[stevanforest]

“Your startup disk is almost full”

Hello there,

I am new to mac and in general to understanding the -computer OS.
Trouble: my PB g4 Alu 1.33 got slower and slower. Running nearly
Daily Onyx or MacJanitor or Disc Utility repair doesn’t do the trick. I was trying to avoid this speed reducing by making 4 Partitions by wishful thinking to avoid this way to have a quick builtup of fragmentation
Is this “thinking “ correct ?
Now I was running ImageReady 7 what is on a different Partition then the OS X installment. By opening A 512MB CompactFlach
I got 2 Warnings: first; Your start up disk is almost full and
After the Application got 80% images loaded : Warning. Your hard disk has no more available for Application memory on your start up disk.??????? Why dose the program needs startupdisk memo, when is got installed on a separate partition, were it got 26GB available . ?????
Here my HDrive setup ; I give 30 GB Partition to my PhotoDrive were I have all Image Application Programs installed. In the hope to have only 1 main PhotoApp running and that saving and loading happens faster within only one Partition.
Then 15 GB Partition for all general Applications what comes after the OS installation and don’t need to be installed into the OS system . I trust there the Installer window how tells you where to install into.
Then 7,5 to my Max os x system ( 1.5 GB left free )
And 7,5 to my Mac os 9 Classic
If you ask “Why so many Paritions???” I did this in the believe that keeping the OS separate avoids conflics and having the general Apps separate avoid crashes. And data rescue would be severer by having access to differed drives. OS X helps OS 9 and OS X helps the other Drives.

Dose this work this way???. And are there info site that can explain how the computer or the OS works.
Thank you for your time to read all of this and hoping for simple solution Stevan
PS does the App “Data Recycler X “ can slow the OS down as well ?

[Maflynn]

First I think you over-thought the problems. I have never run any of those apps (except for disk utility and then only on OS updates.) I have not incurred any slow downs either.

Second partitioning out your hard drive into 4 drives is the cause. Your system drive holds the swap file(s) (found in /vm/var) If you size the system disk too small which sounds like you did then you run out of virtual memory.

Also Since the its a single physical disk you really do not gain anything by splitting it up from a safety perspective. If your computer has a hard drive crash you could lose everything anyways. The partitions reside on the same physical drive. Having a second physical drive is where you gain the benefit.

Finally OSX (and many applications) really likes to have everything on the same partition. Some of your issues could be related to having so many partitions.

Back everything up, repartition to a single drive and see if the problem exists.

I wouldn't worry about the slow downs or fragmentation. The current state of modern file systems and hard drive speeds really make this a non-issue. Panther also defrags files smaller then 20meg and moves frequently accessed files to a hot band area for quick access.

Panther is really an intelligent and speedy operating system if you let it be, you actions well intentioned as they may be are hand-cuffing it.

Mike

[Randman]

Originally posted by stevanforest:
If you ask “Why so many Paritions???” I did this in the believe that keeping the OS separate avoids conflics and having the general Apps separate avoid crashes.

This is true for the Windows platform but not for OSX. The way the Unix background assigns permissions to all tasks, you could actually run into more problems. And at the very least, you could run out of space as you can't easily adjust partition sizes as you do in Windoze.

The advice in the post above is quite sound.

[chabig]

Ditto. The OS wasn't lying to you. Your problem was not fragmentation. It was simply as the OS said--the disk was almost full.

Chris

[stevanforest]

Thanks to all how took the time to help me. I will do as suggested.
Start from scratch. But by now running in to back up issues Partition comes back on the table. Reading and seeing many options of backing up like cloning with CCC. So making Partition can help to created a back up strategy. Is this correct and do you have tips and hinds for my. So when I am starting over now I like to do it ride this time.

[Randman]

Backing up to the same hard drive is taking a risk. A partition won't save you from a hard drive failure.
For a viable backup plan, I'd suggest an external drive (or more) or possibly saved onto DVD/CD.

I have my entire hard drive backed up to an external, I have important files and photos and documents and stuff I use for work also backed up on my iPod. I use Backup on .Mac just for documents and library settings, and I have a backup of my hard drive on a couple of DVDs that I keep stored away at work just in case there's a fire or something drastic at home.
My way may be a little drastic, but with the prices of external drives dropping and media already so cheap, it doesn't hurt to be a little anal, if only for a little more peace of mind.

[stevanforest]

Yes i did the same my self backing up to CD. is is more about the reinstallmant i like to do smart and time saving. i like to post this in a forum what do u think


The smart backup strategy Starting from scratch.

I am in the need to completely over haul my HD and now running in to back up issues. Partition comes back on the table. In assumption of creation a back up strategy when reading and seeing many options of backing up like cloning with CCC.

So can making Partition help to created a back up strategy. Is this correct and do you have tips and hinds for my. ???
Simply by telling the way u did it or the way u gone do it next time.
How I Use my Partition??

What is the difference from drag and trop installment and using the installer?

From same App I don’t have the CD any more but I remember it used the installer. Can I created a Installer afterwards.?

[mbryda]

This is exactly why its a bad idea to partition, on any OS (for most users). It does nothing to improve system stability or anything like that (not even speed - it's all on the same drive). Most times it comes back to haunt you, since resizing partitions is a PITA on all systems.

For Example, say you have a nice new 120GB disk. You partition it into OS and Data each of 60GB. Now what happens when that Data partition becomes full with pics, MP3's, etc? You're SOL, even though you may have 40GB free on the OS partition. Now you have to store some files in 1 partition, others in another. Or redo the whole thing.

Never made sense to me - give me the whole 120GB and I'll load it up with whatever I can and have all space available to all things.

The only good way to partition would be if you boot multiple OS's, bue with drives being so cheap, you could have a drive for your data and one for each OS.

[stevanforest]

here the solution !

i used iPartition , a App. for 30$ what did is job.The site let u downloud u a demo to see if ti works on your C. It save me time to reinstall everthing. ( took 2 weeks to get my mac where i liked to be.)

with no external drive i used BootCD a Free App. to let u make a Boot-CD
worked aswell fine i put the iPartition on the BootCD and reboot.
and than iPartition rePartition my Mac!

thank to all

kindly
Stevan