[allformac]

I read somewhere (I forget where) that by installing Mac OSX on one partition and then saving any of your personal/ working files that you can keep your system running a lot more smoother. Preventing a lot more errors and problems from rising up.

Is this true, or was the author's suggestion just a matter of opinion?

[Rainy Day]

Well, it all depends on your hardware and how you use your computer. In general, you might notice some speed improvement (due to decreased disk fragmentation), but i don't think it will have an impact on disk errors at all.

Depending on your usage, separate partitions might mitigate disk fragmentation somewhat, and that could mitigate speed degradation over time. Now if you kept your data on a physically separate HD (rather than just on a different partition), that would help performance more directly (as well as mitigate fragmentation).

Creating a separate swap partition can also help to keep fragmentation down (probably more so than a separate data partition would, if you have limited RAM and thus use virtual memory a lot), but that too will see greater improvements if kept on a physically separate HD. Since creating a separate swap partition, i have noticed a lot less disk thrashing when page swaps occur (but then i'm using an older Mac with limited memory, so i'm more likely to notice an improvement than would someone using newer hardware; YMMV). Severly fragmented swap files can grind away for a very long time indeed!

Overall, you're more likely to notice an improvement in speed if you replace your HD with a faster drive, add more RAM to your computer, or both. To reduce errors, run DiskWarrior periodically.