partitioning?

[sjcaguy]

so my new iBook is on its way to me, and i'm wondering about partitioning the HD.

On my current (crappy Dell. yay switching!) laptop, I have the HD divided into two partitions. one is for the system and the other is for music and photos and other files like that.

is it possible to partition the hard drive without reinstalling the OS? If so, are there any reasons NOT to do it?

I know I was told on my Windows machine that it could help avoid fragmentation and assist in some way with system stability. Are there these same concerns with Mac?

Thanks!

 

[Billicus]

Re: partitioning?

Originally posted by sjcaguy
so my new iBook is on its way to me, and i'm wondering about partitioning the HD.

On my current (crappy Dell. yay switching!) laptop, I have the HD divided into two partitions. one is for the system and the other is for music and photos and other files like that.

is it possible to partition the hard drive without reinstalling the OS? If so, are there any reasons NOT to do it?

I know I was told on my Windows machine that it could help avoid fragmentation and assist in some way with system stability. Are there these same concerns with Mac?

Thanks!

I don't believe there is a way to do it without reinstalling the Operating System. System stability on a Macintosh is fairly good, but having a partition for your music, photos, and whatnot is not a bad idea. You wouldn't have to worry about losing your pictures and music if something goes haywire, so go ahead if you want.

 

[bousozoku]

I see no reason to create multiple partitions for everyday use. In fact, larger systems with multiple drives tend to have logical drive software so that you don't see each physical disk drive. (No, it's not the same as RAID.)

Fragmentation is not the issue that it is with a FAT partition anyway. MFS/HFS/HFS+ uses a binary tree implementation to keep access fast.

 

[MoparShaha]

As explained earlier, there is no practical reason to partition drives with a mac, or any computer really. Computers have gotten advanced enough that they don't need crutches such as partitions anymore. In fact, I'd suggest NOT partitioning, because it will just turn into an inconvenience later. You might eventually fill up one of the partitions, then you'll have to either put the overflow files on the other partition, or you'll have to reformat. I'm running an 80 gig single partition in my PowerBook and also in my Power Mac right now with no problems whatsoever.