sierra/Snow Leopard Partition

A

Anna Leif

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 3, 2015
34
4
HI,

I recently partitioned my white 2010 MacBook and installed Snow Leopard alongside Sierra. Both systems are working fine. The Snow Leopard partition will be used solely for my music library using iTunes 10 and the system is 'out of the box' with no third party installations (as yet) and I've updated it to the last Snow Leopard release, 10.6.8. The reason for choosing Snow Leopard is stability, simplicity and a dose of good 'ol nostalgia for cover flow.

Questions:

What do I need to know about partitions, if anything, to keep things running smoothly?
Are there any security or stability risks I should be aware of? (Snow Leopard has only been connected the 'net to update)
Is it safe to use the App Store using Snow Leopard? I have a few previously bought apps that might still be available.

Thank you

Anna
 
One thing to be aware of is that you may encounter some problems when "booting back-and-forth".

That is to say, the Startup Disk preference pane may be "cranky" if you use it this way.

However, using the "option key" at startup (to invoke the Startup Manager) should work ok.

Then again, if things seem to be working fine, well, just smile and be happy!
 
Thank you Fishrrman,

I've set Snowy as the default and have been booting using the option key when I need to access Sierra, it works well.
Smile and be happy, yes, I'm enjoying this partitioning project of mine :)

Anna
 
The App Store should be safe, but be aware that the system has overall not seen any security updates in years. I recommend that you use the extended-support release of Firefox instead of Safari or Chrome. If you do store personal files on it, then I would limit exposure to the Internet and download software only from trusted sources.
 
Hello KALLT,

Thank you for your answer to the App Store question. I am aware of the lack of browser security but don't really know how the App Store 'browser' works, if it's tied into Safari or is a completely separate app, hence the question of safety. I'll be using Snow Leopard offline for the most part, using iTunes as a music library. I am curious about the way partitions work though, can one partition cause a problem for another, in as much as they can read each others systems? What I mean is, can they leak information or files into one another? Apologies if the question reads rather convoluted...

Anna
 
The Mac App Store uses WebKit to drive its pages. It's the exact same engine the drives Safari and the iTunes Store. It has all the flaws and risks that 10.6's Safari has. However, it should only ever be able to access secure content from Apple's servers. The two partitions can leak data between them. If the 10.6 partition is compromised, it can be used to read data from the newer partition. Same goes for the newer partition reading data from the 10.6 partition. And depending on the permissions, they can write changes to the other partition as well
 
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Intell,

That's really useful information, thank you.

Is there a way to secure the partitions? Make them read only perhaps, with the option to change to read/write when needed? If I prevented the partitions from mounting in either OS unless required, would it help?

Although Snow Leopard would only access the App Store, I need to be as knowledgeable as possible about what I'm doing.

Thank you

Anna
 
I don't think you need to "secure" the partitions (if that's possible).

Again, just run it and be happy.

I used Snow Leopard on a 2010 MacBook Pro until just a couple of months ago, and NEVER had any problems with it...
 
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You can enable FileVault on the new OS partition. Snow Leopard doesn't know about FileVault 2 and would ignore it.
 
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Fishrrman said:
I don't think you need to "secure" the partitions (if that's possible).

Again, just run it and be happy.

I used Snow Leopard on a 2010 MacBook Pro until just a couple of months ago, and NEVER had any problems with it...
Click to expand...

Well, I'm taking Intell's information on board and the Sierra partition is busy encrypting at the moment. Read/write to the partitions isn't really necessary for this project and if it makes things more secure, that's all to the good :)

'run it and be happy' – that's exactly what I'm doing Fishrrman. So good to see cover flow again, and I've resurrected my square iPod Nano. I've made a couple of tweaks, uninstalled flash, disabled java, turned off spotlight indexing and removed the spotlight icon from the menu bar. It's been fun so far, nice to see Snowy speeding about. I'm keeping my eyes open for an iPod Classic now...just to complete that 'vintage' look of course ;-)

Anna
[doublepost=1486377399][/doublepost]
Intell said:
You can enable FileVault on the new OS partition. Snow Leopard doesn't know about FileVault 2 and would ignore it.
Click to expand...

Hello Intell,

Your reply and information is useful and very much appreciated.

Thank you

Anna
 
Last edited:
Mr_Brightside_@ said:
Why'd you 'remove' Spotlight?
Click to expand...

Hello,

Because I don't need it. The less unnecessary resources used the better, although whether or not it makes much difference when only running iTunes is debatable. As I'm not using spotlight I thought I might as well remove the icon. It can all be reset if necessary and I always back up before making changes. I want my Snow Leopard to be lean and clean.

Incidentally, concerning tweaking, I reduced transparency and motion on the Sierra partition of my MacBook and it made a very noticeable difference in speed.

Anna
 
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