So I bought a new iMac with a 1TB hard drive, and I was wondering if there was a way to partition that memory between users? That is to say, if there are 4 user profiles on the computer, is there a way to set things so that each user profile can only access up to 250GB of memory?
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Splitting up memory between users
- Thread starter Leikela
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You can easily partition the drive, but unless you use encryption and lock each partition, all users would be able to see all partitions, if they could see any. If the users respect the other user's partitions, no problem. Use Disk Utility to partition the drive.
How to partition an external hard drive
How to partition an external hard drive
click on the drive on the right, then you'll see in the middle right a few buttons that say 'erase' 'partition' etc...
Follow the instructions in the link I posted.
If you encrypt a drive, you need the password to access it. If you have a user who is likely to do something like trying to repartition the drive, which can destroy data, I wouldn't give them access to the drive at all.
Partition vs. Allocate
Perhaps partition is the wrong word then? When I went to school, the computers were set up so that each of our user accounts had a certain amount of memory available to it. Once we hit our limit, that was it, we couldn't save anymore. There was only one partition as far as I know, it was merely that our individual access to memory was limited to a certain amount. That's more what I'm looking for.
Regarding the link you sent me, what happens if I later decide to change the size of a partition? (e.g. change two partitions of size 500GB to 700GB and 300GB, respectively?) Would it delete all my data, even if I didn't have 300GB worth of stuff on it?
Perhaps partition is the wrong word then? When I went to school, the computers were set up so that each of our user accounts had a certain amount of memory available to it. Once we hit our limit, that was it, we couldn't save anymore. There was only one partition as far as I know, it was merely that our individual access to memory was limited to a certain amount. That's more what I'm looking for.
Regarding the link you sent me, what happens if I later decide to change the size of a partition? (e.g. change two partitions of size 500GB to 700GB and 300GB, respectively?) Would it delete all my data, even if I didn't have 300GB worth of stuff on it?
That sounds like a network drive they set up, giving each networked user a specified amount of storage. FYI, "memory" usually refers to RAM, where "storage" or "drive space" refers to space on a hard drive, which is what you're talking about.
Under some circumstances, you can resize a partition without deleting data. In some cases, data is lost during partition resizing. It's always a good idea to backup your data, in case something goes wrong.
250 GB is quite a lot for a single user; you'd only exceed that if you have a big video library, or massive photo or music libraries. If there is _one_ user exceeding that limit, the easiest solution is giving that person an external hard drive.
Maybe your referring to Quotas, perhaps the following link will help
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20017465-263.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20017465-263.html