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Level 1

8 points

option command does not bring up Yosemite upon restart while in Snow Leopard mode

My imac which has been a splendid machine is getting long in the tooth. Until i can afford a new machine I need to have 2 OS to run the software. I have 2 partitions one of which is running the last OS that will run my photoshop. That OS is Snow Leopard. The big partition is 800 Gig the smaller is 100 Gig. Because one needs to rebuild directory Disk Warrior demands a separate startup. Thinking that Yosemite or indeed the latest OS would be good to have in order to run latest version and do Disk Warrior rebuild.

So my desire is to be able to be current within the Mac OS community but i am finding it difficult because Snow Leopard does not recognize Yosemite (or indeed whatever is the latest OS). Now i have 2 needs. And soon i will be forced to upgrade to latest Revit. So i will have to erase all my disk after backup files and resize the partitions one smaller with Snow Leopard but the other for running Revit thru parallels will be bigger maybe 700/300. Then i will do bootcamp.

Now before the big switch i wanted to see about the current OS but i cannot find how to restart and see the partition. I got a nice suggestion to do option + command (he actually said alt) but this doesn't work. So any ideas?

My needs

1.) I must run Photoshop and parallels with Revit running Windows 8 for my lifeblood $$ income

2.) I will be moving on and adding new Revit to see if running bootcamp makes it faster until i can buy a new machine (it is looking more and more like it will be a windows one as apple is clearly blowing it with their lack of smart moves lately. No DVD drive? Dumb. Inability to choose an OS when restarting not helpful. No disks sent when purchasing new OS, unfortunate and this reliance on cloud is asking for trouble.

Mahalo for your considering my dilemma. . .

iMac (24-inch Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8), Snowleopard + Yosemite partitions

Posted on Feb 5, 2016 3:55 PM

20 replies

Feb 7, 2016 1:40 AM in response to ozonro

I am unclear as to what you mean by "see" the partition? Let me tell you my experience:

I run 10.6.8 on a single partition on my 2011 iMac. I have also installed Yosemite and Mavericks in separate partitions on an external HD. When I wish to use any of those OS, I restart holding down the Option key. I am then presented with SIX choices:

10.6.8 on the iMac
10.6.8 'Recovery Partition' on the iMac (yes, I know, this should not even exist, but since installing Yosemite, there it is)
10.9 on the external
10.9 'Recovery Partition' on the external
10.10 on the external
10.10 'Recovery Partition' on the external

I've never used the recovery partitions, but can boot into any of 3 OS. The only differences on Restart, are that 10.6.8 and 10.10 will both reboot into 10.6.8 on the iMac without using the Option key, where 10.9 will reboot to itself unless I press Option.

While in Snow Leopard, I can "see" the partitions on the external, but there's no reason why I shouldn't - it's only a data disk after all, even if it does contain two other OS.

Finally, I was able to install both 10.9 and 10.10 on the external from Snow Leopard, having downloaded 10.10 to SL from the App Store (I was "given" 10.9 as it's no longer available for download unless you've done so in the past).

I do have SLS on DVD (£19 from Apple USA) and a copy of Parallels 10, should I ever decide to take the plunge and upgrade.

ozonro Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 7, 2016 7:02 AM in response to a brody

Yes a broody it was a rather confused exploration in terms of communication. Original helper was confused about option and alt by not being articulate about what he meant. So i faithfully followed his instructions to the keystroke which of course doesn't work because he was trying to be helpful by pointing out that alt is option in some alternate windows universe. . . and i was too dumb to see the actuality behind the words. But once i got the option @ restart all was and is good! Strange that there is both a startup disk preference and a startup Manager (Bert & Ernie?). . . As to Christopher being able to "see" partitions on the external . . . you must be charmed because i cannot >> only when using Startup Manager can i "see" the partition with Yosemite. But again all is good and i can fix my directory now from Yosemite, heck i even was able to download a demo of sketchup woohoo :-)

Again mahalo to all and this closes this chapter of mac madness

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Feb 7, 2016 12:52 PM in response to ozonro

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Feb 8, 2016 6:04 AM in response to ozonro

ozonro wrote:

. . . As to Christopher being able to "see" partitions on the external . . . you must be charmed because i cannot >> only when using Startup Manager can i "see" the partition with Yosemite. But again all is good and i can fix my directory now from Yosemite, heck i even was able to download a demo of sketchup woohoo :-)

I put "see" in quotes because I don't see them as bootable Mac OS X unless I hold the option key down at startup. But otherwise, the Yosemite installation is just a series of data folders (Applications, Library, System, Users, etc), so why wouldn't I see them? Perhaps it helps that I migrated all my Applications and main User account across when I installed, but even so, you should be able to see the folders on an attached external HD.

ozonro Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 8, 2016 8:43 AM in response to christopher rigby1

Well i dunno mate but all i can tell you is that the only way i can do what i want to do is to restart with the option key depressed. Kind of a pain but all in all not so bad as it was before all the helpful people here chimed in. Of course i can as you say "see" the folders and what have you which does me little good but the main point is resolved. So goodbye and mahalo again to all for the helpful efforts!

option command does not bring up Yosemite upon restart while in Snow Leopard mode