Are Systems 10.5.8 and 6.03 compatible if on separate drives on a Mac Pro?

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Level 1

4 points

Are Systems 10.5.8 and 6.03 compatible if on separate drives on a Mac Pro?

Question: I am running System 10.5.8 on a 2008 Mac Pro in order to preserve my ability to use certain legacy applications such as Quicken 2003 and not lose years of financial data. There is no reliable financial application currently available to imput Quicken 2003 QIF files to but I need to upgrade my System 10.5.8 to Systen 10.6.3 in order to run TurboTax 2012 from a DVD. Because the 2008 Mac Pro has 4 bays my thought was to add another drive and install System 10.6.3 plus 10.6 updates to 10.6.8 on the added drive. This action would preserve the ability to run legacy software for awhile on System 10.5.8 and permit the switching between the two drives and systems for flexibility. My concern is if this action is undertaken possible firmware changes in System 10.6 would destroy the ability to use System 10.5.8 on my current drive and destroy my ability to access my years of financial records on my drive that are contained in Quicken 2003 and past TurboTax years.

The major issue is whether Systems 10.5.8 and 10.6.3(plus updates) can co-exist on a 2008 Mac Pro if installed on separate drives?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 17, 2012 12:03 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Nov 17, 2012 12:09 PM in response to sternhagen

Why wouldn't they? separate is good, you could format the drive in 10.6.x and then have both on one drive with separate partitions.

There are some updates to Quicken for Lion and ML even, but on 2008, in order to avoid problems, seems like 10.6.8 is the ideal.

Too bad you can't run 10.5.x in a VM for that one or two applications. But no need to waste or use an entire drive, when really all the data etc should not be on the boot drive anyway to begin with. And Mac OS only needs about 40GB (to burn DVDs can chew up 24GB of disk space is all).

System

Data

scratch / testing

backup

most people do use all four drive bays if not more.

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Answer 2

sternhagen Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 17, 2012 2:21 PM in response to The hatter

To Hatter:

Thank you for the comments, they were helpful. I agree that using a separate drive for System 10.6.8 would be wasteful of capacity but am very concerned that if hidden firmware changes in System 10.6.8 affected the ability to preserve the usage of System 10.5.8 on my current drives in bays 1 and 2 there would be no way back. I accept the the wastage by believing it may be more conservative and safer than partioning my drives 1 and 2. I back up my drives 1 and 2 to external firewire OWC drives using Super Duper but restoring from the backup drives might not be possible if hidden firmware changes in System 10.6.8 modified the Mac Pro. Again, there would be no way back I fear!

Keeping System 10.5.8 alive keeps my historical financial records alive until some software house develops an application that functions reliably and can import and preserve historical Quicken Quicken 2003 QIF files. It also preserve the ability to reach back for tax records given that TurboTax now has a minimum system requirement of System 10.6.0 starting with 2012.

Also, I understand your point about having the system and software on separate drives but I have a need to maintain data files on separate drives due to Quicken 2003 software deficiencies—it won't handle two sets of books on one drive without chaos. Separating System 10.5.8 and the two data collections would require three drives and impact the backup process that I diligently follow.

But your thoughtful comments have helped me with my deliberations.

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Answer 3

Nov 17, 2012 6:28 PM in response to sternhagen

There is no reliable financial application currently available to input Quicken 2003 QIF files

I have been running Quicken right along, and made it to Quicken 2007 when they announced it was not going to be compatible with 10.7. Since then, they have issued an updated version for US$15, that is 10.7 compatible. I am currently running that version under 10.6.8, and testing it under 10.7.

You can upgrade to any Quicken 2007 version and bring your files forward into 10.6.8 and continue to run. If you get the US$15 upgrade, you are good for a few more versions of Mac OS X.

You may not love Intuit or Quicken, but at least it is the devil you know.

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Answer 4

sternhagen Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 18, 2012 7:04 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

To Grant Bennet-Alder:

Thank you for the suggestion. I went to the Quicken website but the only upgrade I could find is the one that upgrades Quicken 2007 to Lion. This version assumes that the user already has a version of Quicken 2007 and if so will convert 2005-2007 files and make Quicken 2007 Lion usable. Alas, I have Quicken 2003, not 2007 and the old 2003 QIF file formats. But, following your suggestion if I could somehow find an original copy of Quicken 2007 and update it to get files converted from 2003 Qif format to 2007 format I could then perhaps use the current upgrade issued by Quicken.

I initially read your idea as being able to upgrade from Quicken 2003 to Quicken 2007 but can find no available upgrade to do that. I will search the web to see if there is an old boxed version of Quicken 2007 for Mac out there somewhere.

But thank you for your helpful idea. Hope is not yet lost.

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Answer 5

sternhagen Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 22, 2012 6:55 AM in response to sternhagen

To Grant Bennet-Alder:

I have found and bought a copy of Quicken 2007, installed it on Apple System 10.5.8 on my Mac Pro(Intel), and converted my Quicken 2003 files to Quicken 2007. Everything converted nicely. My next objective is to upgrade to Apple System 10.6.8. Because Quicken 2007 is a Power PC app I had the impression that it was running in Rosetta mode and that Apple System 10.6.8 Snow Leopard on a Mac Pro Intel no longer supported emulation. Yet I understand you to say it will run in Apple System 10.6.8 though I understand it will require the $15 upgrade advance to System 7. My confusion is over whether Quicken 2007 will run in System 10.6.8? I would appreciate it if you would clarify that Quicken 2007 will run in System 10.6.8 Snow Leopard because losing 12 years of finnacial history would be bad news indeed. If I can be assured of running Quicken 2007 in System 10.6.8 I can then advance to System 7 with the $15 upgrade

Yes, Quicken is flawed and Intuit support is weak, but it is unfortuately the tar pit some uf us are mired in.

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Answer 6

Nov 22, 2012 7:23 AM in response to sternhagen

Yes, different system versions can be on different drives. On my new Mac Pro I have 10.8.2 for most uses, but one drive still has 10.6.8 and I can boot from it fine.

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Answer 7

Nov 22, 2012 7:43 AM in response to sternhagen

running in Rosetta mode and that Apple System 10.6.8 Snow Leopard on a Mac Pro Intel no longer supported emulation

Right idea, wrong break point.

It is 10.7 that no longer supports Rosetta. 10.6.8 includes it as an optional install. (Just be sure you select options and install it when you do your initial Install.)

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I have been running the "Lion Compatible" version under 10.6.8, to get a feel for what will be different. So far I have discovered:

The ledger positions on the screen are not saved if you leave ledgers open. If you close them before you quit, and re-open them after re-launch, their positions are remembered. (This may not be an issue in 10.7.)

"Tax Planning Estimator" is not supported inside Quicken. Intuit's solution is to give you access to Turbo Tax online Estimator, but that tool does not save your data from session-to-session unless you subscribe. Since the tax rates were so stale anyway (with no sensible way to update them), this is not that much of a drawback.

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Answer 8

sternhagen Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 22, 2012 7:55 AM in response to sternhagen

Thank you for the clarification. I now understand and am reassured about moving forward to System 10.6.8 and then to System 7 with the $15 upgrade.

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