[jbass]

I am new to the Mac world, but I really like playing with things so i cant leave well enough alone.. Can someone point me to tutorials, or explain how I would go about booting multiple OS's on my ibook?

For instance:
Partition 1 OS X
Partition 2 OS 9
Partition 3 Tiger (later) ?
Partition 4 Virutal PC (windows xp)

1. Do I need separate partitions to do this?
2. What is the best way to partition if needed?
3. Can I leave OS X as is, and partion the drive without screw up OS X ? ( I know there is windows software that does this, but not sure about Mac)
4. How do you boot to each operations system?

[TETENAL]

You can boot OS X and OS 9 from one partition (if your Mac can boot OS 9 at all that is). Different OS X systems need to be on different partitions. You select the boot volume in System Preferences or by holding down the Option (⌥) key when booting. You need to reformat your disk to partition it. I suggest you don't do that. You wouldn't want to keep Panther when Tiger is released anyway.

VirtualPC boots Windows of some sort of a disk image and doesn't require partitioning.

[Millennium]

Are you certain that your iBook can boot OS9? New ones can't, but if your bought yours used then you can still do this. Of course, even new machines can run OS9 through Classic; it's just a matter of actually booting.

If you intend to multi-boot, then it is best to put each OS on a separate partition. OS9 and OSX can coexist on a single partition, but the option-key trick to pick your OS at startup time only works right if each OS is on a different volume. Otherwise, it'll only show one of the operating systems on each volume, and it prefers OSX to OS9.

Virtual PC is not its own OS; it's an application. You can't boot into it, so there's no reason to put it onto its own partition.

Once Tiger is released, there isn't likely to be much of a reason to keep Panther around (unless you're a developer, in which case it's very good for testing). However, you may want to use it for a Linux installation or something.

[jbass]

That clears up alot.. I have a new ibook so I guess OS 9 is ruled out.. Virtual PC doesnt need a partition, so I guess I will just leave everything as is until i pick up Tiger..