Mikehmyers

Q: Booting El Capitan from a Partitioned Drive

I am currently operating on Snow Leopard, 10.6.8. I wanted to upgrade to a newer OS so that I can sync my desktop with my iPad. Someone was nice enough to help and suggested I partition my hard disk and download El Capitan on a new partition. This way, if I ran into a problem, I would always be able to revert back to Snow Leopard. The download went smoothly, but I am unable to boot from El Capitan.

 

I boot my computer by holding down the Option key. I am then presented with three choices - to boot from my original Hard Disk, boot from El Capitan (the name of my new partition) and a third choice which I am clueless about. I naturally choose El Capitan. (see photo #1).

 

After choosing to boot from El Capitan, I am asked to choose my network and enter my password (see photo #2). I choose my network from the drop down menu and have tried entering both my network password and my Apple password. I should also note that my Caps Lock key is disabled during this process and I am forced to use the Shift Key to enter my password. As the letters I am typing do not show, I cannot even be sure that capital letters are being entered as required for my password. Neither password I enter will get me past this screen. Apparently the information is not authenticating, although there is no message to that effect.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can successfully boot from El Capitan?

 

Would a less advanced operating system (somewhere between Snow Leopard and El Capitan) allow me to sync my desktop with my iPad?

 

Any help would be appreciated.image1.JPGimage2.JPG

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8), Western Digital Backup Drive

Posted on Mar 13, 2016 9:26 AM

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Q: Booting El Capitan from a Partitioned Drive

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  • by Barney-15E,Apple recommended

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 13, 2016 9:22 AM in response to Mikehmyers
    Level 8 (49,762 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2016 9:22 AM in response to Mikehmyers

    You are not being asked to choose a network, you are being offered to choose a network from which you can NetBoot.

    Just select the El Capitan drive and hit the return key.

  • by benwiggy,

    benwiggy benwiggy Mar 13, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Mikehmyers
    Level 4 (1,430 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Mikehmyers

    Mikehmyers wrote:

     

    Someone was nice enough to help and suggested I partition my hard disk and download El Capitan on a new partition. This way, if I ran into a problem, I would always be able to revert back to Snow Leopard. The download went smoothly, but I am unable to boot from El Capitan.

     

    I would rarely advise partitioning your internal volume. Perhaps, if you've got several external drives you can use for backups or storing clone copies, then you could partition one of those. But invariably, a partition on a system volume is an arbitrary limitation that will need adjusting at some point in the future.

     

    You say you downloaded the installer: but did you run it? Did you select the EC partition as the destination? IIRC, you have to click on "Show More Disks", otherwise, it will just update the current volume.

     

    If you boot to Snow Leopard, what do you see when your browse the EC partition?

  • by Mikehmyers,

    Mikehmyers Mikehmyers Mar 13, 2016 9:32 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 13, 2016 9:32 AM in response to benwiggy

    When I first downloaded El Capitan I did go through the installation process. When I browse my partitions, I show two of them. They are Macintosh HD and El Capitan.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 13, 2016 9:33 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 8 (49,762 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2016 9:33 AM in response to benwiggy

    Thats not the problem. The OP has a valid El Capitan boot drive as indicated in the startup manager screen shot. The problem is the OP thinks you are supposed to choose a network which is not correct unless you need to NetBoot.

  • by Mikehmyers,

    Mikehmyers Mikehmyers Mar 13, 2016 9:41 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 13, 2016 9:41 AM in response to Barney-15E

    Barney,

     

    I have been trying for a week to launch the program and you solved it in two seconds. THANK YOU!!!

     

    Now onto the next issue. I want to be able to access all of my information from in Snow Leopard. Someone suggested that I use Migration Assistant. Would you agree?

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 13, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Mikehmyers
    Level 8 (49,762 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Mikehmyers

    Depends on what you want in the end. If you want to use El Capitan mostly, only going to Snow Leopard occasionally, then Migration Assistant would be the way to go. it will copy all of your user data and Applications over. However, change Zhou make in one OS won't be reflected in the copies on the other OS.

  • by Mikehmyers,

    Mikehmyers Mikehmyers Mar 13, 2016 12:51 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 13, 2016 12:51 PM in response to Barney-15E

    So if I am understanding this correctly I will have two copies of everything? This is certainly not my goal. The main reason for setting up El Capitan on a partitioned drive was in the event of a problem, it would allow me to revert backwards. If everything works smoothly, the only reason I would need to go back to Snow Leopard is to access some databases that I have in AppleWorks. Unfortunately, the Pages word processing program does not have databases and I have several that I have used for years in AppleWorks.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Mar 13, 2016 12:56 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 9 (50,245 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 13, 2016 12:56 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Barney, that looks like the IR recovery screen not the startup manager, could it be?

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 13, 2016 12:59 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 8 (49,762 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2016 12:59 PM in response to Csound1

    No, the second screen is the result of Choosing a Network on the first.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 13, 2016 1:04 PM in response to Mikehmyers
    Level 8 (49,762 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 13, 2016 1:04 PM in response to Mikehmyers

    If you want to use El Capitan exclusively, I would just Migrate your data and use it from there. Pick a new folder to store new and changed documents until you are certain you want to stick with El Capitan. When you do, you can file those documents wherever you'd prefer and delete your old docs from the snow leopard account.

  • by Mikehmyers,

    Mikehmyers Mikehmyers Mar 13, 2016 1:42 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 13, 2016 1:42 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Barney,

     

    Can you walk me through how to do this? Also, when I tried to run Migration Assistant, I got a message that I don't have enough free space. I am going to increase the size of the partition as I think that may be the problem.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Mar 13, 2016 1:57 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 9 (50,245 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 13, 2016 1:57 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Presumably this only appears if Netboot is active, thanks.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Mar 15, 2016 5:15 PM in response to Mikehmyers
    Level 8 (49,762 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 15, 2016 5:15 PM in response to Mikehmyers

    This is pretty much it: How to move data to your new Mac using Mountain Lion and earlier - Apple Support

    If you have any questions on that article, ask away.