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Can I partition APFS volume to dual boot Lion and High Sierra?

Hi,


I have a mid 2012 Mac Pro running OSX 10.13 High Sierra. I want to keep High Sierra AND install OSX 10.7 Lion so that I can run some legacy Adobe software on occasion. All internal drive bays are being used:


  1. Mac HD (512 gb SSD) Applications
  2. 1 TB HDD Media/Projects
  3. 1 TB SSD VSTs
  4. 1 TB SSD VSTs


Questions:

  • Is it possible to partition the Mac HD (currently partitioned as APFS volume in order to support High Sierra) as Mac OS Journaled so that I can install Lion via bootable USB and create a dual boot drive?
  • OR Can I install/run Lion and Adobe software on an external HD (USB 2.0 or firewire)?
  • OR Do you have any suggestions of how to make this work?


Thanks for taking the time to help :)

Posted on Aug 27, 2021 3:57 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 27, 2021 7:58 PM

I don't recommend partitioning any drives, but especially a boot drive since users always select the wrong sizes for at least one of the partitions as users tend to run out of storage space on at least one of the partitions. When users go to resize partitions they end up losing access to their data and many times prevent either macOS from booting. When this happens you usually need to erase the entire drive to start over again.


Plus macOS Lion will not be able to recognize the newer APFS volume used by High Sierra so you will not be able to use the Lion Startup Disk System Preferences to select High Sierra as the boot volume.


I would suggest you instead use an external USB3 drive for your macOS Lion installation.


If you insist on dual booting on the internal drive, then you will need to use Disk Utility to create a new partition. Within Disk Utility you may need to first click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Select the physical drive and click on the "Partition" icon followed by clicking on the "+" icon to create a new partition and resize it as desired before clicking "Apply".


Make sure to have a good backup before attempting to create a new partition. Plus make sure to have frequent and regular backups of both partitions and any external media which contains important and unique data.


And be prepared to erase everything and start over at some point when you realize you don't have enough free storage space on one of the volumes or when you realize you no longer wan to use macOS Lion.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 27, 2021 7:58 PM in response to burnm

I don't recommend partitioning any drives, but especially a boot drive since users always select the wrong sizes for at least one of the partitions as users tend to run out of storage space on at least one of the partitions. When users go to resize partitions they end up losing access to their data and many times prevent either macOS from booting. When this happens you usually need to erase the entire drive to start over again.


Plus macOS Lion will not be able to recognize the newer APFS volume used by High Sierra so you will not be able to use the Lion Startup Disk System Preferences to select High Sierra as the boot volume.


I would suggest you instead use an external USB3 drive for your macOS Lion installation.


If you insist on dual booting on the internal drive, then you will need to use Disk Utility to create a new partition. Within Disk Utility you may need to first click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Select the physical drive and click on the "Partition" icon followed by clicking on the "+" icon to create a new partition and resize it as desired before clicking "Apply".


Make sure to have a good backup before attempting to create a new partition. Plus make sure to have frequent and regular backups of both partitions and any external media which contains important and unique data.


And be prepared to erase everything and start over at some point when you realize you don't have enough free storage space on one of the volumes or when you realize you no longer wan to use macOS Lion.

Aug 28, 2021 7:24 AM in response to HWTech

Thank you for the response. I have plenty of space on my startup drive since I run a very lean setup and only use it for several applications. I am very rigorous with making regular backups- I was mostly concerned with the issue you mentioned regarding Lion being unable to recognize the APFS volume. I was able to successfully partition the internal drive (HDD not SSD and thus Mac OS Journaled and not APFS) in my MBP to run both High Sierra and Lion; however, I was looking to do the same thing on the Mac Pro in order to have access to dual monitors, my other drives, etc.


I will look into adding a USB3 expansion card. Thanks for the tip.

Can I partition APFS volume to dual boot Lion and High Sierra?

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