OS X 10.4, 10.5, and XP all on ONE hard drive

[drguitar]

i setup a new Mac Pro 8 core HD3 Accel system for a studio last weekend.

For now, they have 10.4 with PT 7.4

but they also want 10.5 on there so they can use bootcamp to install windows XP and be able to run PT in XP as well.

but they specifically want all 3 of these OS's on ONE hard drive.

My question is, do you guys know if Boot Camp can partition a drive for an XP installation on a drive that ALREADY has been partitioned?

I've checked all over the apple forums and find completely contradictory info.

What I THOUGHT I would do was, erase the system drive, partition it into 2 partitions. Install 10.4 on one. Then install 10.5 on the other. Then use Boot Camp to create, as I know it does, ANOTHER partition on that drive for XP.

I just can't confirm from anyone that this will or will not work before I spend all the time doing it. Some say that boot camp will NOT be able to make a new partition on a drive that already has more than 1 partition. that doesn't sound right to me, and I MIGHT have to spend the experimental time trying anyways if I can't get an answer from anyone.

but can anyone shed some light on this for me?

again, they are not looking to use more than ONE physical hard drive for all of these OS's. Thank you for any insight into this situation!

[kindsounds]

You can use Bootcamp with 10.4, it was available when I got my MacPro last year on 10.4,if that is their only reason to get Leopard, then it's not needed. They will need to install PT on both partitions using the different install software though.

Good luck and good music.

[drguitar]

thanks for the response, but bootcamp assistant on 10.4 will no longer run.....it has expired

that is why they NEED Leopard to install XP on their system specifically using bootcamp and not a virtualization program but a true boot.

again, all 3 OS's desired on ONE hard drive

anyone else?

[ThisBeatsWorking]

I do believe you will be able achieve this. This is what I would do:

Get (2) 300GB + SATA HD's. ( I've never had a problem w/ Seagate and I have used quite a number of them.) Pop it into one of the bays.
Leave the current system drive installed w/ PT 7.4 in the computer.
Boot up as normal.
Open up Disk Utility and make 3 partitions.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombwich
Clone the current system w/ PT 7.4 to partition 1. When done, boot up off the clone (repair permissions) and make sure everything is working fine. (some apps w/ disk authorization like Reason will need to be re-auth.) Also I've read that Partion 1 will be more responsive, so make sure P1 is your main boot partition for your PT work.

If you wish to keep the Apple apps that came pre-installed like iMovie, iDVD, etc., I would also clone the current system to Partition 2. ( make sure you are booted off the original system and clone to partition 2, i've had errors when I wasn't booted off the system i wanted to clone)
Reboot off of Partition 2 (repair permissions) and make sure all apps are working fine again.
Then reboot off of the Leopard install dvd and install (upgrade to) Leopard onto Partition 2 ( i went from 10.4 on my G4 Powerbook to Leopard thereby keeping all of my files apps etc. intact)
When complete, boot off of Partiton 2.( repair permissions) I would also update to 10.5.1 ( my PB ran much better after the update) I'm not sure if using Software Update will have similiar issues as previously reported by Digi as 10.5.x has yet to be blessed by Digi, so maybe to be safe use the Combo update instead)
Reboot off of Partition 2( repair permissions) and make sure the system is running ok with leopard 10.5.1

I haven't tried boot camp yet but imagine you can install it onto Partion 3.

Theoretically this should work as I did something similar with my G5 running HD 3 Accel originally 10.4.7/PT 7.2 and went to 10.4.9/PT 7.4, thereby keeping both systems intact and having cloned the new partitions back to the original drive for my back up just in case anything goes wrong. I have yet to put 7.4 thru its paces but everything is working fine. I did this cloning process with all computer/daw peripherals off, powering them up when needed to test.

I hope I didn't leave anything out, its late.......... you get the idea.

Hope this helps, let us know of your progress.


TBW

[ThisBeatsWorking]

Hmmm,
"but they also want 10.5 on there so they can use bootcamp to install windows XP and be able to run PT in XP as well."

Come to think of it, I'm wondering if Boot camp needs a different format for the HD. Probably does.

I would think Boot Camp should be able to reformat Partition 3.




Keep us posted

Thanks
TBW


***I came across a thread where partition 3 was reformatted w/ FAT32 after the disk utility partion/os installs, and worked for the user. He had XP installed ontp P3 and windows worked fine. PCI drivers are probably another issue as stated below to run Prp Tools on XP

[peter99]

BUT: protools HD doesnt work on Bootcamp XP beacause of missing PCI drivers !!

LE works fine...

[drguitar]

are you sure about that??? PT HD really doesn't work being fully booted from XP using bootcamp???

even if that's true, the clients are still looking to be able to boot into XP

and i still haven't figured out if I can indeed have all three of these OS's on 3 different partitions of one hard drive yet

I tried experimenting with a new firewire drive and my new MB pro....but once I launched bootcamp, it said it can only work on INTERNAL drives

anyone with a blank internal drive want to try to make 2 partitions, leave one blank, install 10.5 on the other, and then see if bootcamp can add a 3rd partition for XP to an already partitioned drive for me sometime today??

obviously my expectations are low that someone would do this for me....but I don't have an intel tower so I can't test myself!!! (can't erase my internal on my MB pro currently)

gracias

[drguitar]

well now I know SOME answers

bootcamp seems will ONLY create a windows partition on an internal hard drive

bootcamp will NOT create a partition on a drive that has already been partitioned into more than one part with Disc Utlity

so, as of now, you can't get 10.4, 10.5 and XP all on different partitions of the SAME physical hard drive

but I wonder what parallels could do!

and I own it!

time to check it out soon

I wonder if you could install XP using parallels, but then boot directly from XP after it's installed....hmmmm