Member Avatar for gn0m3

Hi Folks,

I have Panther (10.3.9) running on a G4 on 1 partition, is there an easy way of creating a new partition so i can install tiger as well but without losing the Panther install and all the apps? Also will this work running Panther and Tiger on one machine (obviously not at the same time)???

Thanks a lot,

gn0m3

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For the testing setup you describe (), there are three practical, low-risk approaches that avoid surprises and keep Panther intact. ’s point about backing up is spot on and ’s VolumeWorks note is useful — the items below show how to use those ideas without losing time.

  1. Fastest, safest: use an external FireWire drive. Make a bootable FireWire volume (HFS+ Journaled, Apple Partition Map for a G4), install Tiger there or clone your Panther with a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner/SuperDuper!, and boot the Mac using the Option key to choose the external volume. No internal repartition, no risk to the existing install, and the same external drive can be moved between machines for testing.

  2. Internal dual‑boot with minimal risk: create a full bootable clone of the existing Panther volume to an external disk first. Then, using either a purpose-built non‑destructive tool (VolumeWorks/iPartition) or by booting from installer/external media and repartitioning, carve out a new HFS+ partition (keep the partition map as Apple Partition Map on PPC machines). Install Tiger to the new partition and verify both systems boot. If anything goes wrong, restore the clone back to the internal volume.

  3. Scale-friendly option for multiple machines: build one bootable reference (external or network image) and use FireWire Target Disk Mode or Apple imaging tools to replicate it. Always test the image on one machine before mass deployment.

Quick cautions: always make a bootable clone before touching partitions; verify the partition map (APM on PowerPC Macs) or the drive won’t be bootable; test application compatibility on the Tiger copy before moving production data; and keep an external rescue disk handy.

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Member Avatar for John A

Hi Folks,

I have Panther (10.3.9) running on a G4 on 1 partition, is there an easy way of creating a new partition so i can install tiger as well but without losing the Panther install and all the apps? Also will this work running Panther and Tiger on one machine (obviously not at the same time)???

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. If you install Tiger, there's an option to "Upgrade", which will preserve all your data, applications, and settings. In fact, you'll hardly notice you've upgraded. I've upgraded my iMac G5 from Panther to Tiger, and installation/upgrading went without a hitch.

Now if there's some strange reason why you still might want to dual-boot Panther and Tiger on the same machine, yes it is possible. But you can't nondestructively resize the Panther partition using Panther, as you'll need Tiger for that. So if you want to do it, you'll have to backup everything, and then reformat and repartition the entire drive. Ouch.

(Tiger does have a nondestructive repartitioning tool, diskutil, but that isn't included with Panther, so it isn't an option until you've installed 10.4)

Member Avatar for gn0m3

Thanks for that. the reason i need to have both is because we have 10 macs running Panther and 10 running tiger so for testing and troubleshooting purposes i need both! there isnt a lot installed the drive so a reformat is fine.

thanks again,

gn0m3

Member Avatar for John A

So basically you should boot off the Panther disk (after you've backed up your hard disk), choose Utilities->Disk Utility. Delete the Panther partition, click 'Yes' to the warning, and then add an HFS partition that doesn't take up the entire drive. You'll then have room to add a second partition, which can be used to install Panther on.

Hope this helps

Member Avatar for MacJunkie

I use VolumeWorks to create and delete new partitions without loss of data. Works like a charm. You select the size for the new partition and it will create it without deleting your current partition. The big advantage is when your deleting a partition and want to reclaim the space into your main partition you can do so without deleting the main partition too and totally repartitioning the drive.

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