Any danger in running OS 8.6 alongside Tiger?

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sunshine1

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Hello,

I will be running OS 10.4 Tiger on my G3 on my main 250 GIG drive. For certain reasons I am also considering installing OS 8.6 on one of my other smaller hard drives on this same computer. Could this cause problems?

If I understand this correctly, OS 9.2 is the safest way to use Classic Applications if used in conjunction with OSX. However, by using OS 8.6 on the same computer as OSX, I might be damaging some of my OSX files. I hope I am wrong about this and that is why I am posting this question to see if it would be safe for me to attempt this combination of OS 8.6 with Tiger. I no not need OS 8.6 to run in classic. I will separately re-boot. (only OS9 runs in classic - not 8). Thats OK with me because I found classic emulation to always be so slow.

I also read this interesting opinion about Repairing Permissions [1] and I am concerned that it may not be safe for me to install OS 8.6 on my OSX installed computer due to a "permission" conflict between OS 8 and OS X. (OS 9.2 would be much more compatible.)

[1] http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000410.php

Could someone please verify this? I would hope that this might work because I would like to be able to run a few older applications in 8.6 occasionally.

Here are some other points from an Apple discussion forum about this issue at which point we never came to any definitive answer whether running OS 8.6 on the same computer was a wise idea or not:

"Under no circumstances should you use any disk repair utility on a Tiger drive except those that "know" about Tiger's file structure. This rules out using Disk First Aid from either OS 8 or OS 9, or any OS 8 or 9 third party utilities. Also don't use OS 8's 'rebuild desktop' function.

"Repairing permissions with Disk Utility in OS X won't touch user-created files. It only repairs things that have a receipt file, which are created by installers."


My concern is if, for example, I create a JPEG image file in Tiger and then after re-booting into OS 8.6 and using Photoshop 6 to edit this same JPEG image file, would this damage the permission settings of the JPEG file or cause other file management problems for Tiger?
Could working in OS 8.6, mix up Tiger's file system? (I would only use 8.6 for Photoshop 6 and illustrator 8 files and some text files.)
Would it be necessary for me to Repair Permissions every time I booted back into Tiger after using OS 8.6?
That would be time consuming wouldn't it? How long does the Repair Permissions process usually take? And would it be guaranteed to be able to fix all possible file management problems that OS 8.6 might cause?

PS I have already figured out a way to boot back and forth between the two systems. This was also a challenge to figure out because OS 8.6 startup disk doesn't recognize OSX. There are two solutions: install the startup disk feature from OS9 - surprisingly this is supposed to work in 8.6 too contrary to what it reads on the apple site. The other solution is to drag the finder out of the 8.6 system folder when you need to re-boot into 10. I am sure one of those solutions might work. ANother 3rd solution that doesn't apply to me because I am using 2 different disks, is to boot up holding down the "x" key if both OSes are on the same volume (which they are not in my case).

Thanks for any comments about attempting to run 8.6 on a mac with OSX and if there are any dangers to damaging data.

Thank you,
 
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If you install 8.6 on a separate drive/partition from X/9, you should be fine. The only issue would possibly be if 8 was on the X boot disc. When you boot to the 8 drive, just unmount the X drive. X won't mess with the 8 drive since it is not on it's boot partition.
 
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instead of using an old old old old old os i would suggest you purchasing a newer version of the adobe suite because that looks like what you are going to be using it for.

other than that i know nothing about installing os 8 using it or even thinking about it.

-chris
 
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sunshine1

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baggss said:
When you boot to the 8 drive, just unmount the X drive.

Thanks baggss for this advice

What did you mean by "unmount the X drive"? How do you do that?

I think I will give it a try and put OS 8.6 on my 12 GIG drive and OS 10.4 Tiger on my 250 GIG drive.

When working in OS 8.6 (or 9) I found this helpful article about OSX files you should not touch:
http://www.macmaps.com/safetodeleteormove.html

otherwise I think I will be OK running the two OSes on the same computer - but as you indicate, I will keep them on separate volumes to be safe - to avoid possible conflicts. In fact they will be on separate drives to be extra safe.

Thanks baggss
:)
 
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sunshine1

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coach_z said:
instead of using an old old old old old os i would suggest you purchasing a newer version of the adobe suite because that looks like what you are going to be using it for.
-chris

Good point Chris. You read my mind. Thats exactly why I need OS 8.6 - for Illustrator 8, Photoshop 6 and QuarXpress. All these issues would be resolved if I just bought Adobe Creative Suite (CS). (Adobe Creative Suite also comes with InDesign, a viable alternative to QuarkXPress). However, at this point I don't have the finances to buy Adobe CS and so in the meantime I will just run my older apps in OS 8.6 for now. But yes, you are right. Eventually I might buy Adobe CS. It depend on which projects I have coming my way in the near future.

Thanks for your comment.
:)
 
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sunshine1 said:
Thanks baggss for this advice

What did you mean by "unmount the X drive"? How do you do that?

I think I will give it a try and put OS 8.6 on my 12 GIG drive and OS 10.4 Tiger on my 250 GIG drive.

When working in OS 8.6 (or 9) I found this helpful article about OSX files you should not touch:
http://www.macmaps.com/safetodeleteormove.html

otherwise I think I will be OK running the two OSes on the same computer - but as you indicate, I will keep them on separate volumes to be safe - to avoid possible conflicts. In fact they will be on separate drives to be extra safe.

Thanks baggss
:)

When you boot to OS8, the HDD with X may mount on the desktop. Simply drag the drive icon to the tash can and it will "unmount". This will not cause any damage to the drive, it will simply not be recognized by 8 until you either remount it or reboot 8.
 
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sunshine1

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baggss said:
When you boot to OS8, the HDD with X may mount on the desktop. Simply drag the drive icon to the tash can and it will "unmount". This will not cause any damage to the drive, it will simply not be recognized by 8 until you either remount it or reboot 8.


Confusing - But I think I got it. Good point. I will watch for this symptom you describe in case it happens to me. Thanks for this clarification. I will keep this post of yours as a reference in case this happens so I know what to do - to drag the drive icon to the trash to unmount. Basically I thought OSX had a way to easily choose the startup disk in the perferences and I never thought there was any problem going from OSX to 8.6. But as you wrote, this problem might occur and so I'll be ready. Thanks!

The main problem I thought was going from 8.6 back to X (and the solution for that I listed in my original post.)

Really appreciate your help today!

Thanks!
 
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Alvin Meister

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I'd be tempted to get an external firewire drive. You can probably pick up an old 20GB one very cheaply. Then just install OS 8 on there and change between startup disks to use each of the OS's. There wouldn't be any conflicts that way.
 

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