Installing System 6 & System 7 on the same Mac (SE/30)

[Tempest]

I have System 7 installed on my SE/30 but I'd also like to install System 6 an use system picker to switch between the two. I've renamed my System Folder to System 7 so it doesn't get overwritten when I install System 6, but the installer seems to want to write to that folder anyway. How do I make it leave the old system folder alone and install to a new one?

Tempest

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The simplest way, if you're willing to start from scratch, is to partition the drive, one partition per System. That way, you can use Startup Disk to swap, and don't have to worry about any possibility of cross-contamination.

 

[Tempest]

Sounds complicated. There must be another way. I've read something that said you need to do a clean install, but I can't figure out how to do that. Someone said to hold down Option, but that doesn't seem to work with System 6 (didn't try with 7).

Tempest

 

[JDW]

I have System 7 installed on my SE/30 but I'd also like to install System 6... I've renamed my System Folder to System 7... when I install System 6, but the installer seems to want to write to that folder anyway.Tempest

Please confirm. You booted off one of the System 6 installer floppies, initiated the install from the floppy to your hard disk, and it still wrote to the folder you renamed "System 7" on your hard disk?

 

[Tempest]

Yep, that's exactly what happened.

Tempest

 

[JDW]

In my case, I never had this problem because I originally had my hard drive partitioned, with a different System Folder on each partition. But I grew weary of all those partitions so I moved all my system folders onto a single partition once I reformatted the drive. What that means is, I just copied all the data over. I did not reinstall each OS. Because of that, I did not have the same trouble as you are having.

But thinking about it logically, you simply need to prevent the OS installer from copying files into an existing system folder. Clearly, renaming the System Folder to something else is not enough. It must be sensing the "System" and "Finder" files. So try renaming the System as 1sys and the Finder as 1find and then do your install. If that doesn't work, then compressing the entire system folder will do it, but on an SE/30's stock CPU compressing and decompressing will take a long while. Even so, it will prevent the files from being touched in any way.

 

[H3NRY]

To "unbless" a system folder you need to remove either the System file or the Finder. One easy way is to create a folder inside the system folder called "Finder Hide" or some such and drag the Finder into it. Now the System and Finder aren't in the same folder. Restart from your System 6 floppy, and it should create a new System Folder. To go beck to system 7, unhide its Finder and hide the System 6 Finder.

 

[Scott Baret]

One utility you may want to track down is called System Picker. I'm not sure off the top of my head who developed it or what its license was (freeware, shareware, proprietary, etc), but I do know it was included with an external LaCie drive I got many years ago. It allows one to switch between active systems on the same partition (think of it as the Startup Device cdev, but for selecting systems instead of drives).

I'll dig out my LaCie disks this weekend to find out more about this one.

 

[colorclassic]

A few years back I wanted to do this with a compact Mac and found an article on Low End Mac that recommended using System Picker. The link to that utility was to the Apple Developer site and long broken. I finally hunted it down on an ftp server in Finland.

Anyway, I wrote an article about the experience on my fledgling blog devoted to classic Macs and you can find it here:

http://classicmacs.org/2008/12/system-picker/

 

[JDW]

I wrote an article about the experience on my fledgling blog...

I do not yet have personal experience with System Picker but plan to test it soon.

:?: :?: :?: