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Dual operating systems

I have an 2010 iMac running Sierra so that I can keep using a particular CAD programme and CS5. Is it possible to partition the 1TB hard drive to allow me to install a later MacOS as well to use as the main daily OS?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Feb 23, 2021 6:56 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 23, 2021 7:49 AM


Ajh162 wrote:

...Do you know if there is an Apple support article for partitioning?


Here is how to use DuckDuckGo or Google to search for Apple support articles, such as for this question:

macos partition site:support.apple.com


Try a few variations of partition or repartition, etc. Here’s one:

Partition a physical disk in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support



9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 23, 2021 7:49 AM in response to Ajh162


Ajh162 wrote:

...Do you know if there is an Apple support article for partitioning?


Here is how to use DuckDuckGo or Google to search for Apple support articles, such as for this question:

macos partition site:support.apple.com


Try a few variations of partition or repartition, etc. Here’s one:

Partition a physical disk in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support



Feb 23, 2021 1:08 PM in response to Ajh162

Okay I successfully partitioned the hard drive and installed High Sierra on it, when I start up and log in it goes to High Sierra and the High Sierra HD icon appears at the top right of the screen and Macintosh HD (Sierra) shows up in the Finder window under Devices, I don't see how to access the Sierra partition though.

Feb 23, 2021 7:33 AM in response to Ajh162

As quite correctly stated above, partitioning can and does work.


So too does configuring macOS as a guest in a hypervisor.


And so too does configuring and using and potentially booting from external storage; of using one or more external HDDs or SSDs.


One huge caveat with storage partitioning: corruptions can corrupt some or all of the partitions, and recovery can require reinitializing the whole HDD or SSD and then re-partitioning and restoring per-partition backups. More than a few folks have encountered partitioning bugs and partitioning corruptions. For those with no backups or no current backups of one or more partitions, that does not end well. There are lots of sad stories with partitioning.


TL;DR: When making any changes to partitioning, have backups of all partitions; of any with data that you care about.

Dual operating systems

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