Partition iTunes music

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mstobbs

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Hello, I just bought an iBook G4 and this is the first time I've had a hard drive large enough to partition.
I have a 150GB hard drive with one partition and I would like to create a new partition to put all of my music/movies in. I was wondering if this had any side effects (slower loading between songs, loss of ID3 tags or album art).
Thanks!
mstobbs
 
There's really no drawbacks to partitioning in terms of speed, but then again, in a situation like yours, there's really little benefit, either.

Using a separate partition would be extremely similar to just using a folder on your hard drive. One big benefit is that you can now reformat and reinstall OS X on one partition while leaving the music and movies untouched on the second partition, so if you like to tinker with operating systems or want a fail-safe to save your music and movies in case your OS X partition goes south, then partition away.

Be aware that in order to partition in the safest method, you will have to completely erase your hard drive -- that means backing everything up first to another drive, partitioning your internal hard drive, reinstalling OS X, reinstalling all your applications, then copying the music and movie files back, which is a relatively lengthy process.

There are programs out there that will simply "re-size" your hard drive, allowing you to create another partition without having to erase the whole hard drive, but even in this situation, I would still recommend backing everything up to another drive first in case something goes awry (Murphy's law -- always remember it!).
 
Thanks for the very helpful reply ElDiablo, I do love to tinker(sometimes a little too much).

I have a follow up question, "partition in the safest method, you will have to completely erase your hard drive-- that means backing everything up first to another drive, partitioning your internal hard drive, reinstalling OS X... "

What is the safest method? Do I need to know exactly how large I want each partition at time of reinstall?

I was in disk utility and set up a backup partition for time machine. I was alerted that "Macintosh HD" would be resized and "Time Machine" would be created, both saying nothing would be erased. Does this mean appropriate settings were made at time of OS X installation and I'm all set to partition?

sorry for the scattered questions.

thanks,
mstobbs
 
I've always subscribed to the thinking that completely erasing the hard drive and writing new partition maps to the drive is the "safest" method. Yes, you need to know how big each partition should be with this method -- basically, you'll split the disk into however many partitions you want, each sized however big or small you want, then the disk will be erased and new partitions written to the disk.

Disk Utility can re-size partitions and even create new ones "non-destructively," meaning your data is safe thorough the partitioning process... but if something goes wrong, it's always a good idea to have a backup.

What you did with the Time Machine partitioning thing you did was basically what I described as "non-destructive" partitioning. You didn't have to erase anything on the drive -- it was simply resized and a new partition created.

Some will argue that non-destructive partitioning is just as safe as a complete "wipe the drive and write new partitions," but I always err on the safe side of things and back up everything first.
 
ok, thanks for the replies. Satcomer, yes, I read the article you linked to me and I'm not sure it is exactly what I'm trying to do. Thank you though.
Diablo, here's my position. I bought this iBook of ebay with 10.5 installed, no disks though. So if I were to make a "non-destructive partition" and put my itunes music on it, and at some point needed to reformat my OS drive, would the music remain or is a non-destructive partition not sufficient for this.
Thank you for your patience,
Mstobbs
 
Non-destructive partitioning is just a way of creating partitions. The end result is the same kind of partition. The only difference is that it won't destroy the data on your existing partitions when you make it. That is, unless something goes wrong...

I agree with ElDiablo about safety. Non-destructive partitioning works great when it works, but it's not 100% reliable. I've seen it fail and wipe out all the data. Back up your data first.

I like to keep my music and movies off of my boot volume as well. In the past I used partitions for this (now I use an external HD). There were no big problems. I just changed the location of my iTunes library in iTunes' Preferences window. You MIGHT have some problems with iTunes not being able to find your tracks, but if all your files are in your current iTunes Music folder, I don't think it should matter.

It certainly shouldn't hurt performance. Whether it will help performance depends on too many factors for me to make a useful guess.
 
mstobbs said:
I bought this iBook of ebay with 10.5 installed, no disks though.
Click to expand...

Yikes -- get yourself some OS X Install CDs/DVDs immediately!

The Restore CDs/DVDs that come with Apple computers are "tied" to that particular Apple computer through licensing, and also hardware restrictions (you can't use iBook Restore CDs to install OS X on a PowerMac, etc.). The original iBook CDs/DVDs are doing the original seller no good, so I would suggest kindly asking the seller to complete the sale of the iBook and include the original CDs and DVDs that came with it.

I know the gang here as MacOSX.com has heard me say this over and over, but a computer without the install CDs/DVDs is like a car without keys. Sooner or later, you're going to lock yourself out, and you won't be able to do a damn thing without the Install CDs/DVDs -- zip, zilch, nada. You'll have a fancy paperweight.

The eBay seller basically sold you a car without keys.

Besides, I don't think the partitioning you want to do can be done without first booting from the Install CD/DVD, can it?
 
Sorry for the late response.
So I received a burnt DVD-R with 10.5, which I am to understand was the disk used to install it initially :-(, it took about 40 minutes to get to the install menu, then I got an error of some sort and I bailed on it, had the (scratched)disk re-surfaced and have yet to try again.

However, I did partition through disk utility like Mikuro advised and I had no problems at all. Now that I have a better understanding though, I plan to get an external hard drive and do it right. Thanks everyone for your help.
mstobbs
 
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Yikes... there isn't a single, licensed, legal copy of Mac OS X that has ever been delivered on recordable optical media (unless you copied your legal version to a recordable DVD yourself for backup purposes). My point is that your DVD-R is not a legal, licensed version of Mac OS X unless you also are in possession of the original, factory-pressed DVD that it was created from.

If it were me (and I understand that it's not me), I would re-contact the seller and kindly ask for a legal, licensed CD or DVD of Mac OS X -- preferably the one that came originally with the computer. But, as you have things up and running now, that decision is, of course, left up to you.

Glad to hear things are working now.
 
Well I'm going to (naively)hope that it is a backup of the original, but I still don't have the original, so it doesn't matter.
Disappointing since I payed good money with the hopes of a fully legal clean system. I guess I'll keep my eyes open for good deal on some software and until then, pray I don't need to use the burn disc I was given.
Thanks again for all the help!
 
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