[macmanmk]

Getting a new 30 GB drive and I'm ready to make the move to OS X. Any suggestions on how I should partition the space for 10.1 and 9.2?

[Jelle Monkmater]

Smack down the middle. It's what I did. No use making a separate swap partition unless you have another HD, and that won't affect the partitioning of this one.

[macmanmk]

I use iMovie a lot and need the space, so I'd rather not leave one partition underutilized. Do you find yourself running out of space more quickly under 10.x or 9.x?

[Jelle Monkmater]

Neither, really. I stuff all my downloads and Illustrator files on the 9 partition, and any iMovie stuff I do on the X partition. It balances out.

Naturally, if you want to store things in different places, make the 9 partition as small as you can -- as soon as you've got X, you probably won't be going back to 9 a whole lot, if ever. You certainly won't be installing many new Classic applications.

[MinivanH8R]

I have a 40 gig hard drive, and this is how I have my drive partitioned. I like it this way and I seem to have just the right amount of space on each partition for everything I need:

OS 9: 5 gigs
OS X: 15 gigs
Storage: 20 gigs

The only thing I have on my OS 9 partition is the startup folder and my OS 9 apps (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, some games, etc..).

On my OS X drive is where I keep my X apps and all my documents in my home directory.

And my storage drive is where I keep all my mp3's, audio for songs I'm working on, and video.

It works great for me, however I wish I didn't have to have the OS 9 partition at all because I want to eliminate it off my system forever

[Camelot]

Originally posted by macmanmk:
<STRONG>Getting a new 30 GB drive and I'm ready to make the move to OS X. Any suggestions on how I should partition the space for 10.1 and 9.2?</STRONG>

Easy. One big partition for the whole kit and kaboodle.

There's no need to partition the drive at all. You don't need separate partitions for Mac OS 9.

By using one partition you can throw away any old data or apps (or &lt;gasp&gt; OS versions) you no longer need and immediately have that space available for Mac OS X.

If you have your OS 9 on a separate partition and you decide you no longer need it, you then have a wasted partition.

I know there's been many a time I've needed disk space and I've crawled around for some old application I haven't run in 6 months to trash (knowing that I either really don't need it or can reinstall it later if I need to). If that app was on a different partition from where I needed the space, there's no advantage.

Until you start getting into really big drive sizes, or your work style calls for lots of disk space (e.g. video editing, Photoshop, etc.) there's no advantage for most users to partitioning drives.

[Marook]

Hi.

Just thought I would cast a vote for the one partition solution. I get's messy when you decide you no longer needs one of the partions, and OS 9 & X works flawless on one big drive.

[Oneota]

I have my drive partitioned into two volumes: One for my OSes/Apps, and one for downloads. That way I can keep the downloads separate from everything else, and I can only download a finite amount of random stuff before I have to either sort it, burn it to CD, or delete it. It helps keep me organized.

So that's my recommendation. One big 'ol partition, and one 2 - 3 GB partition for downloads.

[yuriwho]

make at least one extra partition just so you have something to boot from (besides a cd) in an emergency. I'd make it about 4 gigs and put OS X and OS 9 on it. If your main partition ever won't boot, you wont need to solve the problem to continue working, just boot from the emergency partition. Very useful when under a deadline (these problems always occur under a deadline!). Also add all your drive repair utilities to this partition (both OS 9 and X utilities).

Y

[Xeo]

I vote to not partition separately just so each OS has their own. The only good reason to do it is if you plan to switch between OS 9 and OS X often enough that holding down option at startup would save you time.

Other than that... one partition.

[brachiator]

I finally ditched OS 9 and classic completely, since I hadn't used classic in over a month (at least) and couldn't see any need to in the near future (or any future ;-)... I mostly just use my machine for writing, web research, and email, though. I doctor up a photo about once a year, for a gag or something, and by the time i need to do that again PShop X will likely be out (?) or I can just set up X Windows System via Fink and run the GIMP. :-)

It was great to get rid of Classic since that was a big chunk of my 4G HD -- and I am not planning to upgrade this PowerBook, waiting to buy a new TiBook (or successor! ;-) in August or Sept, etc., after graduating and starting once again to be a productive citizen (well, as productive as a lawyer can be... )

anyway, my 3 reasons for partitioning were: a) to ensure an adequate swap by enforcing a hard partition into which i *could not* d/l stuff, create images, etc; b) to protect against fragmentation, if any and if not just a fragment of my imagination; and c) to try and provide *some* protection for my documents and webpages, etc. by putting them on another (3d) partition of the disk that wasn't getting written all the time (I know a serious prob would bring down the whole disk, but I had to try something, even placebic).

But now that I have lots of space (sort of), a cd burner for regular backups of at least my work, and a remarkable Nash-like loss of fear of fragmentation, back to one big happy partition.

I do get a little post-partition depression, now and again, but that is just because I can no longer be such a UNIX-tud to my RedHat and Debian pals...

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by Xeo:
<STRONG>I vote to not partition separately just so each OS has their own. The only good reason to do it is if you plan to switch between OS 9 and OS X often enough that holding down option at startup would save you time.

Other than that... one partition.</STRONG>

1) Applications !

All my apps are installed on a seperate partition. Great ! I reinstalled OSX three times, and never had to reinstall any apps

2) User filestore.

Same thing. My home directory is safe, no matter what I do to my system.

Theres always reasons. Wether they make sense or not is open to debate

Ben.

[Oink]

I agree with Brit completely, I once installed Linux PPC, OS X server and OS 9 on the same mac for testing purposes only. One partition per OS does simplify backup and restoration.

Some people are still arguing about the need of a second mouse button for example.