HD Partitioning

[Jim175]

I'm taking the plunge switching from PC to Apple.

I mostly use a comptuer for photo editing and web surfing.

I've read that partitioning the HD can speed things up.

Will Apple partition when I order or is it a DIY?

Thanks - Jim

 

[Hellhammer]

As far as I know, partitioning doesn't speed up your computer but if you want to do it, sure, it's VERY easy task to do.

 

[nfable]

Partitioning can speed up your operations if you establish the first partition as being the area you install your operating system and all applications on. You would then keep all data, media, and documents on other partitions. The logic behind this is that the first partition is closest to the spindle of the drive and less spin time will be neccesary to access the data there, thus giving you faster read times and operation. I haven't been able to do this with my OS x but I have with an external that has my ps and fcp scratch disk... The result was pretty fantastic.
Let us know if you do it with you operating sys, and the results. My next clean install will be done this way.

Nf

 

[THX1139]

There is no viable reason to split your hard drive into partitions unless you have a specific need to keep data separate from the OS and apps. I suppose it would help with backing up but that's all I can think of. The speed increase would be negligible because even though you have two partitions, you still only have one drive head. You only notice a speed increase when you ADD a second or third drive that can act independently.

Partitioning is a DIY operation. You do it with disk utility and it's relatively easy. Make sure you back up your data before you partition incase something goes wrong.