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

Triple Partition

M

moderngamenewb

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 20, 2011
441
63
Is there a way I can have three partitions on my mac (MBP Mid 2010)? I have my main Mac partition which runs Lion, and my bootcamp partition for Windows 7. Is there a way that I can make a third partition so I can run Snow Leopard on it (there's a couple of games I want to play that are power pc), without screwing up my windows partition? Or will I need to use win clone to make a dmg file of my Windows 7 (or re install), delete the partition, install Snow Leopard partition, then have to partition my mac again for bootcamp? I want to be able to triple boot my Lion, Windows 7, and Snow Leopard
 
Last edited:
Make a backup first (!!!) then start your computer from SL's DVD and fire up the Disk Utility from there. Click on your hard drive (not the volume, the drive itself, it should be on the top of the list on the left pane). Then click on the "partition" tab on the right. You will see a large picture which represents your drive partition map. Click on the small "+" under the map. This will create a new partition. You can drag the edge of the new partition to resize it. Give it a name and click "Apply". This will partition the drive. Install SL on it. It might sound a little tricky on words but it is quite easy.
 
NorthDakota91 said:
Make a backup first (!!!) then start your computer from SL's DVD and fire up the Disk Utility from there. Click on your hard drive (not the volume, the drive itself, it should be on the top of the list on the left pane). Then click on the "partition" tab on the right. You will see a large picture which represents your drive partition map. Click on the small "+" under the map. This will create a new partition. You can drag the edge of the new partition to resize it. Give it a name and click "Apply". This will partition the drive. Install SL on it. It might sound a little tricky on words but it is quite easy.
Click to expand...

Thanks. So for the backup, obviously I should back up both the windows side and mac side, but do I need to delete the windows partition after the backup and before partition, or will the partition still work with the windows partition already on (I know I should at least back up to play it safe). Thanks for the partition guide :)
 
Be aware that if you repartition a drive with a lot of stuff on it, e.g. 350 gigs on a 1TB drive, Disk utility can take a long time consolidating the data on the old partition into its new, smaller size.
By long, I mean an hour or three, depending on data and drive speed. The progress bar in the dialog window is not frozen, merely moving very slowly. Be patient, do not interrupt the consolidation process. You will likely regret it if you do.
 
Partron22 said:
Be aware that if you repartition a drive with a lot of stuff on it, e.g. 350 gigs on a 1TB drive, Disk utility can take a long time consolidating the data on the old partition into its new, smaller size.
By long, I mean an hour or three, depending on data and drive speed. The progress bar in the dialog window is not frozen, merely moving very slowly. Be patient, do not interrupt the consolidation process. You will likely regret it if you do.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Right now my Mac side has about 130 gigs left on it, while while windows has like 70 or 80 gigs, on a 500 gb hard drive.
 
moderngamenewb said:
Thanks. So for the backup, obviously I should back up both the windows side and mac side, but do I need to delete the windows partition after the backup and before partition, or will the partition still work with the windows partition already on (I know I should at least back up to play it safe).
Click to expand...

No, you don't have to delete anything, just make sure to backup everything just in case, bad thing might happen, especially with the repartitioning (sadly, this comes from my experience :( ) ;)

moderngamenewb said:
Thanks for the partition guide :)
Click to expand...

I'm always glad to help ;)
 
NorthDakota91 said:
No, you don't have to delete anything, just make sure to backup everything just in case, bad thing might happen, especially with the repartitioning (sadly, this comes from my experience :( ) ;)



I'm always glad to help ;)
Click to expand...

Hopefully it'll all work flawlessly, but I'm sure even if I follow the guide, I'll manage to screw it up somehow, haha
 
NorthDakota91 said:
My best wishes ;) Let us know if it worked
Click to expand...

Will do. I just have to find the time to partition. Thought that just occurred though, will it even work because with 10.7.3 (I just remembered) has the other partition to boot lion into recovery mode.
 
moderngamenewb said:
Will do. I just have to find the time to partition. Thought that just occurred though, will it even work because with 10.7.3 (I just remembered) has the other partition to boot lion into recovery mode.
Click to expand...

There shouldn't be any problems with that. The recovery partition is just like any other partition (apart from the fact that it is hidden normally).

A friend of mine installed SL in the same way on his macbook when Lion came out (he wanted to try Lion out but he also needed Rosetta). He also had Bootcamped (what a silly term!) Windows 7 for gaming on the same machine and everything worked great so, once you have a backup, you should have no problems at all
 
NorthDakota91 said:
There shouldn't be any problems with that. The recovery partition is just like any other partition (apart from the fact that it is hidden normally).

A friend of mine installed SL in the same way on his macbook when Lion came out (he wanted to try Lion out but he also needed Rosetta). He also had Bootcamped (what a silly term!) Windows 7 for gaming on the same machine and everything worked great so, once you have a backup, you should have no problems at all
Click to expand...

It worked flawlessly on mine. I just did installed Snow Leopard today. It only took maybe no more than 20 minutes to partition. I'm now running Lion, Snow Leopard, and Windows 7 on my drive :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back