here's a stumbler: I am preping for OS X, and when I first got my 120gb HD, I just made 1 partition. however, I know you can install OS 9 and X on the same partition, but that's harder than it sounds: to reboot in either OS, I need to go into a control panel, and if either one has a problem, and it's the current picked OS, the only option it to whip out a boot CD, and manually force it off.
however, if I had split partitions, I could just hit the option key at boot and pick the OS i want.
herin lies the problem: I have no backup method besides ZIP disks, floppies, and CD-RWs, and my OS 9 collection of stuff has swelled to 30+gb. I have no external drive to trnasfer files to.
so, what I need is a non destructive partitioning program that RUNS in OS 9, and can split my HDD into 2 partitions without destroying data. I know these arnt 100" reliable, but I'll take my chances. i know there is Partition magic for windows, but what is there for my case?
thanks. -digital 
1. You could install a second HD & copy the OS 9 system/files to it. Then partition the 120GB & copy the OS 9 system/files to it. Note - You can drag & drop classic OS system/files from one medium to another, but you can't do OS X that way.
2. Install OS X on your HD along with OS 9. Then check out DiskStudio - Create or remove a partition without reformatting your hard drive.
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=33
With DiskStudio you can:
* Add new partitions to your hard drive.
* Delete partitions previously created by Apple's Disk Utility or DiskStudio.
* Erase and reformat existing partitions in a number of standard formats.
* Completely erase and repartition an entire hard disk.
Use DiskStudio to:
* Install a new copy of Mac OS X, but keep your original copy intact.
* Install a completely different operating system, such as Mac OS 9, on a new partition.
* Create a partition to hold special projects, such as audio or video files.
* Create a partition to hold scratch space for programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
When a hard drive is first set up for use, it is partitioned into one or more logical volumes. These appear on your desktop as though they were separate drives. Using the standard disk tools that come with the Macintosh, there is no way to change this partitioning scheme without completely erasing the entire drive and starting over. With DiskStudio, this is no longer necessary.
DiskStudio provides the tools you need to control how information is stored on your hard drive. An easy to use, non-destructive disk partitioner has been requested by more of our customers than any other type of utility. DiskStudio fills this important need for Mac OS X. With DiskStudio you will be able to quickly and easily change the way information is stored on your hard drives as your needs change over time.
System Requirements:
* PowerPC G3 or better. (Beige G3 machines not supported)
* Mac OS X 10.3 or greater.
* CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.
* 256 Megabytes RAM or higher.
Cost is $50.
After you create a second partition, copy OS 9 to it.
Comment - I would buy a second HD & use it for backup.
Cheers, Tom
Mac Troubleshooting, Maintenance & Tips
http://www.geocities.com/texas_macman/MacTroubleshoot.html
I know you can drag and drop OS 9, but why not X? seems wierd.
and unfortunantly, I am on a B&W G3 rev 1, the one with the flaky IDE chip that doesnt like sloave drives too well. and I dont have a spare HDD in the firt place. the 10gb the came with this thing is kaput.
I am also trying to do this for as cheap as possible, so $50 for some partitioning software +$30 or so for an IDE PCI card +$50 or so for a new hard drive, plus the $129 for the OS it's self brings me to $259 to just upgrade my OS and keep the old one. that's a weeks pay right there, and money is tight. it also sounds a little microsoft-ish (make the consumor spend alot of money to get a working machine).
concidering I paid $60 fo this computer, that just doesnt really cut it.
thanks anyways.
-digital
The Ubuntu linux installer comes with an HFS resizer:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=89960
I imagine you could probably use it to shrink your one-and-only partition. Then, well... you'll have to either make another partition with a Mac HFS partition type inside the Linux partition manager, or boot MacOS and see if the Disk Utility can non-destructively create a partition in the free space.
Good luck.
Just to note... this seems like a *lot* of effort to go through just to avoid the possibility that you *might*, someday, need to use a boot disk to use the startup disk utility.
--Peace
yeah, I was thinkin linux, and I know suse has a built in non destrutive partitioner. hmm, I got a set of PPC disks around here somewhere. is the utility on the liveCD?
thanks. -digital
I was just going to mention that method. The version of parted (not gparted) on the installer CD does let you resize an HFS partition. The versions on the LiveCD do not. I've had decent luck with using the Ubuntu Installer CD to resize partitions, including the 20GB HFS+ OS X partition on my iBook down to 15GB to make space for Ubuntu.
I'm in that thread too, under the username JDP...
put it in the Zip bay set as slave on the optical drive's bus. That bus can use two drives. Copy all yer crap over to the new drive, repartition, then copy yer stuff back.
Drives are cheap enough.
dan k
no can do. zip bay is filled with the what it's supposed to be filled with: a zip drive. sorry, but I still believe in it for file transfer.
I'll try to use the installer CD. I'm on the live one right now (5.10), and I cant believe how vibrent the screen is. I may just go back to it, because OS 9 makes my old CRt blurry as hell. it's a small (15") one anyways, but Ubuntu makes it useable.
but yeah, I may just go back to Ubuntu as my primary OS. I can even read DOS hard disks flawlessly. but ubuntu has some (make that alot) of problems with booting from the CD on my walstreet. may need a new drive.
hell, I may just as well invest in a SCSI cable for my PB, so i can use the old Panasonic 8x SCSI CD-ROM from my LC III.
-digital
You are using BootX with that? I don't know of anyone using something other than BootX with Ubuntu ATM.
yeah, I am using Boot X.
-digital
ok, I talked to a friend of mine, and he's going to let me borrow a spare 15gb hard drives he uses for emergencies for his server. I managed to delete 12+gb off my hard drive, so now I have nearly 96gb free on my 120gb HDD (it comes out to 111gb after all is said and formatted.) If all goes well, next week I will have a triple boot system with Mac OS X.4 tiger (going to go take out a few bucks and buy a copy), Ubuntu 5.10 (soon to be 6.06 beta after a net upgrade) or should I skip this, as I can run 5.10 (but not 6.06 for some reason) under Virtual PC? let me know, but just a footnote: Ubuntu runs SLOW in VPC, PPC version is alot faster. and of course, the old standby, Mac OS 9.2.2 in it's own partition (but I will most likely run it in classic mode rather than directly, as i HATE rebooting.)
and this is how I will manage to get everything hunky dory, partition wise:
1. boot off live CD, and mount my old 13.6gb NTFS formatted drive, and copy the contents (mostly music and movies) to my friend's 15gb.
2. mount the 120gb, and copy the 7gb of documents and music to my friends 15gb, which should JUST fit.
3. format the NTFS disk to HFS, and copy over the rest of what's left on the 120gb to the 13.6gb.
4. partition the 120gb into 3 partitions: 30gb for mac OS 9 and EVERYTHING temporaraly on the 15gb; 40gb for Mac OS X and everything on the 15gb, and 40gb for Ubuntu and everything on the 15gb.
so, with the 40gb+40gb+30gb, I will still have about 1gb left. guess that will go to the mac OS 9 partition.
hopefully I can get all that done in a weekend. ah, hard drive shuffling. what fun that will be...
-digital