I have been given a MacBook Pro running Yosemite but I need Mountain Lion for one of my applications. Can I partition the hard drive and run both systems simultaneously?
MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Yes, provided the MBP in question can accommodate Mt. Lion. If it is am early 2013 or older model, it should work.
Ciao.
It is an older MBP - late 2008. What worried me was that only Windows was mentioned when I went to partition it.
A 2008 MBP should be able to be partitioned and run Mt. Lion and Yosemite on separate partitions. I have a 2006 MBP which had three partitions with three separate OSX's installed.
susanfromross on wye wrote:
What worried me was that only Windows was mentioned when I went to partition it.
How was Windows mentioned? Do you have a bootcamp partition?
Ciao.
Yes, I have a Bootcamp partition (predictive text just made it a bottom partition!). Don't ask me where - my son found it. Is there another way of doing it? Sorry if I seem a bit dim but I have been working on a G4 until now and this is all a bit scary!
It appears that you will have to have three partitions on your HDD. That in it self should not be an obstacle. It is a question if your HDD has enough capacity to accommodate your data and the projected increase of data. If not, a larger capacity HDD should be installed. They currently come up to 2 TB in capacity.
Ciao.
As far as I can see my HDD has 4GB memory and 250GB storage. Is that enough?
Many thanks for your help.
A late 2008 17" MBP will accept up to 6 GB RAM and a late 2008 15" MBP will accept up to 8 GB RAM. I recommend that running Yosemite would be most efficient if the maximum RAM were installed. The best sources for Mac compatible RAM are OWC and Crucial.
Not knowing what you personal data requirements are, I cannot give you an authoritative answer if your storage is adequate or not. My rule is that one can never have too much storage installed. I have 1 TB HDDs installed in my MBPs. When you start partitioning, those volumes start getting small, so please think carefully if 250 GB will be enough.
Both RAM and HDDs can be user installed.
Ciao.
Will my MacBook take TB? Sorry to be so ignorant!
If I decide that replacing Yosemite with Mountain Lion is my cheapest option, will much functionality be lost? In your opinion, is ML a good system?
My problem is that I no longer do much graphic design work because I am over retirement age, but I do need to update old projects now and again so have to have Quark available. I could just update on my old G4 ibook which works very well and sell my newer version of Quark on, keeping Yosemite on this MacBook and using LibreOffice for my writing (my other occupation) instead of Quark. Sorry, I'm thinking aloud.
You've been most helpful. Thank you.
All SATA HDDs are physically the same size, regardless of capacity. That means that you can install a HDD with up to 2 TB capacity if you so choose. So yes, 1 TB is certainly possible.
Running multiple OSXs usually is done because essential software cannot run on a newer OSX. Though I have all of the OSXs available to me, my 'working' OSX is Lion. There are some who say Lion is not very good. I have encountered no difficulties.
Understand the Mt. lion will cost $20 in the Apple online store. You can replace Yosemite with Mt. Lion or install it on a separate partition. That is your executive decision to make.
There is one issue that I do not know that you are aware of. You said that this MBP was given to you. That MBP may be registered in another users name and not yours. In order to get your Apple ID to be associated with the MBP, you should erase the HDD, and reinstall the original OSX. The 2008 MBPs came with Leopard. Do you have the original installation disks?
After Leopard has been installed, you will have to install Snow Leopard, run the Snow Leopard combo update and then it will be ready for Mt. Lion and/or El Capitan (Yosemite is no longer available). Unless you do that, you will not have access to updates from the App store.
Ciao.
It's so complicated!
I set up an Apple ID and it seems to work with both the ibook and MacBook. I do have the original installation disk (just one) but are you saying I would also have to buy Snow Leopard before Mountain Lion, which I have ordered as a download though it hasn't come through yet?
The proper (and legal) way to deal with a second hand MBP is to erase the HDD and install the original OSX. In your case, that will be Leopard. With that installation the MBP will then be associated with your ID.
Then you will have to install Snow Leopard which is available from the Apple online store :
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
Then you will have to run the Snow Leopard combo update which will install 10.6.8:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?locale=en_US
That will give you access to the App Store and is required in order to install newer OSX's.
Then you can install Mt. Lion and El Capitan on separate partitions.
Understand that from a legal standpoint, all applications that do not come with the MBP are the property of the prior owner, not you. Therefore one must go through this process.
Ciao.
Thanks. Unfortunately the cd/dvd drive isn't functional on this MacBook, so it'll have to be downloads.
Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.
Three options:
1 Bootcamp, as some other people already mentioned. You'll need to divide your hard disk into partitions, but your disk might not be large enough.
2 Install Virtualbox, then you run ML inside Virtualbox, which as a program will run on Yosemite. This will be somewhat slower in performance. VirtualBox is a free program. You'll also face a rather crowded hard drive.
3 Use an external drive.
I'd consider option 3. Simply install ML on the external drive. When you boot your notebook, press the option key and you can choose what drive to boot from. Don't use a USB 2 drive, because that will be slow. A Firewire drive will do very well.
The reinstall and upgrade procedure for OSX seems quite a nightmare. Actually it could very well be that you are the legitimate license owner of some (non Apple) software when the machine was transferred to you. That all depends on the types of licenses and the country where you live. You risk to loose that software when you have to reinstall.
If you know the person well who gave you the notebook he/she might also use his/her iCloud id occasionally for updates. Whether that is legal depends upon your relation and the license terms. Sleep well anyway.
Thank you, Jan. You're right about the nightmare! It's why I left a Mac Mini sitting idle on my desk for two years because I cocked up the partition. The external drive sounds interesting - I'll look into it. Cheers.
Can I run two Mac systems?
