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introsuit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2015
9
0
Do you guys partition your hard drive for easier reinstalls?

I read some posts that partitioning hard drive on Yosemite got more tricky than before. Anyway using Disk Utility I can see I am able to split it into two partitions, but not more. Why not? For now two partitions are what I need, but what if down the road I decide I want another partition for linux or bootcamp? And will I be able to easily merge those two partitions back into one if I want to?

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Moreover, now say I want my /Users folder to be set onto my second partition. Found different tutorials for this to accomplish. One of them was pretty straightforward http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutor...-folder-to-another-drive-or-volume--mac-48822
But also some other tutorials claim that editing /etc/fstab is needed.

I think many Mac users, besides me, like to have several volumes for convenience. So how do you guys accomplish things like that?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,035
15,412
California
You will not be able to manipulate the partition on that drive at this point because the Yosemite install converted the drive to core storage. If you do want to manipulate the partitions, you will need to run off core storage by running the command below in Terminal. Disconnect any other drives first.

Code:
diskutil cs revert /

Then once the core storage is off you can shrink the existing partition by following this guide. Then you can click the plus to add another partition at the end.

All of that said, there is little advantage to putting the /Users folder on a second partition and I would not do it. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish by this?
 

introsuit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2015
9
0
You will not be able to manipulate the partition on that drive at this point because the Yosemite install converted the drive to core storage. If you do want to manipulate the partitions, you will need to run off core storage by running the command below in Terminal. Disconnect any other drives first.

Code:
diskutil cs revert /

Then once the core storage is off you can shrink the existing partition by following this guide. Then you can click the plus to add another partition at the end.

All of that said, there is little advantage to putting the /Users folder on a second partition and I would not do it. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish by this?

Well it does let me make a second partition, but not more.

I will look into reverting. This is a new macbook that came straight with Yosemite and was set like this, shouldn't be a problem to revert? And I assume this should better be done through recovery, not when system is booted?

Anyway is there any reason not to revert and stay with CoreStorage(if I won't use filevault)? Because looks like Core Storage just adds limitations, unless it has some advantages that I do not know about?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,035
15,412
California
Anyway is there any reason not to revert and stay with CoreStorage(if I won't use filevault)? Because looks like Core Storage just adds limitations, unless it has some advantages that I do not know about?

Nobody really knows the answer to this yet. For some reason Apple turned this on with Yosemite installs in the newer portables, and they have not released any information why. So who knows.
 

chown33

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 9, 2009
10,679
8,303
A sea of green
Well it does let me make a second partition, but not more.

Have you tried splitting a partition yet? Because maybe you can then split the new partition.

In other words, the process of making new partitions is to always split an existing one. You then resize the resulting partitions, and continue splitting and resizing until you achieve your goal.

Or you discard all partitions, and create a completely new partition map with as many partitions as you want.

I'm not on Yosemite, so I can't test this directly.
 

introsuit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2015
9
0
All of that said, there is little advantage to putting the /Users folder on a second partition and I would not do it. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish by this?

So that my media folders (Pictures, Documents etc) would be on the different partition from OS. OS X would logically treat these folders as usual, but physically all my data would be on a separate partition. And if I need to reinstall my OS, all the data will still be neatly stored there and ready for the fresh OS.

I figured many OS X users have a set up like this. I mean, how do you guys deal with freshly reinstalling/upgrading OS and preserving your sensitive data? Do you just backup everything and then move it back after? I guess that's ok too, but dual partition setup feels to me more of a bulletproof and convenient solution.
 

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
So that my media folders (Pictures, Documents etc) would be on the different partition from OS. OS X would logically treat these folders as usual, but physically all my data would be on a separate partition. And if I need to reinstall my OS, all the data will still be neatly stored there and ready for the fresh OS.

I figured many OS X users have a set up like this. I mean, how do you guys deal with freshly reinstalling/upgrading OS and preserving your sensitive data? Do you just backup everything and then move it back after? I guess that's ok too, but dual partition setup feels to me more of a bulletproof and convenient solution.

I like to keep everything on one big partition. I have a 750 GB SSD and everything is on it. I don't know what I'd do if I was dealing with a spinning HDD or a Fusion drive but I prefer one partition. I also have external FW drives for bulkier items such as my large photos, movies, older OSX developer previews, combo updates, xcode installers and music libraries.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,035
15,412
California
So that my media folders (Pictures, Documents etc) would be on the different partition from OS. OS X would logically treat these folders as usual, but physically all my data would be on a separate partition. And if I need to reinstall my OS, all the data will still be neatly stored there and ready for the fresh OS.

I figured many OS X users have a set up like this. I mean, how do you guys deal with freshly reinstalling/upgrading OS and preserving your sensitive data? Do you just backup everything and then move it back after? I guess that's ok too, but dual partition setup feels to me more of a bulletproof and convenient solution.

I don't want to get into the the whole "clean install" debate, but many users like myself just upgrade the OS over top of the last version and everything works well. I'm not a proponent of the clean install outside very specific troubleshooting circumstances.

But to answer your question, those that do clean install normally just backup then drag and drop their data back manually from the backup disk.

It just seems like you are adding this complexity of two partitions for little real benefit to me.
 

AppleNewton

macrumors 68000
Apr 3, 2007
1,697
84
1 Finite Place
partitions really aren't necessary, the thinking of only being able to add a second partition may be just for Bootcamp. but only Apple knows.

I say if you want an easier "clean installer" use internet recovery or get a cheap USB drive and make an installer there. no use having a clean installer on a partition of a drive that may fail and lose both.
 
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