Problem with new 10.6 mac / dual boot advice

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Hi guys - Im fairly new to the Mac world, so forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place or if I'm asking something silly. I'm hoping to get some advice on my new mac setup.

I work for a small design company where we use Indesign/Quark etc for creating artwork & PDFs.

Until now Ive been working on the 10.5 operating system, which worked fine with our software - some of it being quite old - I do upgrade where possible but my boss is getting sick of me asking for thousands of pounds...

My machine died the other day and I convinced him to buy me a spanking new quad-core intel running 10.6.8 - I was running 10.5 on a power-pc.

My problem is some of my older software wont run on 10.6 - so ive upgraded what i can within a budget. Unfortunately we have tons of old customer files which need to run the older version of quark etc.

My brainwave was to have 10.6 on the main hard drive and 10.5 on a second drive in a dual boot system so I can jump between each when I need to.

I tried booting my 10.5 dvd on the 10.6 machine but it doesnt work. It doesnt boot past the apple logo.

Is there a reason for this or can anyone suggest a sensible solution for my problem ? I just want to run both operating systems from one mac if possible (on separate drives)

Any help or advice would be gratefully received. Thanks for reading guys.
 
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chas_m

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No Mac can boot to a version of software OLDER than the one it shipped with. Your brainwave is a no-go.

I'd pick up a cheap used PowerPC that matches the features of the old machine, install all your old stuff on it and use it as a transfer station.

Tell your boss that this problem could have been easily avoided if he had made the investment of a couple of hundred pounds each year for carefully-selected software upgrades instead of tying his business to outdated software and hardware. Try to put more diplomatically than I just did. :)
 
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Thanks for lightning fast reply Chas.

I had a feeling the answer was going to be as you replied, based on what I've read elsewhere.

I agree with you about the software. Im new here and have fought for lots of the most recent software, but the guy I work with loves the old stuff and kinda refuses to move on from it - so working with his files is a nightmare. I will pull him into the year 2011....eventually.

I have my old power-pc here next to my feet. I was going to try and fix it and restore it to how it was so that I can use it for the older files - as you have suggested. It just means running two macs which aint a problem.

I thought it was the drive that died - but the motherboard light is flashing or is red - some airflow / conductor error ?!?! or something like that (I might have actually dreamt that)... it broke down months ago..

As you can tell, Im quite new to the mac world - but hopefully I can get it up and running again.

Thanks again for your advice. At least now I can confirm it all to my boss and sound like I know what Im talking about.
 
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chas_m

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It does sound like the motherboard is at issue, and that won't be a cheap fix. Looking for an identical used model and just moving the hard drive over might be the cheaper way to go.
 

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