[Gavin]

Originally posted by Brass:
Most unixes have the OPTION to use a swap partition AS WELL AS having the OPTION to use swap files. Where I work, with Solaris (probably the dominant Unix in many areas), we usually use swap files, NOT a partition.

I've never worked with solaris, but with linux, BSDs etc, the installation guides take it for granted that you will partition, with no mention that there even is another option.

If I was to do any partitioning on the Mac, the only thing I would put on separate partitions, are the various log directories ( eg, /var/log and */Library/Logs ). But for a desktop, I wouldn't even bother with that.

I don't partition my macs at all anymore. HFS+ seems to be very stable. And the system is well behaved at rolling the logs, etc.

[Hal Itosis]

Originally posted by Madrag:
nice... I started a thread about the location of the documents
and it ended up with a discussion about partitioning

Thank Gawd you didn't ask about a partition, for the root user!

Now I have some sad news for those folks who are ANTI-partitioning...
your HD already is partitioned. (Just type "diskutil list" in Terminal).

THAT'S RIGHT... there are several partitions on your poor innocent HD.
But you only get to use ONE. (Just one measly partition for you, LOSER!)



I could pick apart some of the comments here, but it doesn't really matter.
If I want to put all my mp3s on another partition, VPC on another partition,
and a second OSX on another partition, and you don't agree with that plan,

...doesn't matter.

[leperkuhn]

Originally posted by Hal Itosis:
Thank Gawd you didn't ask about a partition, for the root user!

Now I have some sad news for those folks who are ANTI-partitioning...
your HD already is partitioned. (Just type "diskutil list" in Terminal).

THAT'S RIGHT... there are several partitions on your poor innocent HD.
But you only get to use ONE. (Just one measly partition for you, LOSER!)



I could pick apart some of the comments here, but it doesn't really matter.
If I want to put all my mp3s on another partition, VPC on another partition,
and a second OSX on another partition, and you don't agree with that plan,

...doesn't matter.

While some here might think it's dumb (not really sure who, actually..) the general feeling that I've gotten here is that most people don't see a reason to expend any extra effort to create another partition, when it really doesn't offer any obvious advantages (Yes, this changes from user to user).

I have dual hard drives, and I only use the second one for backup. I thought about using it for iTunes or something, but it's really not worth the effort.

Please realize most of us don't care if you partition your hard drive. Do whatever you want.

[chabig]

Originally posted by Hal Itosis:
Now I have some sad news for those folks who are ANTI-partitioning...
your HD already is partitioned. (Just type "diskutil list" in Terminal).

That 31.5 KB (yes, that's KILObyte) partition for the partition map is just killing me!

[romeosc]

Originally posted by Millennium:
About the only real reason anymore to partition your HD is to put OS9 on the partition, and that's only useful if your machine can boot OS9 in the first place. Otherwise, your assertion that "you should partition your hd for easier management and disk access" is simply false.

Why should you keep your documents in your Home folder? Because it's your Home folder. It really is that simple.

I patition one of my external drives with 6 partitions .... 2 for each of my PBs. I use carbon cloner to back up each powerbook once a week, swaping partitions in case of failure during backups.



Each are bootable since they are partitioned that way!

[Uncle Skeleton]

Here's the thing. Nobody cares what anyone else who posts here does with their own hard drive. But you can't get away with saying something like "you should partition your hard drive because it makes things easier." Why? because hundreds of other people (the people who never post or even have an account) will come and read that and think this thread is some kind of authority on the matter, and the fact is for all (yeah I'll say it, all) those people, it most definitely will make things harder, not easier, and then in 2 months when their machine is fubar, they'll come back to this forum and ask for help fixing it (at best) or start a flame war saying how hard it is to use OS X (at worst). It's not always just idle discussion.

[analogika]

Uncle:

[kcmac]

'xactly.

[GDoering]

I actually partitioned my drives until about a week ago when I realized it really wasn't providing any benefit. I switched over from Windows 2 years ago and at the time I had all my data on separate partitions from the Windows XP drive. That way I could format and re-install XP when it started to slow down and I wouldn't have to restore my terabyte of porn from external backup drives. With OS X I don't have the need to look at porn or re-install the operating system so I find partitioning to be a waste of time and space. Thank you Apple.

[Toyin]

I used to partition my hard drives for 2 major reasons.
1) Re-installing the OS was a breeze if your home folder was on another drive. Unfortunately re-installing the OS was necessary in the earlier days of OSX.
2) For novice users, or multiple users, it created an obvious icon where things needed to be stored.

Both of these reasons have disappeared as OSX aged. Archive and Install eliminated reason 1 and the sidebar eliminated reason 2.

For backup reasons partitioning is NOT an effective way to back up data. Chances are if your partition is hosed, the entire hard drive is hosed as well.

[romeosc]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
Here's the thing. Nobody cares what anyone else who posts here does with their own hard drive. But you can't get away with saying something like "you should partition your hard drive because it makes things easier." Why? because hundreds of other people (the people who never post or even have an account) will come and read that and think this thread is some kind of authority on the matter, and the fact is for all (yeah I'll say it, all) those people, it most definitely will make things harder, not easier, and then in 2 months when their machine is fubar, they'll come back to this forum and ask for help fixing it (at best) or start a flame war saying how hard it is to use OS X (at worst). It's not always just idle discussion.

Macworld magazine disagrees!
http://www.macworld.com/2005/03/secr...ctor/index.php

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by romeosc:
Macworld magazine disagrees!
http://www.macworld.com/2005/03/secr...ctor/index.php

The deck:
Geek factor

[Madrag]

Originally posted by romeosc:
Macworld magazine disagrees!
http://www.macworld.com/2005/03/secr...ctor/index.php

haha!
I'm not alone!

[Toyin]

Originally posted by romeosc:
Macworld magazine disagrees!
http://www.macworld.com/2005/03/secr...ctor/index.php

This is their reasons for partitioning

Disk problems usually affect the disk�s catalog (an invisible file that records the locations of your files on the disk). If you use a second partition to store backup files, they will be readily accessible if your everyday partition bites the dust. (Of course, if a physical problem causes the entire hard disk to crash�say, if its heads or platters meet their maker�you may also lose your backup partition. Make sure you back up its files regularly, too.)

Catalog errors are fixed easily with fsck upon reboot. No need to boot from another patition to repair it.

Quick Backups of Critical Files
You can make quick backups of in-progress work on your extra partition. Simply drag files or folders to it throughout the day. This is an easy way to protect important data as you work. (The same caveats about potential problems with the physical disk apply here.)

If it's important back it up for real, on solid media, or to a second hard drive. Aside for a false sense of security, backing up large files to a partition is much slower than to another drive.

A Manageable Home Folder
Store your iTunes or iPhoto collections on a separate partition to make your Home folder smaller and more manageable. This will make the folder easier to back up, though you�ll still want a backup of your media files.

Back up software let's you choose what folders you want to back up. If you're smart enough to partition your drive effectively, you can probably choose which folders you want to back up and or exclude

Stress-Free Shared Files
Tired of running into permissions problems when you share files with other users on your Mac? Use a partition to give others easy access to shared files. When you create a partition for this purpose, select it in the Finder, press Command-I, click on the Ownership & Permissions triangle, and then select Ignore Ownership On This Volume. This allows all users to access the files it contains, regardless of the permissions set for the individual files.

I have little experience with this. I have several users on my Mac and I want them all seperate, but this may be a valid reason (for partitioning). I would think managing permissions of a folder and all the contents within it would get you a similar effect. (I could be wrong though)

Emergency Protection
Create an emergency partition for those times when bad karma comes home. Use a program such as Bombich Software�s Carbon Copy Cloner (donations accepted) to make a bootable copy of your startup volume on this partition, and install a disk-maintenance and -recovery program such as Alsoft�s DiskWarrior ($80) or Micromat�s TechTool Pro ($98). If you have problems with your startup volume�due to either disk-catalog problems or rogue software that has damaged your operating system�you can simply boot from your emergency partition. To do so, hold down the option key at startup to select the partition, and then run your disk-recovery software�no fumbling around to find CDs. Even if you�re on the road, you can get your Mac up and running again.

This can be done with an external drive or with an install/restore CD. Like I said before, if the disk is fried, you may be unable to boot from another partition.

Faster Applications
Some programs, including Adobe Photoshop, Apple Final Cut Pro, and other audio and video programs, run faster if you store their files on a dedicated partition. Why? Because Photoshop writes scratch files�temporary files�to your hard disk, and these files can be big. Video files likewise take up a lot of disk space. In both cases, using a dedicated partition keeps these files together, allowing the programs to load, read, and write the files quicker. And gamers may want to install games on a separate partition. Some games, especially those with lots of video and graphics, run faster this way, because their files aren�t strewn across a crowded primary partition.

I'd like to see some evidence to support this. If you're writing/reading from the same drive, it's not going to speed up your access times by partitioning (see below). Again, using a second hard drive would be a faster and better solution.

You may have heard that creating a partition for OS X�s swap files will speed up your work, but it won�t really make much of a difference. You�d see a speedup if you stored the swap files on a different physical disk, but if you simply store them on another partition on the same disk, your hard disk�s heads will jump from one section of the disk to another to read them. You may even find that your Mac runs slower.

Agreed

Easier OS Upgrades
When installing a new version of OS X, do so on a second partition. This is useful when you�re not sure you want the update, as well as when you want an easy way to copy your Home folder�s contents after a clean install.

Again much safer with an external drive. I've tried this approach with some early builds of Panther, and it definitely had an effect on other partitions.

Linux and More
For the truly geeky, a partition is a great place to house other operating systems. Install Linux on a partition so you can try out your favorite distro on your Mac. If you have an older Mac and still use OS 9 for running some programs or for specific hardware that isn�t OS X-friendly, put OS 9 on a partition so you can boot from it more easily. If you develop software, put different versions of OS X on different partitions and boot from them to test your work in progress. Choose the partition you want to use by holding down the option key at startup.

Linux installation, I agree. Boot from OS9 more easily? Back when I had a machine that booted OS9 and OSX changing which to boot from was as easy as launching system preferences and clicking start up volume.

Old Mac Aid
Finally, if you have an older Mac, such as a rev. A, B, C, or D iMac or a beige Power Mac G3, you must install OS X in the first 8GB of the hard disk. If your hard disk is larger than 8GB, you�ll need to create at least two partitions: a boot partition that is 8GB or smaller, and one or more other partitions that take up the remainder of the hard disk.

True, but it may be time to get a new Mac if you're using one of these as your main work horse.

Look Madrag, you can partition to your hearts delight. Coming from so one who at one point had 8 partitions on a 20gb drive, there may be small benefits to partitioning, but those benefits are shrinking and at this point don't justify the extra maintenance that partitioning entails.

[Madrag]

Originally posted by Toyin:
Look Madrag, you can partition to your hearts delight.

hell, I've even partitioned my ZX Spectrum! and am storing my documents in some tapes (also partitioned, of course)

we should chill, and have a laugh, shouldn't we?

[Maflynn]

[rant]
It amazes me at how closed minded some of the posters are.
OSX is incredibly flexible and if you find it more efficient to work on different partitions more power to you. One size does not fit all and just because its different doesn't make it dumb [/rant]

I've done it both ways and found advantages/disadvantages to both. For simplicity sake I now prefer a single partition and use folders to organize my files.


Mike

[Hal Itosis]

Originally posted by Toyin:
> Catalog errors are fixed easily with fsck upon reboot.
> No need to boot from another patition to repair it.

Dream on.

I know that's what it says in Apple's knowledge base articles, but
-in real life- MacFixIt's forums contains evidence to the contrary.

--

Maybe it's because I use PowerBooks... and I don't feel like bringing
a (painfully-SLOW) bootable CD everywhere I go, or lugging around
a FireWire drive (though they do make 'em small these days). Having
another partition to boot from is most reassuring. It's fast and always
up-to-date (latest versions of OSX , DiskWarrior, etc., etc., etc., etc.).

With Tiger only weeks away... it's also nice to know I'll be able to boot
from it or Panther, whenever I feel, wherever I go, for whatever reason.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by Hal Itosis:
Dream on.

I know that's what it says in Apple's knowledge base articles, but
-in real life- MacFixIt's forums contains evidence to the contrary.

I've never found anything that fsck could fix from another disk that it couldn't fix from a read-only disk.

[Hal Itosis]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
I've never found anything that fsck could fix from another disk that it couldn't fix from a read-only disk.

What are you trying to say, (and how is it significant)?
There are many, many, MANY things fsck won't repair.

[Chuckit]

I misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were saying you fscked off another partition rather than the main one.

[romeosc]

I still find it much safer to back up each of my PBs using Carbon Cloner to partitioned external firewire drive and have a restorable Backup!