[aredhello]

Hi everyone,

I know there's been some posts on this before, but wanted to ask more specifically with regard to my own situation...

I have to do a complete wipe and reinstall of Leopard (archived and installed from Tiger and ended up corrupting some OS files). I didn't even set up Time Machine yet so I was doing manual backups. I want to avoid some of this mess in the future so when I wipe I am considering creating two partitions, one just for OS and one for my apps and data -- so for future OS upgrades I can just wipe clean and install. But I was wondering...

- Is there any good reason not to do this?
- If I do do this, how much should I partition my OS drive to be? I'm running a Core 2 Duo MBP, 2.0ghz and 2gb of RAM with a 120gb HD.

Thanks guys, and any thoughts you have to contribute are much appreciated.

[peeb]

There is reason to look into why "archiving and installing from Tiger and ended up corrupting some OS files" A&E is a wipe of the OS with the user files brought over - so you should not corrupt any os files. What is the issue exactly? I would not bother partitioning, I don't think your issue is caused by lack of partitions.

[aredhello]

Err yeah, guess I should clarify that. Basically what I was told was that some OS files got corrupted somewhere along the line -- prior to my Leopard upgrade -- and when I did do the upgrade, Leopard didn't replace those corrupt files. I guess those files got along okay with Tiger but not so well with Leopard. I dunno how much truth there is to that, but a few weeks after upgrading I couldn't get past the gray screen. I actually downgraded and did an archive and install with Tiger just so I could get some files that didn't make it on my most recent backup and am about to wipe clean and install for Leopard.

Yeah the more I think about it I dunno if I buy that explanation -- a few random files I tried to back up (from the archive and install) couldn't write to either of my externals.

[SierraDragon]

Do not partition. It just adds complexity and overhead on a drive that is already small.

-Allen Wicks

[MacosNerd]

I'd say stick with the single partition, partly because of what Allen posted - drive size, but also because you don't have an over-riding need to do so. If you don't have a clear need, there's little benefit and you actually make it more cumbersome given the drive size. I'd say stick with a single partition.

[mfbernstein]

Originally Posted by aredhello 

I want to avoid some of this mess in the future so when I wipe I am considering creating two partitions, one just for OS and one for my apps and data -- so for future OS upgrades I can just wipe clean and install. But I was wondering...

Good idea. Unfortunately, not as easy as it seems:

1) Many apps litter the filesystem with files outside of the /Applications directory. Separating apps and system files from each other is a pain.
2) The best tool for putting the user directory on another partition is the shareware SuperDuper which is not fully Leopard-compatible.

Alternative suggestion - use one of your external drives for a full clone, and update it once a week or so. Something like SuperDuper (once it's Leopard compatible) will do the job quickly and nicely, leaving you a bootable backup. Time Machine will ensure that you don't lose data in-between backups.