Partitioning

[dlloyd]

I am planning to partition my 30GB iBook hard drive soon, and I am wondering how many partitions I should put in.
I was thinking of three, one for OS X, one for OS 9, and one for all my files. This arrangment would also allow me to easily backup my 'Files' partition each week or so.
Do I need a partition for a backup installation of OS 9/10, or one where I can backup some of my files? I really don't want too many, because although the 30GB drive seems big after the old iMac's 13GB one, it still isn't huge!
What kinds of sizes would be good? 5GB for OS 9, 15GB for OS X, and 10GB for files?

Thanks!

 

[voice-]

I'd give OS 9 just basic size...maybe 3 Gb...
OS X needs no more than 10 Gb, the rest will be filled a lot quicker once you start loving iTunes and the mp3 encoding...

 

[dlloyd]

I don't use MP3s (don't listen to music), but I got another opinion on drive partitions yesterday that was very 'anti-'them. It was that apart from the organization, there is no point. What do you think?

 

[iconcow]

I've found partitions mighty useful in the past for alternative startup volumes. I've currently got just two partitions - OS X and OS 9. The OS 9 one is only a gig or so, and OS X takes the rest. It's handy having another place to boot from in case one partition goes bonkers.

I'm not sure if this will be as useful in OS X as it once was with OS 9 and prior. Any thoughts?