If you never clean up things the stuff accumulates like old toys in an attic. Soon you find half the space on your iDevice is taken up by 'Other.' This is not good. The storage tab is visible in the ‘About This Mac’ menu and it offers a quick overview of your Mac.In addition to this, it will also show you a ‘Other Storage’ portion that will be eating up.
Summary: The blog explains the procedure to create a partition for installing the newly installed Mac OS Sierra on a separate partition on the drive. It also describes the steps for users to switch to the previous Mac OS X El Capitan version.
Mac OS Sierra Public Beta has arrived and with this, discussions over installing and testing the impending software have also begun. Even though the long wait is over, users are still skeptical about switching their system to the latest version just to test its new features. If you do not have a second Mac for testing this beta version, you can still manage to test the latest version without compromising on the user data or cleaning up the Mac hard drive. OS Sierra can be installed on the same machine running El Capitan by partitioning the hard drive via built-in Disk Utility.
How the tool works?
This integrated tool will split the hard drive into partitions and then install the latest Mac OS Sierra distinctly so that it can be tested without affecting the productivity of the machine.
Note: While beta versions incorporate new features, they also contain pre-launch software bugs that can create issues in the long run. As these bugs can affect the functionality of the device, therefore, it is recommended not to use these versions frequently. It is advised to use the beta versions with additional caution.
Before you begin the recovery process, it is advised to take a backup of the hard drive so that the data can be recovered easily in case of drive failure or similar issues. The easiest way to backup data is Time Machine backup. Also, ensure that there is enough free space on hard drive to test the OS Sierra using the appropriate procedure. Therefore, ensure that about 30 GB space is available on the drive for you to proceed.
Now, let’s look at how you can create a partition on your Mac:
- Launch Finder from the Dock and select Applications
- Scroll down to open Utilities folder
- Next, double click to open Disk Utility
- Select the hard drive that you need to partition in the Disk Utility This would be the very first drive listed in the window
- Next, click on the Partition tab and then click on the (+) button
- By dragging and readjusting the resize controls, the size of the partitions can be changed
- Enter a new name for the newly created partition
- Next, click on Apply
- The Disk Utility will analyze the disk and modify the changes which may take several minutes
The next step is to install Mac Sierra on the partitioned drive
- Install Mac OS Sierra on the Partition
- Once the Mac drive is partitioned, OS Sierra can be downloaded on the first partition. To do so:
- Download Mac OS Sierra on the main partition
- Select the Continue option when the download is accomplished and ready for installation
- Agree to the given terms and click on Agree to confirm that you have read the mentioned terms
- Select Show All Disks to switch partitions
- Next, select the partition where you want to install OS Sierra beta
- Click on Install
You need not worry about transferring information or data from the current OS X as the installation helper will assist you throughout the procedure. However, it is recommended that you do not transfer any data at this stage. It is beneficial to use a clean install for testing the software; otherwise, there might be problems that may arise from the previous installation.
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How to Switch Partition to the Previous El Capitan?
Your Mac will now begin to run the beta version of Sierra. To get back to the El Capitan, you can use the Startup Disk app. Follow the given instructions to switch the partitions:
- Click on Apple icon available on the upper left section of the screen
- From the dropdown menu, select System Preferences
- From window, select System Preferences the Startup Disk icon
- Click on Lock image available in the lower left corner of the window to unlock and modify
- Enter the Admin Password set for the system and click on OK
- Select the principal hard drive and then select the Restart option
You also have the option to restart the Mac and then press the Option key while the startup sound appears. Doing this, you will navigate to the Startup Manager and then you can pick the drive from the window.
How to back up the Mac Hard Drive using Time Machine?
Since it is recommended to back up the Mac drive data before initiating the procedure to install OS Sierra beta version, below are the steps for you to create a backup using Time Machine:
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- Connect an external drive to the machine
- An alert message will appear asking if you need to use the drive for backup data, select Use as Backup Disk
- If the message doesn’t appear, open System Preferences and then select Time Machine and then click on Select Backup Disk
- Choose the connected external storage media and then switch on the Time Machine
- In the Time Machine system preferences pane, a progress bar will be displayed
- Wait for the backup process to accomplish before starting the beta version of Sierra