Two versions of OSX on one drive

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Level 1

4 points

Two versions of OSX on one drive

Hello

I have a question about installling two versions of OSX on a single hard drive.

I have a Dual 2Ghz PowerMac G5 running Leopard 10.5.8 as that is the last version that supports my Mac.

There is no way that I can afford to upgrade and I think I need a new hard drive pretty soon. So I was thinking about buying a new drive, partitioning it into two halves and putting the Leopard 10.5.8 on the first half and Tiger on the other. The reason I want to do this is so I can use some older software that stopped working under Leopard.

As long as I parttion the drive, is this okay to do? Will it work fine and not give me any performance issues?

Also, while I'm on this, is there any particular hard drive that works the best with PowerMac G5s? Since I can't afford a new Mac I want to do everything I can to get the best preformance. I've already got the maximum RAM fitted.

Thanks for any advice ;-)

Dave

G5, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Sep 13, 2012 6:17 AM

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Answer 1

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Ralph Landry1

Level 8

41,844 points

Sep 13, 2012 6:20 AM in response to mandarcy

That will work fine...did that with my MBP external drive, have a Time machine partition, then two partitions with Mac os X 10.7 and 10.8...can boot the internal drive or wither external partion...just restart holding the Opt key and then select the drive/partition to boot.

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Answer 2

Sep 13, 2012 6:22 AM in response to mandarcy

Yes, you can run two versions of OS X by partitioning the disk drive. You will have to reboot to change from one verion of OS X to the other.

Most of the PowerMac G5s used ATA disks. Most of the disks today are SATA. It is possible to run SATA disks in the PM but you need an expansion card to do it.

Allan

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Answer 3

Sep 13, 2012 6:24 AM in response to mandarcy

Dave, didn't hit your second question: I ahve been partial to OWC for some time...use their Mercury Pro Elite external drives, they come quad interface - eSATA, Firewire 800/400, and USB so you can match the interface that works best for you.

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Answer 4

mandarcy Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 13, 2012 6:34 AM in response to Ralph Landry1

Thanks for that guys :-)

Ralph, I was thinking specifically about an internal drive to put the OSs on. I think I currently have a Western Digital Caviar in there and a second one which I think is Seagate Barracuda.

With my Mac being so old I was wondering if there is one that works best with it or does it not make much difference? I have heard that with certain new drives, it may need jumpers on some of the pins to work with my Mac.

Kind Regards

Dave

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Answer 5

Sep 13, 2012 6:48 AM in response to mandarcy

Dave,

I would still take a look at the OWC site, they handle internal as well as external drives, and you can be specific as far as hardware in seerching their site. I just like dealing with them and have found them to be very helpful in the past.

Ralph

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