partitions

[pdham]

I will be reformatting my PB 800 this weekend with 10.2. I am not putting 9.2 back on becuase this is my first mac and I use no apps that run in it natvely. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions about partitions. I was thinking maybe 2 - one for just the OS and one for apps. My roomate who is a comp sci/engineer student says just do one becuase unix is so stable and handles fragmentation so well that it doesnt become much of an issue. What are your thoughts. Thanks

Paul

[teabgs]

I say unless you specifically want more then one bootable drive for whatever reason keep it all together.

just because you can doesnt mean you should....I have a partition that is my main drive and then another one for One specific app....because the licensing is a pain and I dont want anything to mess it up.

my 2 cents

[Lz0]

Just keep it all on one.

It's easier.

[hugemullens]

If your looking for maximum performance, you should make a first partition about 1.5 gigs, and use it for the swap file, to speed up access to the page file. Having said that, i have just one partition and find it to be a bit of a pain for not a whole lot of gain. But that is the way to partition for performance.

[patrick0brien]

-pdham

What we're talking about here are logical partitions. In the classical times, with strict 32 bit addressing in SCSI, one could only access 4gb at a time, thus necessitating logical partitions.

In you new machine, you can access the whole drive at one time, so you don't need to.

Remember, logical partitions are still one set of platters, and still one armiture to read them. So your armiture will have to work twice as hard, skipping from one partition to the other. It's the armiture bearings BTW, that wear out first in a harddrive, so it's wise to minimize the actions that cause the armiture to work the hardest (logical partitions, optimizing, etc), unless there is no other way.

I echo the above fellows. Unless you have a dire need to, keep it all together. If you are doing heavy duty video or audio processing, I'd get a physical partition (additional harddrive) to use. For a PB, a FireWire drive would do nicely.

[pdham]

Thanks alot guys I will keep it all one. You guys are a wealth of information. :)

Paul

[sparkleytone]

its not a bad idea to keep OS9 around for strict Classic purposes. If you install it with a custom install it will take up a grand total of about 60MB.

[AmbitiousLemon]

i prefer 2 partitions, and i think for many people it is the best solution (depending on your needs/setup).

1 partition for the os (you can install os9 later if you ever find a need for it btw). and the other partition for data. This allows me to do a clean install without doing any backup. All my data is safely on the second partition. I can perform a clean install on my system and be back up and running at full speed immediatly. Just something to think about if your data is important to you and you dont have a second drive or more efficient backup system already. Its not for everyone but it works great for me.

[Thirteenva]

I am with ambitious lemon..

I have one partition for all my data and a partition for the OS's. It allows me to do a clean install at will should a major problem arise...

I should be doing a clean install this weekend. I've been experiencing corrupted preferences in all my apps.... expecially dreamweaver MX....

Its been hell to work like that all week, redefining a bunch of sites because the prefs are f'd up...

[AmbitiousLemon]

if you do go with an OS partition and data partition make sure you give osx plenty of space. OSX will meltdown if it runs out of free space. i play it safe and give osx 6GB (only use 3) just so I know for certain it will never get near full.


and Thirteenva its interesting you mention DW problems. when it was still in beta i found it was the only non-apple app i could find that could take down the os. never had a problem after gm though. before you wipe everything try all the normal outs first (fsck, permissions, diskwarrior, etc)

[pdham]

I am thinking now... after searching posts. that it would be a good idea to keep OS 9. Any thoughts on that? Then also, if i keep os9 will me computer come with them on 2 seperate partitions, or will I have to reformat and then partition... I was planning on reformatting anyway (I like that better then just updating os's) so it would be no big deal. Secondly, if I have to partition how big should my OS 9 partition be. And finally.. if something were to happen to OSX i could reach all apps and docs by booting in os9 correct? So it sort of covers your behind in a sense.

thanks
Paul

[AmbitiousLemon]

os9 can be installed on the same aprtition as osx (in fact thats the default and recommended configuration). you can install it before or after osx. (so you could leave it off now and install it later if you ever find a need for it, install takes like 10 minutes so there is nothing wrong in waiting).

There is basically no reason that requires a person to partition a mac. there is no need for it beyond personal preference. i prefer to have my data separate but thats a preference and nothing more.

os9 can be on its own partition on the same partition aas osx or on twn partitions half with osx half without.

installing os9 and/or osx does not require any reformating. basically there is no reason you will ever have to reformat your mac. its just an option if you want to do it. i like installing new oses from scratch rather than as an upgrade so i reformat before updating, but most people just update. most macs out there still have the factory install on them because there isnt a need to reformat and do a custom install.

for your uses i would suggest installing osx only. keep os9 handy iin case you ever need to install it (i doubt you will). if you do reformat then make sure when you do that you install os9 and osx disk drivers (its a check box in the disk utility) so you will have the os9 option later if you choose. you may or may not want a separate data partition (read the above posts and decide if it is for you or not).

[shakespeare]

I posted this in another thread a while ago, but it might be useful here too.

What I do for classic has saved me from partitioning my drive, and it works beautifully. I mounted a blank disk image of about 100 MB, and, running Classic from my startup volume, I ran the OS 9 Install CD and installed OS 9 on the disk image. I could then delete OS 9 from my startup volume, and now, whenever OS X wants to load Classic, it automatically mounts the disk image for me.

Works like magic - except, of course, I can't boot into 9.

[AmbitiousLemon]

shakespeare: thats pretty clever. i like that.

[shakespeare]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
shakespeare: thats pretty clever. i like that.

Why thank you; I appreciate that :)

I feel a responsibility to use my computer as elegantly as it was designed, you know?

[lmalave]

I totally disagree with putting it all on one. You never know why you might want to reinstall the OS. I highly, highly recommend putting the OS on a separate partition and puttin as many apps and data as you can on the second partition. Believe me, I've reinstalled OSes enough times (OS X included) that I'm a firm believer segregating your OS install.

[pdham]

ok new dumb question....
I think I am going to put it on two, 1 for OS one for apps/docs. This was my original paln anyway. My comp will be being shipped with 9.2 and 10.1 so they both must go.... I feel more comfortable doing a complete reformat and install rather then just an update. Can anyone give me the basic steps to go about partitioning and then reformatting and thus erasing my HD. Thanks in advance.

Paul

Man I used to know everything about PCs... I feel like such newbie.... wait I am :)

[kiwi_the_iwik]

I have 2 partitions on my drive - a small 5Gb for OS9, and 15Gb for OSX. It works really well - especially if you get a catastrophic drive failure (like I've had once). Then, at least your computer will be able to boot up in at least ONE of the OS's...

So then you can do drive repairs and run defraggers on each partition from the opposite OS - ie OS9 can fix OSX, and vice-versa.

I'm getting an external FireWire HD (of about 80Gb) for Apps and Files, so at least I can seperate those from my OS's, and will be able to save my data easier.

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by kiwi_the_iwik
I'm getting an external FireWire HD (of about 80Gb) for Apps and Files, so at least I can seperate those from my OS's, and will be able to save my data easier.

Or you could put your eggs back in one basket, and use the external as a CCCloner Target for live backup. It's bootable!

BTW- How much and from where? I'm getting a 12in PB and I'm going to take my own advice.

[springscansing]

Originally posted by lmalave
I totally disagree with putting it all on one. You never know why you might want to reinstall the OS. I highly, highly recommend putting the OS on a separate partition and puttin as many apps and data as you can on the second partition. Believe me, I've reinstalled OSes enough times (OS X included) that I'm a firm believer segregating your OS install.

Why does everyone say this? Why not just select that "clean insall" option when you install a new OS, and just trash the old folder? That what I always did in 9, and several times in X (trying to get 9 to recognize my FW drive on my new mac... swapping a ROM file off of my dual 450 into the system folder of the 867 did the trick, Apple's tech told me how to do something unsupported. YAY!)

[macktheknife]

AmbitiousLemon: Separating the OS from the data files sounds like a great idea. I might be getting a new PowerBook in the near future, and I would love to do things right from the get-go and partition the drives for some efficient computing.

Anyhow, do you have step-by-step instructions on how to do this? Perhaps on your website? Some readers (present and future) not well-versed in the art of hard disk partitioning might be interested. Thanks.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by springscansing


Why does everyone say this? Why not just select that "clean insall" option when you install a new OS, and just trash the old folder? That what I always did in 9, and several times in X (trying to get 9 to recognize my FW drive on my new mac... swapping a ROM file off of my dual 450 into the system folder of the 867 did the trick, Apple's tech told me how to do something unsupported. YAY!)

Sometimes you just gotta format the partition, man. I've had times where clean install didn't fix the problem, but formatting always works (assuming it's not a hardware problems).

[AmbitiousLemon]

1) boot up from the os installed cd (in your case probably 10.2 jaguar). To do this restartwith the cd in the drive and hold down the 'c' key

2) this takes you to the os installer. in the menubar you can select the disk utility. select this option.

3) the disk utility has tabs for each of its basic functions. choose the partition function. here you can name partitions. choose the number of partitions. size partitions by clicking and dragging or typing in sizes. and you can choose to install os9 drivers. (~4-6 for os, remainder for data)

4) after partitioning choose quit from the menubar to return to the installer menu.

5) now you can go about your install as you normally would.

6) after installing rebooting, filling in your personal information i suggest moving most of the data folders to your data partition. this includes 'music' movies' 'documents' 'sites' 'pictures' place aliases in their place. you can not/should not move the 'library' or 'desktop' folders

7) you might also consider creating an applications folder on your data partition. here you should install any third party (non-apple apps). apple apps should remain in the apps folder on the os partition. they will work fine if you move them but will not be updated via software update if you move them, so best to leave apple apps where apple put them.

8) i like having my desktop on the data partition as well since i download to the desktop often. using a menuitem app called deviant allows you to easily move your desktop folder to any folder you want (sorta a multiple desktop concept). its not for everyone but i like it.

[pdham]

Thanks i will be doing this all tongiht
Paul

[mmmdreg]

check this...after reformatting a week or so ago, this is what I ended up doing...OS9 might go on the Other partition if I decided I need it after all...the Users partition is actually mounted at /Users instead of the default /Volumes/Users so the Users folder on the OSX partition is the Users partition as you will see in the following post...and the "other" partition can always be used if the Users runs out of space or something..

[mmmdreg]

the workings of the Users partition mounted at /Users through fstab

[mmmdreg]

through the default location..and sorry for the amount of posts...

[macktheknife]

I was thinking of reformatting and partitioning my TiBook (I think there's too much junk littered everywhere), and I was scanning these old threads. Now, I have a quick question: I have a 550 Mhz TiBook with 30 GB of HD space. I don't care for OS 9, so I don't plan on installing it. How many partitions should I make? How much space should I leave for the OS partition? I also read something about a swap partition. What is it and is that recommended?

Thanks.

[FattyMembrane]

Originally posted by mmmdreg
the Users partition is actually mounted at /Users instead of the default /Volumes/Users so the Users folder on the OSX partition is the Users partition as you will see in the following post...
whoa, cool trick. i've been wanting to do this. how do you arrange this set up? also, if i was to create a small partition for my swap file, does anyone know if i could name it something like ".swap" so that it is invisible in the finder (since i will not be using it)?

[mmmdreg]

Originally posted by FattyMembrane
whoa, cool trick. i've been wanting to do this. how do you arrange this set up? also, if i was to create a small partition for my swap file, does anyone know if i could name it something like ".swap" so that it is invisible in the finder (since i will not be using it)?

Okay..this assumes you have basic unix knowledge...
go
here (http://www.kung-foo.tv/xtips.php)
and click on "move the applications/users folder" BUT THEN click
here (http://www.kung-foo.tv/blog/archives/000193.php#000193)
for it to work with Jaguar...IT WILL NOT WORK UNLESS U PUT THE TEXT OF THE 2ND PAGE IN THE fstab FILE...


to summarise, if you know what you're doing, rename your current users folder to users-old using sudo. copy the entire folder to your users partition using ditto. create an fstab file with the entry "LABEL=Users /Users hfs rw 1 2"...restart..and remove the users-old directory

[billyboy]

I dont think it is right to suggest partitioning with OSX and apps on different partiitions. OSX and apps on one, data on another is fine and keeps yor drive tidy and lets Jagua work in the way it was designed. OSX plus apps on your internal drive with an external hard drive for data even better. Work with Carbon Copy Cloner and you will be safe and never sorry if there is a crash.

[AmbitiousLemon]

im not saying everyone should have apps on a separate partition but there is absolutely nohing wrong with it. osx doesnt care where the apps are. it makes no difference to the app or the os so why not store them wherever you want (be that in apple's app folder or on another partition).

[billyboy]

osx doesnt care where the apps are.

Are you sure about that in every case? Plenty of people post problems when Word is on a different partition. Also maybe for finding apps it is OK for OSX to hunt wherever, but isnt that increasing the work for the hard drive. Minor points I know, but for some users the little things build up and after partitioning they might wonder why OSX isnt kicking butt like it can on one dirt great partition.

[AmbitiousLemon]

as i said before osx doesnt care where the apps are.

there are no problems resulting from placing apps somewhere besides the apps folder. no matter what people claim about word or other apps. if they are having trouble its for another reason.

the reason for putting the apps on a separate partition is to protect the os and speed things up.

[billyboy]

OK, fair points.

I have a 40GB internal drive which I am going to reformat with 2 partitions, I have plans for an external FW drive some time in the future to store my data. How would you apportion the sizes for an OSX partition and an apps partition? ( I currently have 600MB of applications).

Do you go with the thinking that OSX works better if it has the biggest partition possible, or is that a myth?