Partition with X?

[Gregg]

I asked my son if he had ever partitioned his iMac. He said he had read something that said it was no longer recommended, or not as important, or something. Anyway, no, he hasn't.

Seems to me one reason to partition these huge drives would be to use some partitions as storage, and a smaller partition to hold the OS and applications. Then you can "segregate" backups, indexing, journaling, maintenance, etc.

What say ye? Do ya'll still partition your drives?

(Our former govenor was talking about partitioning in his now defunct campaign for President. But I think he was talking about Iraq, not Macs.)

[Paddy]

I used to partition...in fact I have a 10GB partition on my current start-up drive that was supposed to be for utilities, but it would appear that I never got around to it - it's empty!

My drives are 250GB though - not 750GB monsters.

I just back up the drive to an external and a second internal every night.

[FLASH1296]

This is what I do.

I create a small partition between 10 and 20 GB depending on the Hard drive size.
Here I run the Operating System, and the most important applications.

I create a small partition 10 GB in which I install the software that creates a Microsoft "E Disk" E for emergency. This is a bootable drive that contains a clone of YOUR O.S. along with TechToolPro 4.5.3  If you do not want to use TechToolPro, you can install a bare bones O S here and add Disk Warrior, Data Rescue II, Super Duper, File Buddy, Drive Genius, etc. and other favorite utilities so that you too can have a bootable partition from which to do backups, run repairs, etc.

A 3rd Partition is where I SAVE ALL documents that I create - or care to keep.
This makes (data) backups as simple as possible and very easy to automate as well.

[Jack W]

I always partition large hard drives.

On my two 300GB internal drives, I have total of 12 partitions.

Digital pictures, videos, files, apps, MHD, maps, backup partititions, etc.

I don't like all my stuff intermixed.

FWIW, Jack

[sunset]

Me, too--

Boot partition + 2 clone partitions, Apps, Data, Downloads, Photos, BackUp and Storage.  Also have one that houses OS9 which I haven't used in a couple of years.      Perhaps it's time to kill that one.  Main reason I've kept it is in case a friend needs an extension or something from 9, I can help, maybe.  I like to keep my stuff separated--it's easier to find what I'm looking for.

Just a thought...

[chriskleeman]

At the moment, I have redundant partitions in both my G4 DA and my back-up drive, so that I can have access should something go wrong in either drive. I have my DA backed up to one partition, my iBook backed up to a partition in both the DA and the back-up drive, and both have a spare partition to back up any documents or data that I don't need to use, but need to have access to. My drive size in both the DA and the back-up drive is 250 GB.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Chris K

[Jack W]

QUOTE(chriskleeman @ Sep 17 2007, 09:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At the moment, I have redundant partitions in both my G4 DA and my back-up drive, so that I can have access should something go wrong in either drive. I have my DA backed up to one partition, my iBook backed up to a partition in both the DA and the back-up drive, and both have a spare partition to back up any documents or data that I don't need to use, but need to have access to. My drive size in both the DA and the back-up drive is 250 GB.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Chris K

Hey Chris,

You sound like Jim. I love it!

Jack

[Texas Mac Man]

I have 2 HDs in my G4. The Master is a 120GB & the Slave is 100GB. Each of the HDs have 3 approximately equal size partitions. The Master has one partition for OS 9.2.2, one for Panther & one (that I call 911) for test & diagonstic utilities. The Slave has one partition to use for backup of the OS 9.2.2 Master, one to use for backup of the OS X Master,and one to use for backup of my G3 laptop running Tiger.

By having separate partitions, I can still operate & get on line if I have a problem with one OS. If I'm booted in OS X, I can still open classic applications that are on the OS 9.2.2 partition.

[RHPConsult]

Our three Macs are “sliced” differently, for different reasons.

My AluminumPB (for travel – and on which this in being composed) has only two partitions of its 75 GB (mol) drive. One (15 GB) contains a spare OS in case something totally unexpected befalls the “”main” OS – on a 60 GB partition.

A "safety net" for traveling far from home better than anything else I’ve been able to think of.

Before 10.4.x came along, I maintained a separate partition for Documents on it, but when my home Mac (a iMacIntel) “joined” the family - and Classic went the way of the Dodo Bird – I decided not to partition it, just to see why Cupertino designed OS X  they way they did. I then found it very convenient to have documents default to an established folder with many, many sub-folders for retention and storage.

Lillian’s G-5 iMac has a multi-partition scheme (OS/Apps/Utilities + Docs + spare OS + Archive) Since it’s a G-5, it continues to have Classic operating (in the “open) to run her favored WordPerfect (albeit somewhat shakily). She became so accustomed to having Documents stored separately from pre-OSX days, that’s she’s more comfortable doing so today. Surprise, surprise.

Each these Macs (and their partitions) are regularly backed up to similarly separate partitions on a 500 GB external FW/USB2 drive.

Stashed elsewhere in our house is (our not yet quite outcast) old Pismo with an early OSX + a separate "retail" OS9 on differing partitions, and docs files going back 15+ years,  that I may wish to access. It has an airport PCMCIA card, so I can print those files should that be necessary.

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE

Hey Chris,

You sound like Jim. I love it!

Jack

Yeah, I'm almost as grumpy as he is too!!!  

Chris K

[krissel]

Still partition though not as frenzied as I used to.  

Internally have two 300G and one 500G (all SATA) and one smaller SCSI (50G).

Each has one volume for the system and applications of around 80G (exept the SCSI) and a 20G for OS 9 and its applications (really don't need that much space). The rest of each drive is for data storage.

Backups are to external FW drives of 160G and two 300G drives.

I prefer the separation so running utilities is faster and the drives don't become so fragmented. It's easy to clone off to an external only the parts I want at any time.

[Gregg]

Thanks for all the input. It's probably a little late for my son to partition his iMac now, but if he has a disaster, that might be an "opportunity". However, those are rare, even for me with OS9.

[Paddy]

Disaster-proofing is easy, and these days relatively inexpensive. Just get an external FW/USB drive and use SuperDuper to automatically back everything up each night. It saved my bacon once on a three-week trip away from home, with my PowerBook and the external drive, which had a backup of my entire G5 system at home. The internal drive on the Powerbook chose the first week to go toes up and so, for the next two weeks, I simply booted off the external drive. After I got home I bought and installed a new drive for the Powerbook. No partitioning scheme would have saved me in that instance - the drive was dead as a dodo, although it uttered a few twitches and gasps that kept me busy for a couple of hours with DiskWarrior, TechTool and muttered imprecations directed at hard drive manufacturers who have a mysterious ability to build drives with expiry dates precisely one month after AppleCare warranties end.

Originally my backup drive was partitioned as well - one for the Powerbook backups and one for the G5 backups. However, I've now got 250GB drives in both the G5 and the external and don't keep any files on my new MacBook Pro that I don't immediately copy to the G5, so I removed the partitioning on the external to just use it to back up the G5. If I used the MacBook more extensively, I'd get another external drive for it, especially as I prefer to leave the external I have permanently hooked up to the G5 so it does its backups nightly and automatically.

I don't think your son should wait for disaster to strike. And partitioning, for all it's uses, won't save you from drive failure, which after you've been computing for a few years, is bound to hit some time.

[Gregg]

QUOTE(Paddy @ Sep 19 2007, 07:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Disaster-proofing is easy, and these days relatively inexpensive. Just get an external FW/USB drive...

Just so terminlogy isn't a stumbling block here, would a USB "Flash Drive" (aka "thumb drive") be one of the options you're suggesting? I've seen flash drives up to 8GB for abot $150 in the catalogs.

[Paddy]

I would think it would depend on the machine - only Intel machines will boot from a USB drive. I haven't heard of people using flash drives for this, but I guess it would be possible. But for that same $150 you can get a whole lot more HD! Even one of the little 2.5" external drives with 120GB of storage is less than that! http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

Not as small as a thumb drive perhaps, but still very portable and a lot more mileage for the money!