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Partitioning HD

J

J.C.

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how I should partition my HD or more specifically how much space I should allocate for both OS's, software, and storage which should bring me up to 4 partitions. I have the new iMac, my first apple product 😀 , which has 60G. I would want the storage for the OS and software to be flexible and expandable for my future needs. As of now i have no clue on how much space each operating systems and the softwares currently consume on my HD.

Any suggestions??

J.C.
 
If you actually are going to USE 9, and not just classic from within X, then I would do it like this:

4 Gig for 9
6 Gig for X
Remainder for Data

There are as many answers to this question, though, as there are people to ask.. everyone seems to have their own way of doing it. I do backups religiously, though, so I really don't fret too much about corruption, etc.
 
My partition...

I decided to partition my drive on my 20Gb internal, so I gave my Cube:

5Gb for OS9
15Gb for OSX

I have, however, noticed a speed boost after the partition. And both OS's are happiest as far away from each other as possible - on seperate drives.

I use OS9 predominantly for my old games - many tend to work faster in 9, but when the software companies create more stable and faster drivers, then I'll switch them all over to 10. I decided not to partition any further - i.e. create Data drives - because I didn't want my desktop cluttered (I know - lame excuse!). When all of my OS9 programs have been ported over to 10, I'll probably use the 5Gb partition for documents and downloads - a "cache", kind of, for my CD-RW (when I finally get one!).

Personally, I don't understand why Apple won't partition the drives to a basic level (25% OS9 to 75% OSX, for example) - it makes it so much easier for troubleshooting when one plays up, or even to defragment using Norton Utilities. Even when starting up, you can choose your OS by holding down the Option key.

I suppose when you talk about having 60Gb to play with, then you've a few more decisions to make, though...😉
 
bass ackwards

when I partitioned my 30 gig in my TiBook I gave X 10 & 9 20...

it runs fine....but at the time I was planning on just "playing around" with X....it's been my startup partition for the past 3 months now 🙄

so I figure why bother....I'll swap around the #'s when I get my next system...
 
Hey, I'm the masters of partitions!

1.5 GB for OS9

1.5 GB for OSX

4 GB for software only divided in to sections:
-Audio: Protools, Digital Performer, iToons (do not storage the songs in here), etc.
-Publishing: Photoshop, M$Office, Illustrator, the scanner stuff, etc.
-Tools: Norton, Toaster, Stuffit, etc.
-Video&Animation: Final Cut Pro, Media Cleaner, After Effects, etc.
-Web: Dream Weaver, Flash, Hotline Client, Comunicator, Explorer, etc.

Then, a 4th partition (for thouse who doesn't have OSX would be your 3rd) called "Storage" that would take thje rest of the hard drive. Here is where you are gonna place everything, pictures, documents, movies, mp3, downloads, etc. Your primary scratch disc will be too.

Why is that? because the use of files would lead to fragmentation and later would crash the softwares. The partition "Storage" would be the only one fragmented and would be the first one with a virus in case you get one, leaving the rest of the partitions alone.

It is the best way to organize the computer, at list for me works fine. I do not remember when I started to do it like this, may years ago.

It workd too when your computer is accesed by others in your family. They just wont mess around with the soft because they do not have to touch them.

Another good trick is to place an alias of the "Soft" partition in the Apple menu items, so you can have a direct acces to your soft.

This is long way better than droping files togatehr with the soft and the OS.

Note: If the hard drive is 20GB the "OS" should take 1GB, the "Soft" 5GB and the "Storage" the rest. That is the way I have mine, the same thing with my powerbook that has a 10GB drive.
 
All hail the master of partitions

Geez mymemory. A lot of thought went into that huh? I have to say I wouldnt have though tof that and its such a good idea. When I get a new system I will prolly partition it the same way. With slight modifications on the amount of each partition. 😀
 
all due respect mymemory

I feel born again!! 😛

all kidding aside....he does have some really good points there with his ways...
 
in addition to all the typical partitions most people here have suggested ive always fely a small partition with a rudimentary os and all of my utilities was a good idea. that way i could always boot off that partition and and run norton techtool diskwarrior drive10 etc on my main partitions.

the other nice thing about this is it makes it easy to keep an up to date fixit cd. just copy that drive to a cd and you can run around and fix anyones computer who may need help. (of course if you have an ipod you just copy this drive to your pod and no need for burning.
 
Re: Hey, I'm the masters of partitions!

Originally posted by mymemory
1.5 GB for OS9

1.5 GB for OSX

4 GB for software only divided in to sections:
-Audio: Protools, Digital Performer, iToons (do not storage the songs in here), etc.
-Publishing: Photoshop, M$Office, Illustrator, the scanner stuff, etc.
-Tools: Norton, Toaster, Stuffit, etc.
-Video&Animation: Final Cut Pro, Media Cleaner, After Effects, etc.
Click to expand...

What about problems with moving Apple's OS X apps outside of the Applications folder?
I've heard that lots of people had problems with that, since the *Nix file system likes its files in very particular locations.

Nevermind, it seems I was misinformed...🙄
 
Re: Re: Hey, I'm the masters of partitions!

Originally posted by Rower_CPU


What about problems with moving Apple's OS X apps outside of the Applications folder?
I've heard that lots of people had problems with that, since the *Nix file system likes its files in very particular locations.

Nevermind, it seems I was misinformed...🙄
Click to expand...

Thats what people on the apple.com forum said too. Also said that having music, pictures, movies, documents, etc on a separate partition from the os would slow things down. Mainly because of the fact that it is on a separate partition.

I like his partition setup personnally. thats what I will probably do when get my powermac here soon. Keep things neat and tidy and a "just in case" setup if something crashes.

By the way.....I am getting a new powermac....does the full version of os9 come with it? or is it just a classic? And what exactly is the difference? Can you put classic on a separate partition from osx? I'm a longtime pc user, so i have no idea about these things.
 
I have a similar question... I'm done with OS9.

Can I do a fresh install from the OSX CD and have an OSX only Mac, free of 9?
 
Re: Re: Re: Hey, I'm the masters of partitions!

Originally posted by superfula


Thats what people on the apple.com forum said too. Also said that having music, pictures, movies, documents, etc on a separate partition from the os would slow things down. Mainly because of the fact that it is on a separate partition.

I like his partition setup personnally. thats what I will probably do when get my powermac here soon. Keep things neat and tidy and a "just in case" setup if something crashes.

By the way.....I am getting a new powermac....does the full version of os9 come with it? or is it just a classic? And what exactly is the difference? Can you put classic on a separate partition from osx? I'm a longtime pc user, so i have no idea about these things.
Click to expand...

This confuses a lot of people. "Classic" is OS 9 that knows how to deal with OS X. When you boot into it, it's 9.2.2 (latest version). When you have to use it through X, it's "Classic". You get OS 9 and OS X with your new comp. Got it?
 
Originally posted by tfaz1
I have a similar question... I'm done with OS9.

Can I do a fresh install from the OSX CD and have an OSX only Mac, free of 9?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can. 9 is not required. Just don't try to launch any 9 apps. 😉
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hey, I'm the masters of partitions!

Originally posted by Rower_CPU


This confuses a lot of people. "Classic" is OS 9 that knows how to deal with OS X. When you boot into it, it's 9.2.2 (latest version). When you have to use it through X, it's "Classic". You get OS 9 and OS X with your new comp. Got it?
Click to expand...

Ah. That makes sense. thanks
 
Originally posted by tfaz1
Let me get this straight... "Classic" won't run properly without a fully-installed 9 on my drive?
Click to expand...

"Classic" won't run at ALL w/out 9 because it IS 9. Tricky, no?
 
I have 4 GB OS 9 and 70 GB OS X.

I keep all my files on X in my user folder, and only use the OS 9 partition to keep the OS 9 system and OS 9 apps on.

I like it. It keeps things tidy.
 
my partitions

This is how I am set up
Drive 1:
60GB - OS X/ OS 9 and files
Drive 2:
57GB - Mass storage
2GB - swap
700MB - for making utility CD's

Works for me
 
Re: Hey, I'm the masters of partitions!

Originally posted by mymemory


Then, a 4th partition (for thouse who doesn't have OSX would be your 3rd) called "Storage" that would take thje rest of the hard drive. Here is where you are gonna place everything, pictures, documents, movies, mp3, downloads, etc. Your primary scratch disc will be too.

.
Click to expand...

would that mean that you'd put you "user" folder in storage? If so, how do you get rid of the original Users folder once you've copied it onto the Storage partition?
 
Originally posted by Beej
I have 4 GB OS 9 and 70 GB OS X.

I keep all my files on X in my user folder, and only use the OS 9 partition to keep the OS 9 system and OS 9 apps on.

I like it. It keeps things tidy.
Click to expand...

This seems like a simple and effective scheme...that would mean there should be no problems that come with other schemes due to things like moving the appz folder and stuff...I just partitioned my HD into 3 partitions. A 2-gig OS9 partition (because I have basically nothing on it), a ~25gig for OSX with all its appz and my games and system and library as well as stuff from fink (fink.sourceforge.net ...and finally I made one ~11gb Users partition for the /users directory although I'm trying to figure out if I should just keep /users where it is...does anyone know if its alright to move the whole /users to the users partition?
 
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