How to partition when using open firmware?

[fckykchy]

i have a ppc g4 emac ..
all i want is to make 2 partitions on primary hdd
( which it cant partition during logging in coz its where the file system located)

is there a way of doing this?
coz im tired of disassembling my emac and use the hdd to my other pc's for dumb partitioning...

im trying to partition it during open firmware...
or maybe during logging in..
i dont care if i destroy my operating system..
coz i want to reformat it with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


can anybody have the best answer for this?...

[Doctor X]

Two Solutions:

1. Solution the First: buy a program like iPartition. Make sure it is a version that still appropriate to the OS you have.

2. Solution the Second: obtain a cloning program like either SuperDuper!--costs $--or CarbonCopyCloner--which I believe is free. You should do this anyways.

A. Clone Your Internal Hard Drive: to an external. Again, you should do this regularly if you use this computer a lot and wish to preserve the data.

B. Boot with Disk Utility: either from your Installation Disk or you can boot from your clone and use the program in its Utilities folder.

C. Erase and Reformat the Internal Hard Drive

D. Create Your Partitions: this is done with Disk Utility.

E. Clone Your Clone: to the partition you want with your cloning program whilst booted to it.

F. Profit

--J.D.

[DeltaMac]

How often do you need to reformat that "makes you tired of disassembling my eMac!"?

You can easily do a re-partition by booting to ANY Mac OS X installer that will boot your eMac, such as 10.4 (Tiger), or OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
You DO have to erase, so you would lose anything that you don't have backed up. You did say that you don't care about the system on the hard drive now, but if you want to save your pictures or music or other (your) stuff, then you need to copy those off before you re-partition.
That's almost the same as Doctor X posted, and it's a good plan.
The third-party software, such as iPartition, likely won't help, as the PPC processor is not supported now by that software, unless you can find old versions somewhere on the 'net.
Do you have an external hard drive that you can use to boot your eMac? It would need to have a firewire interface, as the eMac won't boot to a USB device (you probably already knew that!)

[Doctor X]

I will remind--as DeltaMac also noted--you have to be careful that whatever program you use to partition or clone has to be compatible with your current OS and computer. Unfortunately, according to MacTracker the highest OS is 10.5.8 assuming I have your correct machine. Not a lot of programs still cover that.

Still, if you HAVE the Installation Disks then the major thing you want to save is your "data"--at worse you can "send that over" by brute "drag and drop"--all your pictures, documents, French Slime-Mold porn, et cetera. You can reload your OS from your Installation Disk then download the updates.

--J.D.

[fckykchy]

what the..?! it took me several months arguing on this article and i was such a lame i dint noticed the utilities bar (upper left side of installation disk)... whew!!! it saves my day!!! thanks DeltaMac!! we've been arguing about this remember ? the open firmware, restore, flash drive unboot, burn split dvd,..... haha... why didn't u told me this at first hehe .. but thanks anyway.. had just upgraded my mac to 10.5 by restore on my partitioned drive =)