The following is a summary of how I created a dual boot setup of OS X Leopard (10.5) and Tiger (10.4) on a MacBook Pro, keeping the original Tiger installation intact and available through alt/option booting during system startup. Always Always Always make a backup before you try any shenanigans like I do below. The best way to do this is with an external drive connected to your machine via FireWire or USB 2.0 and using cloning software such as SuperDuper!
Step One: Boot from Leopard
Boot from the Leopard install dvd to allow repartitioning your Tiger-installed hard disk without erasing the disk first. Insert the Leopard install DVD into the dvd drive. Ignore the pop-up Finder window. Shut down your Apple computer (don’t use restart). After your Apple has shut down fully, press the power button to start it.
When you hear the power-on “chime”, press and HOLD the Option button (just left of the Apple/Command key, also known as Alt or two horizontal lines, one diverging before connecting with the other). If for some reason your Mac doesn’t make a noise when you boot up, just press and hold the Option button when the screen lights up. Hold the Option button down until you see a grey screen with two (or more) options displayed. One of which will be a picture of a hard disk and another of the Leopard OS X Install DVD. You may have more bootable disks to choose from if you have more than one partition on your hard disk.Using the arrow keys, move to the Leopard Install DVD and hit Enter. This will boot into the Leopard install program.
DO NOT hit continue when the Leopard install window has loaded.Using the mouse, navigate up to the top menu bar and choose Utilities, then Disk Utility. Once Disk Utility has loaded you should see your Apple computer hard disk, the Leopard install dvd, and possibly other 
disks if you have them attached to your computer.
Choose the hard disk that you want to install Leopard on. By default this should already be selected. For me the Disk is a 111.8 GB Fujitsu MHW2… drive with Macintosh HD underneath it (that’s the volume, within the Macintosh hard disk, you can have multiple volumes inside one hard disk). From here you should see the partition map of your Macintosh HD hard disk, a rectangle standing tall, outlined in blue.
Above the right hand side window will be five choice buttons: First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, Restore.
First Aid:You will want to Repair your Macintosh HD before doing any partition changes, regardless of whether you know it is verified or not already. Paritioning will fail if the disk is not error free and verified within this install session. Verifying the disk within Tiger does not mean that Leopard Disk Utility will consider the drive error free as was the case with my install. Thus, repair the disk once you get to this step, even if you had previously verified the disk in Tiger.
Step 2: Resizing + Creating Partitions
After Verify Disk step is completed, we’ll resize the current Macintosh HD Tiger partition and create a second Leopard partition with the free space. NOTE: The resize and creation of a secondary partition will LIKELY FAIL if you have Parallels installed in your Tiger system disk/volume. For the repartitioning to complete without “no space left on device” error, I was forced to delete my Parallels Windows XP SP2 virtual disk, which was roughly 10GB in size.
There are some files that Disk Utility Partition program cannot move when performing its resize and repartiton operation. The Parallels virtual disk file is one of these immovable files. When Disk Utility comes across this file, repartitioning failed with the error: “no space left on device”. The solution in my case was to reboot back into Tiger, load up Parallels, and simply delete the virtual Windows XP installation (I skipped deleting the floppy drive) which deletes the virtual disks as well. I chose this because my Windows XP install is already backed up onto an external USB 2 drive clone of my Tiger system created through SuperDuper!. I’m guessing that you can simply move this file off to some secondary external drive, replace it after, and everything will be handy dandy, although I have not tested this.
EDIT: Yozlet mentions in the comments below that removing large files (1GB+) can also help avoid the dreaded “no space left on device” error while repartitioning the drive. Here are some tips on finding and removing old files on your Mac to avoid the “no space left on device” error.
Click and drag the bottom right hand corner of the Volume Scheme (the blue outlined rectangle which represents your disk, Macintosh HD) and drag it upwards, making the volume smaller. I chose around 30GB for the Macintosh volume, out of the entire 110GB disk. This leaves a healthy chunk (80GB) of unused disk space on the drive. Beneath the blue rectangle Volume Scheme there are plus and minus buttons. The plus button when clicked will add a partition to your disk. Click this to add a generic volume onto which we will install Leopard. After clicking the plus button for adding a partition, I again had to adjust the size of the Macintosh HD volume where Tiger resides, back down to about 30GB. After this, click Apply, then Partition on the pop-up window. Go make some coffee while it does the partitioning.
After you’re well caffinated partitioning should be finished and you’ve got a pristine empty partition on which to install Leopard.Exit out of Disk Utility and you’ll see the Leopard install screen again. Click Continue from here and you’ll be asked where to install Leopard. Here we choose Leopard on our hard disk. After that, continue with the install as per normal.
Step 3: Transfer
Near the end of the Leopard install the setup program will ask if you already own a Mac and want to transfer previous settings and applications. For this step choose from another volume on this Mac. Obviously the volume we’ll use is the Tiger volume that we’ve preserved on this computer. After that, I choose User files and settings, Applications and network settings. You can choose what you desire here, but I left it at that. Any programs or settings that didn’t make it over should be easy enough to replace, reinstall after. This step can take the better part of an hour depending on how much data you’re transferring.
Best of luck. Keep that backup handy.
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November 22, 2007 at 11:25 pm
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November 15, 2007 at 5:09 am
ingenium13
While trying to repartition, I get the “no space left on device” error. However, I don’t have Parallels installed. What is it about these files that makes them give the error? Is it the file size? Some other attribute? I tried resizing the disk so that there was still 40GB available so the filesize shouldn’t be a problem.
November 15, 2007 at 11:38 am
deckard
I searched for about 40 min. trying to find out what else could be causing this problem of immovable files during partition resizing causing the repartition to fail, but didn’t turn up anything definitive. One theory is that there are metadata files within a partition that are unmoveable as detailed in this post: http://www.afp548.com/comment.php?mode=display&format=threaded&order=ASC&pid=5724
I didn’t find that post very enlightening, but, sadly, that was the best explanation (although not a solution) I could find. Looks like we’re dealing with some deep black magic when it comes to partition resizing and what could be causing no space left on device errors.
I’m just theorizing solutions here, but I’m wondering if you could clone your current partition off to an external disk (then boot from that ext. disk to make sure it’s OK), wipe your internal hard disk with a full format (booting from the Leopard DVD and using Disk Utility to do this), partition the internal disk so that it’s two (empty) partitions, then install leopard on one of the partitions, boot from the Leopard partition just installed, install superduper! onto Leopard and use it to clone the partition that you put on the external drive back onto the empty internal disk partition.
That’s completely just a hair brained idea I have for getting around the issue of immovable files. I have no idea if those steps are even possible, it’s simply a suggestion on a way to get around the problem. Please do take caution before trying that, by backing up your data.
November 22, 2007 at 3:02 am
yozlet
After several hours of battling, I found this post - thanks so much! It gave me the hints I needed to solve the problem once and for all.
I had a VMware virtual machine, and killed that, but it wasn’t the only culprit. In the end I did a Spotlight search for any files larger than 1GB, and either terminated them with extreme prejudice or moved them off the disk. After that, the partitioning went fine!
December 31, 2007 at 8:55 am
blackmetalguitarist
this is really well explained and I thank you for that, but what I want to do in fact is to install tiger with my actual leopard. I need it for some programs. Is the process going to be the same (except switching dvds) or do you think there is something else to do?
December 31, 2007 at 8:57 am
blackmetalguitarist
and i also understand that for this i will need to keep more space on my mac HD than on my new partition since i will priorly use leopard. by the way, can the files be exchanged between both volumes?
December 31, 2007 at 2:32 pm
deckard
blackmetalguitarist:
For installing Tiger on a plain Leopard installation I’m guessing the steps would be:
- Insert Leopard DVD. Reboot machine, press and hold Option button when you hear chime.
- Choose to boot from Leopard install DVD
- Repartition your Leopard drive into two partitions, using the same process as in the article.
- When partitioning is done, Reboot into Leopard as you would normally & check that all is working still. Insert Tiger install DVD.
- Reboot, press and hold Option when chime is heard. Choose Tiger install DVD, continue with Tiger installation on the new blank partition.
This is all completely theoretical. I have not performed this. Make sure you backup your entire Leopard installation using Time Machine, not other third party backup programs such as SuperDuper! since they are not fully compatible with Leopard yet.
December 31, 2007 at 2:36 pm
deckard
blackmetalguitarist:
I’d recommend that you give Leopard more disk space than Tiger, say 65:35 ratio, if Leopard will be your main operating system.
You can transfer files between the two partitions without any troubles as far as I know. I believe Leopard and Tiger both use Journaled HFS+ file system. It’s only Windows NTFS partitions that will give you troubles when trying to write to it while within Leopard.
December 31, 2007 at 6:30 pm
blackmetalguitarist
If I don’t have any device to backup all my stuff, do you think that transferring all my personal stuff with a usb key on another computer and then re-transfer it on my mac after I installed tiger&leopard or will I loose some data that I can’t get back when I reinstall everything? (I don’t mind loosing my preferences and settings, It’s a brand new mac so nothing big was done on it)
January 10, 2008 at 4:21 am
archedeyebrow
All I wanted was to have XP and Mac share a partition.
I’ve just been through the grind installing XP on my shiny new iMAC 20″. Once I understood M$’s evil boot loader login, it was pretty easy to come up with a solid solution.
Anyway, hope this helps someone with the same need.
http://tripoverit.blogspot.com/2008/01/imac-dual-boot-mac-os-x-and-win-xp-with.html
March 9, 2008 at 4:56 pm
noswalm
Dual Boot OS X Leopard Tiger (10.5 10.4) Installation:
So I tried this with an external drive and with Tiger discs that came with an old intel laptop. Tiger will boot from the external drive on my friends old laptop, but not with my new intel laptop. I guess the Tiger disc I used is formatted to work only with their computer! Is their anyway around this? Do I really have to purchase Tiger stand alone? And before I do so, is there someone that can make me feel more re-assured that that is the problem?
Thanks.
March 9, 2008 at 8:09 pm
deckard
@noswalm:
It’s difficult to tell what you mean by “So I tried this…”. What is “this” in particular?
Tiger installation DVD’s are all the same. There’s no copy protection nor activation keys linked to them like Microsoft OSes. So, as long as its a legit copy of Tiger, it’s the same as any other Tiger installation disc. So, that shouldn’t be causing your problems of not being to boot off of an external drive which contains a working installation of Tiger.
In order to transfer an installation of Tiger from you laptop to an external drive, you used SuperDuper!, correct? And after putting this installation onto the external drive, you could not boot off of the drive (by holding the Option key on reboot and choosing the external drive)? It normally takes much much longer too boot off of an external drive than it does an internal drive, so be patient.
March 9, 2008 at 8:39 pm
noswalm
I actually did not use SuperDuper. I used advice from a different website. I installed using Disc 1 and 2 from an older MacBookPro. The external drive startup I created works perfectly fine on the old MacBookPro, although will not work on my new MacBookPro. So it makes it hard for me to guess what could be wrong if these discs should work on any system. I am going to try from a stand alone disc later tonight. But if you could think of any other reason why it would work on one computer and not the other, let me know.
I guess I should mention, that choosing the startup disc on the external hard drive on my new computer either crashes it, or doesn’t do anything but stay on the gray screen for 20 or more minutes. Thanks!
March 9, 2008 at 8:41 pm
noswalm
This is the website I used when installed and cloning Tiger onto my external drive:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070705094933652
Do you think using SuperDuper would help?
Thanks.
March 9, 2008 at 8:46 pm
noswalm
Also I should mention that what I want in the end is to keep Leopard on my laptops main hard drive and use Tiger on my external hard drive. Which is a little different than this article explains, but it is related. The reason is, I just bought Avid Xpress Pro and Leopard does not support Avid Xpress Pro at this time.
Thanks.
April 15, 2008 at 4:12 am
dougmack
noswalm and deckard,
I am having the same issue as noswalm, I want to install Tiger on an external hard drive to use with my new Macbook Pro which has come with Leopard.
Tiger does not boot at all from either the startup disk utility or when you hold down the option key. When you insert the Tiger disk it opens up then says you cannot install this version of OSX on my machine…So I am assuming that the article written on this page doesn’t work when you are going from Leopard back to Tiger…
I then tried to install Tiger on an external hard drive through an old machine and still my computer doesn’t even show another startup disk is available, only Leopard. Whats going on????
any help would be great…
Thanks
P.S. The shop I bought my Mac from has given me a slightly different version of Tiger that is supposed to boot up on new Macs but doesn’t, the guy is on holiday so I’ll update you on the result of this…but for now does anyone know what he would have changed in order for it to work.
June 1, 2008 at 2:06 pm
fiz
Yes — please — anyone: is it possible to downgrade to Tiger from a Leopard machine? I bought my MacBook with Leopard to do audio work (Logic and Live), and it’s (i.e. Leopard) pretty much useless for that task. I’m ready to buy a retail disk of Tiger IF that will work on my machine….but I keep reading expert’s warnings that this won’t work.
Does this mean that I bought a computer and software for it by a company that makes an OS that renders this currently impossible?
If I can find a way to run Tiger either on my machine directly (preferred) or via an external disk, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. If not….uh….hello Windows XP?
June 1, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Ben Lam
Hang on. “Experts” are saying that Tiger will not run on your MacBook?
Which Parallel Universe are these “Experts” writing from.
My first guess at what “may” be a hang-up on installing Tiger on your fresh new MacBook is that it came with latest version firmware installed on some hardware within the laptop. For example the latest Keyboard Firmware Update from Apple for MacBooks and MacBook Pro’s requires Leopard 10.5.2 compatibility. If your MacBook does have this firmware pre-installed, there _may_ be an issue running Tiger. I haven’t tested this situation so I cannot say for sure.
At worst, you would have to scrounge Apple’s website (or get help from Apple directly on acquiring) for older firmware for the pieces of hardware that are updated with latest Leopard only firmware.
Since your laptop is new, phone Apple’s support telephone line. Talk with someone. It’s free. The first person you talk to will likely have no idea, but somewhere up the chain there is an engineer who will know the answer.
A friend of mine just bought a new iMac that is normally pre-installed with Leopard, _but_ he installed Tiger on it, since Pro Tools audio software from Digidesign does not yet fully support Leopard. So far, he’s seen nothing wrong with running Tiger on a normally “Leopard” iMac.
Let us know what you find out.
June 1, 2008 at 7:57 pm
fiz
Thanks Ben for this very informative and useful feedback.
I will proceed with your suggestion, and try to locate a firmware downgrade that might allow me to run Tiger on my Leopard Mac.
BTW, the Parallel Universe in question would be Hayne, the moderator over at macosxhints.com, who says:
“And note that it is usual for new Macs to require the latest version of the OS - i.e. you usually cannot run any version of OS X that predates the design date of your Mac. (The new hardware requires the drivers etc that only come in the later OS versions.)”
He is not as specific as you are in referencing what he means by “the new hardware” — but, if what he means is the firmware that connects the hardware to the software, then maybe there is hope after all.
I’ll be back with whatever I come up with….
June 1, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Ben Lam
Ah, I see what you mean by the expert snippet from Hayne, who knows his stuff, but I think you and I are interpreting his words differently.
When Hayne says: “design date”, I’m interpreting: “generation of Mac”.
For example, guys running MacBooks and MacBook Pro’s from the Core2Duo generation would not be able to run Jaguar or Panther for instance, simply because the hardware we’re running now is truly different than what was available for the laptop Macs back then called Powerbooks. But, Tiger, 10.4, was the shipping version of OS X for the vast majority of MacBooks that are currently running Leopard 10.5, mine included.
See this Apple OS X System Requirements page for more details: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106163
The hardware changes within a single generation of Mac are usually minor and evolutionary: higher clock-rate CPUs (but of the same type), bigger hard drivers, where as across generations they can be revolutionary, such as going from PowerPC chips to Intel Core Duo chips, a completely different system architecture. Any software you download for Mac you’ll often see PowerPC versions and Intel versions, which are completely incompatible, having been compiled for different underlying hardware.
So what Fiz is trying to do is confined to a single generation of hardware. In my estimation, you should be able to install Tiger on your “currently Leopard” MacBook.
June 6, 2008 at 3:20 pm
fiz
Ben, thanks again for being there!
I went to the Apple Discussions and got a pretty thorough “No go” as the response to this question. The thread is here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7329464�
A choice bit from the various responses I received:
“Since you created a GUID partition, I will assume you have an Intel Mac. This means that you can only install Tiger on the Mac if is an older model. The newer model which are coming with Leopard installed will not run Tiger. In order to install Tiger on an older Mac you will need to get the old Tiger install media for the same model in order to install Tiger. The reason for this is the generic Tiger disks only have PPC code on them and are worthless for an Intel Mac.”
Me: It has been suggested to me elsewhere that in order to install Tiger on this MacBook (rev. 3,1), I would need to downgrade the firmware to something circa Tiger. I can run either Tiger or Leopard, but not both. Can someone confirm whether this is true?
“It is not true. Firmware cannot be downgraded.”
So…I’m out of luck! But, fortunately, I have remedied my problems with not being able to access MIDI Driver settings. That story is documented here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1548958&tstart=0
The bad news is I now have a retail disk of Tiger I can’t use. The good news is that my computer works (for now), and eBay is a click away.
June 22, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Alexandra
Hello everyone, I need a little help, hopefully this can be done i wanted to load OS-X on an external hard drive (60GB) and run it using my PC Laptop. Can that be done? How easy is it to do it? I hope someone can help. Thank you in advance.
July 23, 2008 at 11:21 am
Schojo
I’m doing this right now on my iBook, everything fine so far…but just a question, how will this boot afterwards? In a Bootmanager where i can choose Tiger or Leopard?
July 23, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Ben Lam
Just hold down the Alt (also known as Option) key after you hear the “chime” when you reboot and you should see multiple drives show up on the desktop. Then use your keyboard left and right buttons to choose one install or the other then press Enter to boot it.
August 24, 2008 at 5:26 pm
alex Lin
I’m going to use this, but with snow leopard and leopard.
September 9, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Sajal Ghosh
To Ben Lam,
Could you please give me the contact information for your friend who installed OS Tiger in his recently purchased intel Mac (iMac?) with OS Leopard preinstalled? I need to do the same. But the OS Tiger installation disk (from my 2 yr old OS tiger iMac) won’t be recognized by the new intel iMac?Leopard!
Please help.
Thanks,
Sajal
October 1, 2008 at 4:21 am
Nicely Done
Sajal, You cant install OSX that came with your imac on another mac. You need a retail version of tiger.
October 7, 2008 at 10:30 pm
eh?
if i have my mac with the 10.4.11 os x, and my friend just bought a new one with leopard, can i use his installation discs to update leopard onto mine?
October 7, 2008 at 10:32 pm
eh?
or does it just not work that way either
December 18, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Mac Geinus (Not his job!!)
EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO INSTALL TIGER ON THEIR LEOPARD MACHINES:
Mac OS X 10.4 will NOT install on ANY machines that shipped with Leopard.
The drivers will not run the hardware sufficiently. Tiger does NOT have the drivers for the specific graphic card, processor core, etc. that is not the EXACT same model. If I used the Tiger install disk that came with this PowerBook, for example, it would not install on any other model of Mac, even a PowerBook G4, of a different generation. That being said, the same applies to your iMacs and MacBooks, etc. They are too new to run Tiger! So just sell the copy of whatever program it is you need to run, and wait for the Leopard compatible version. Remember, eBay is a click away!