I did a search and found some info, but I'd like to get some direct advice. I'm a new mac user (and relatively new to very large hard drives, my PC laptop only has a 30GB hard drive), and a lot of my windows using friends tell my its a good idea to partition my 250GB hard drive. But I don't really have a "guru" mac friend to ask their opinion, so here I am. Is it true that partitioning with macs is pretty much pointless? I don't want something horrible to happen and suddenly lose my entire drive like with what happens with PC's sometimes, but if partitioning the drive won't even be worth doing, then I'll just try and back up my important stuff on my external and leave it at that. I should have just partitioned from the start if I wanted to do that, but unfortunately I waited till now and have already added several applications and a lot of files, so backing it all up and reinstalling OSX is gonna be a hassle. But if it's worth it, I'll do it.
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iMac and partitioning hard drive
- Thread starter JonD25
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Partitioning is definitely not "necessary" for the average user. However, it can be a useful tool in some circumstances.
In an iMac, where you can't install another HD, partitioning & installing a 2nd copy of your OS & maintenance apps is a nice set-up, since most maintenance apps wont let you run them on the drive from which the computer is currently booted. You simply boot from the other partition, run the app on the main partition, and reboot back to it, then run the app on the 2nd partition
Since you seem to have a back-up plan w/ an external drive, this is not really an issue. But still an option nonetheless.....
The other use for partitioning is to keep documents & files stored seperate from your OS & apps. That way if you need to re-install the OS, you dont have to erase or back-up them too
In an iMac, where you can't install another HD, partitioning & installing a 2nd copy of your OS & maintenance apps is a nice set-up, since most maintenance apps wont let you run them on the drive from which the computer is currently booted. You simply boot from the other partition, run the app on the main partition, and reboot back to it, then run the app on the 2nd partition
Since you seem to have a back-up plan w/ an external drive, this is not really an issue. But still an option nonetheless.....
The other use for partitioning is to keep documents & files stored seperate from your OS & apps. That way if you need to re-install the OS, you dont have to erase or back-up them too