Can I Make 2 Bootable Backups On The Same HDD?

[SamIchi]

Or Do I have to partition the Hard Drive first? If I partion is there any way to do it without deleting my information that's already on there? I don't have enough disk space to back that up on another HDD.

 

[Makosuke]

No. Each partition can only have one OSX install on it--that's the nature of the beast.

You can, as you surmised, partition the drive and have a bootable install on each partition, but I'm not aware of any utilities that can repartition an HFS+ drive without reformatting completely (excepting whatever trickery Apple has going with Bootcamp).

Maybe I'm wrong about that second part--have a look on VersionTracker for partitioning utilities.

I will note that drives are pretty cheap these days, so you might well be able to buy one for about the same as a utility might cost.

Good luck, anyway.

 

[SamIchi]

Thanks. Making 2 bootables isn't necessary, but I guess it would of made things a little easier.

Hmm... If, and when I actually do buy, my new hardrive. I could just place it in my external and backup my current OSX, and then replace my MB's HDD with the new one without messing with my other HDD. Sound plan?

 

[chosenwolf]

Why not make a 3rd partition and make that bootable also?

 

[SamIchi]

Why not make a 3rd partition and make that bootable also?

I would if I had the space, and if partitioning didn't delete all my information. I already have 1 bootable on my external.