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Black Kerouac · Feb 6, 2009, 12:21 AM

I'm going to replace the 80 GB 5200 HD in my Macbook Pro with a larger 7200, either a 160 or 250 GB. I run Final Cut Pro and Adobe design software, listen to a lot of MP3s, and I want to put Boot Camp on my system and have a scratch disk partition as well.

My question is how should I partition the new drive? Is there any kind of optimal number of partitions?

Second, i think I read that I can have one partition for my OS X system files, and put the users folders where all the software and media and everything else goes in a separate partition...is this true? If so, how large should the system partition be?

Thanks for the help.

ibook_steve · Feb 6, 2009, 01:09 AM

Welcome to our forums!

First off, skip the 160 or 250 and go to a 320 or even a 500. The prices have come down so much, there's no reason to skimp.

Second, there's little to no reason to partition at all. It's not going to give you any performance enhancements and you'll just have extra drives showing up on your desktop. The only scheme you really need is two: one for OS X, the other created by the Boot Camp Assistant for Boot Camp.

Others may have other ideas or suggestions, but this works fine for me.

Steve

Simon · Feb 6, 2009, 01:48 AM

Advice on Partitioning?
Yeah. Don't do it.

Seriously, on a Mac there are only very few reasons to partition. Those people (mainly developers) who need to have several partitions know why. If you do not know why you should partition, chances are you don't need to. If you want to use Boot Camp the assistant will do the necessary repartitioning for you. There's no need to prepare anything in advance. On Linux or Windows there are excellent reasons to partition, but on a Mac it's really different. And Windows or Linux advice simply doesn't adhere to the Mac platform when it comes to partitioning.

Also, ibook_steve is absolutely right about the disk. Go with a 320 GB drive or more. Drives are so cheap there's no reason to skimp. You can get a 320 GB notebook drive for as cheap as $68 shipped. And keep in mind that a bigger drive is usually also a faster drive. A 320 GB 5400 rpm disk with 140GB of data on it will be way faster than a 160GB 7200 rpm drive with the same stuff on it.

Black Kerouac · Feb 6, 2009, 08:53 AM

Thanks for the advice gentlemen...I just ordered a 320 GB drive, so I should be good. Hopefully the installation won't be too painful...it looks like I'll be okay as long as I'm careful and keep all the screws separated.

polendo · Feb 6, 2009, 09:31 AM

With no intention to hijack this thread.. assuming that XP would be installed using boot camp on a 200 GB hard disk (along with OSX 10.5) .. what size would you assign it? and lets say Vista Home Premium?
My perception is that 200 GB isn´t enough to hold to two worlds.. maybe OSX and XP. I somehow feel that a minimum is to have 120GB or 160GB for each system to run ok. I know it depends alot on what kind of data one stores.. be it music, photographs, games, etc.

Cold Warrior · Feb 6, 2009, 03:22 PM

It really depends on what you have installed for XP. I have a minimal build -- just the OS, Office 2003, some network stuff (Wireshark, a hex editor, etc.), Firefox, and some work-specific applications. The system performs very well with 40 GB on the boot camp partition, and with what I have, that's probably overkill. Someone with Windows games, however, or very large files, would want more space.

B Gallagher · Feb 6, 2009, 04:34 PM

Agreed, the size of your XP partition really depends on what you use it for. I only have a couple of apps running on there, via Parallels, so I've only given myself 8GB for my Windows hard drive (which is an image, not a partition). I've read that you should (supposedly) keep your system on one partition, your documents on another, but I would only see any point if one was running Windows. Archive and Install should take care of a bad system and keep your files intact.

Can someone please tell me what a scratch disk is?

Black Kerouac · Feb 6, 2009, 08:54 PM

I always used a scratch disk for Photoshop, basically because all the books I read told me to.

Simon · Feb 7, 2009, 02:09 AM

Originally Posted by B Gallagher

I've read that you should (supposedly) keep your system on one partition, your documents on another, but I would only see any point if one was running Windows. Archive and Install should take care of a bad system and keep your files intact.

That is correct. Keeping system and documents files on two separate partitions is Windows advice. No regular Mac user will want to do that.

Can someone please tell me what a scratch disk is?

Temporary storage space. Sometimes it is erased in regular intervals. The idea is to have a large storage area with lots of continuous free space. Hence it's often partitioned off. Apps like PS use it as virtual memory. Others consider it simply temporary storage area (like /tmp in the NIX world) for current projects. Performance-critical workflows use separate and fast disk drives for scratch space. WD Raptors for example.

Simon · Feb 7, 2009, 02:14 AM

Originally Posted by Black Kerouac

I always used a scratch disk for Photoshop, basically because all the books I read told me to.

Yeah, because PS's default setting is to use the system partition as scratch disk. Not only could that be fragmented, but it tends to fill up quickly. That's bad for PS performance. Using a separate disk or at least a separate partition as the scratch disk gets around those problems.