Do you partition your HD?
in [Mac Systems]
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From: BreadWithSpam on 24 Jun 2010 10:44 Newbie <newbie(a)no.spam> writes: > How about this partition scheme: > > P1. A working copy of OSX So far so good. > P2. Another bootable copy of OSX, as backup (more convenient than dvd) Why? If your OS gets hosed, you're going to want to reconstruct from the OS installer. If your whole drive gets hosed, this partition won't help. > P3. Non-apple apps I buy or download Why? > P4. My own work Why? There are a few good reasons for partitions, but none of them are the ones you've listed. Here are a few: - an alternate operating system - this is a big one and probably the most important reason to partition. "alternate OS" may include, for example, an earlier verion of Mac OS as well as things like linux or windows. - a media drive - store videos, large files, etc which you don't necessarily want to back up as part of your regular backup scheme. (this, too, isn't necessary just for avoiding backups, though - most backup software is capable of selectively ignoring certain folders) - explicitly trying to restrict the size of your primary drive - this may be helpful if you want to make sure it stays constrained in case you are regularly mirroring to a smaller drive - on an external drive, similarly constraining partition sizes - good for if you have, say, a 500gb internal and a 1TB external - you can split the external into a 500gb partition to clone the internal drive and leave the other partition for other uses. I actually do this one. > Not sure if P3 and P4 need to be separated. The meaningful separation > appears to be between Apple and non-Apple stuff. That's not meaningful either. As far as I can tell, from what you're trying to do, there's no reason for any partitioning at all. -- Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
From: aRKay on 24 Jun 2010 10:58 In article <240620100619362828%newbie(a)no.spam>, Newbie <newbie(a)no.spam> wrote: > As mentioned in another thread I am moving to a new Imac (500GB). I > have never partitioned my HDs before but realize that if I am going to > consider it, now is the time. > > So my question to the more experienced people here: > Do you partition your HD? > How do you see pros/cons? > How many partitions do you use, what for, what sizes? > > Thanks. I do not partition my Macintosh HD on the iMac or MBP but do partition my backup drives. For each external backup drive I make up two partitions: One for SuperDuper and the other for the Time Machine. I have had no issues with this setup and it has saved me several times.
From: Tom Harrington on 24 Jun 2010 12:13 In article <240620100655231663%newbie(a)no.spam>, Newbie <newbie(a)no.spam> wrote: > In article > <8012e6cf-5e1f-43ed-9f6c-416cfc57cdfe(a)w12g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>, > commiebastard <oraclmaster(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Backup your data, then follow the numerous tutorials out there for > > splitting up your hard drive. > > This is a so-far-unused computer with no data. That's why I thought now > is a good time. > > How about this partition scheme: > > P1. A working copy of OSX > P2. Another bootable copy of OSX, as backup (more convenient than dvd) > P3. Non-apple apps I buy or download > P4. My own work What benefits do you think this scheme will provide? On seeing that scheme my only question is, why bother, what's the point? The second copy of Mac OS X is wasted space; if your hard drive has problems it'll almost certainly be a physical failure which will take out the entire drive, including the backup operating system. It's not more convenient because it's virtually guaranteed to be unavailable just when you finally need it. The biggest problem with multiple partitions is that it's impossible to reliably predict how big they need to be. Inevitably you'll end up with one being too small while another has more free space than you can really use. -- Tom "Tom" Harrington Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002 http://www.atomicbird.com/
From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Kir=E1ly?= on 24 Jun 2010 12:27 Newbie <newbie(a)no.spam> wrote: > Do you partition your HD? No. > How do you see pros/cons? Pros: None that I can see, unless you want to have a dual boot system and boot into two different OSes. Cons: It's hard to predict how much space each volume will need, and invariable one will end up with not enough space on one partition and a lot of unused space on another. Some people like to make several partitions and put their OS on one, apps on another, user data on yet another, etc. This might be advisable on linux but I see no advantage to doing this on OS X. > How many partitions do you use, what for, what sizes? My main drive (160 GB, OS X 10.5.8) only has one volume on it. I have a firewire drive also with only one volume on it, that gets a SuperDuper clone. I also have a 500 GB firewire drive with two partitions. One 485 GB partition for Time Machine, and one 15 GB partition for a bare-bones Tiger install, which I boot into once in a blue moon. -- K. Lang may your lum reek.
From: Robert Haar on 24 Jun 2010 13:13
On 6/24/10 7:55 AM, "Newbie" <newbie(a)no.spam> wrote: > In article > <8012e6cf-5e1f-43ed-9f6c-416cfc57cdfe(a)w12g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>, > commiebastard <oraclmaster(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Backup your data, then follow the numerous tutorials out there for >> splitting up your hard drive. > > This is a so-far-unused computer with no data. That's why I thought now > is a good time. I would advise adding external storage, either a USB/Firewire drive or network storage (if you have a local network). > > How about this partition scheme: > > P1. A working copy of OSX > P2. Another bootable copy of OSX, as backup (more convenient than dvd) > P3. Non-apple apps I buy or download > P4. My own work I have four hard disks in my Mac Pro, 3.3 TB total and another 6tB of network storage. The disks in my Mac are arranged similarly to your proposal System with all apps copy of System, Carbon Copy backup before applying any major change User files Time Machine > > Would my home directory /Users/Newbie hav to go into P1, along with the > OS, or can it be anywhere? You can move the user home directories. I did this for all my user accounts except admin. > > Not sure if P3 and P4 need to be separated. The meaningful separation > appears to be between Apple and non-Apple stuff. I don't know of any reason to separate the non-Apple apps. There have been a few reports of applications not working properly if they are relocated. I don't see any provision for back up. You really should make that a practice. I use Time Machine plus periodic copies to external drives. |