How do i partition a working osx86 snow install?

[jbolted]

I followed the life hackers guide to install snow leopard 10.6.2 on an EP45-UD3P motherboard, using the v3 installer. I would like to creat another partition so i can install just a basic working version of snow leopard to use in case of emergency if I have to replace any kext files or files in the extra folder. I just realized that if something were to go wrong with a future update, I would be screwed.

[srs5694]

First, it's possible, although often awkward, to use your install disc for most emergency maintenance. The procedure is to boot up far enough to open a Terminal from the menu. You can then type text-mode OS X commands and even launch GUI programs by locating and launching them manually.

 

That said, creating a second installation is a good idea, since it'll be faster and more flexible than using the installation disc for this sort of thing. The basic procedure is simple in outline, but more complicated in practice:

 

1. If necessary, shrink your existing OS X partition, or some other partition on your disk whose size you don't mind reducing. Alternatively, you can install another hard disk and use part of it for your secondary/emergency installation.
   
2. Create a new partition for the second install.
   
3. Either install OS X again, to the new partition; or use Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, or some other tool to copy your existing installation to the new partition.
   

 

Step #1 can be complicated because shrinking the existing installation isn't always possible. Disk Utility can do it, but only if the disk is partitioned using the GUID Partition Table (GPT) system, not MBR. I'm also not sure if Disk Utility will shrink the partition from which you've booted; you may need to boot the installer and use it for the job. I'm pretty sure that some other tools, such as GNU Parted, will also do the job. (GNU Parted's filesystem support varies from one build to another, so you may need to hunt for one with HFS+ support.)

 

Disk Utility is also pretty inflexible when it comes to creating new partitions without wiping out the existing ones, so you may need to use something else for the job, such as GNU Parted, an fdisk tool (a text-mode MBR tool that exists in various OSes, including OS X, although each OS's fdisk is unique), or gdisk (a cross-platform text-mode GPT tool [disclaimer: I wrote gdisk]). With many of these tools, you'll need to format the partition for HFS+ with another tool, such as Disk Utility or (in Linux) mkfs.hfsplus. Note that OS X likes to have ~128MB of free space between its GPT partitions, so if you use GPT, be sure to include that free space, or OS X may balk at installing to your new partition.

[jbolted]

First, it's possible, although often awkward, to use your install disc for most emergency maintenance. The procedure is to boot up far enough to open a Terminal from the menu. You can then type text-mode OS X commands and even launch GUI programs by locating and launching them manually.

 

That said, creating a second installation is a good idea, since it'll be faster and more flexible than using the installation disc for this sort of thing. The basic procedure is simple in outline, but more complicated in practice:

 

1. If necessary, shrink your existing OS X partition, or some other partition on your disk whose size you don't mind reducing. Alternatively, you can install another hard disk and use part of it for your secondary/emergency installation.
   
2. Create a new partition for the second install.
   
3. Either install OS X again, to the new partition; or use Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, or some other tool to copy your existing installation to the new partition.
   

 

Step #1 can be complicated because shrinking the existing installation isn't always possible. Disk Utility can do it, but only if the disk is partitioned using the GUID Partition Table (GPT) system, not MBR. I'm also not sure if Disk Utility will shrink the partition from which you've booted; you may need to boot the installer and use it for the job. I'm pretty sure that some other tools, such as GNU Parted, will also do the job. (GNU Parted's filesystem support varies from one build to another, so you may need to hunt for one with HFS+ support.)

 

Disk Utility is also pretty inflexible when it comes to creating new partitions without wiping out the existing ones, so you may need to use something else for the job, such as GNU Parted, an fdisk tool (a text-mode MBR tool that exists in various OSes, including OS X, although each OS's fdisk is unique), or gdisk (a cross-platform text-mode GPT tool [disclaimer: I wrote gdisk]). With many of these tools, you'll need to format the partition for HFS+ with another tool, such as Disk Utility or (in Linux) mkfs.hfsplus. Note that OS X likes to have ~128MB of free space between its GPT partitions, so if you use GPT, be sure to include that free space, or OS X may balk at installing to your new partition.

 

Thanks for the response. I think the best way you suggested is to get another hard drive. I think its always a good idea to have another seperate drive anyways, in case of a failure. I know on a regular mac, I was never able to repartition without losing the data with the  disk utility app. I did though in the past use drive genius app to repartition a drive without losing data but I doubt it would work on a hackintosh, because you have to boot off of the drive genus disk.