Q: Partition for Snow Leopard

I have an "relatively new" iMac 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 with 12 GB of RAM. I'm still using OS 10.6.8.

I have finally decided that I will need to upgrade to Yosemite, but I want to be able to run some older software (like Appleworks) that is no longer supported on Yosemite when I need to.

I have a 1 TB hard drive. I have 460 GB of "unused space." Can I create a partition on the drive so I could "boot" into Snow Leopard when I need to? Is there a "how to" somewhere about partitioning a hard drive.

Or can I put Snow Leopard on an external drive (like a USB flash drive) and boot into Snow Leopard from there?

Any advice would be appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), (January 2011)

Posted on Jan 26, 2015 6:32 PM

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Q: Partition for Snow Leopard

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by norm123,

norm123 Jan 28, 2015 6:52 AM in response to Joeswell
Community Specialists

Jan 28, 2015 6:52 AM in response to Joeswell

Hi Joeswell,

You can do either option to install a separate OS X on either a partition on your iMac or an external storage device. To do that, take a look at the articles below to go over how to partition your hard drive using Disk Utility and really it is a matter of installing OS X Yosemite and make sure to choose which ever destination to get it installed.

Disk Utility 12.x: Partition a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph5845

OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202796

Take it easy,
-Norm G.
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