Is it a good idea to partition your hard drive when use osX? If you had a 40 gig drive what would you recommend? Can you use the os disk to partition? What do you really benifit from doing so? Is it best to keep the OS as isolated as possible form the rest of your apps, files etc. like with Windoz?
Partitions
- Thread starter MacNEO
- Start date
Most apps require to be installed on the system partition. At a first glance, this suggests that partitioning a drive makes no sense anyway. However, should you ever be in need to reinstall the OS or even reformat your system partition you will be lucky if you have at least your data on a separate partition. Also, I read about a way to put your home directories away from the system partition. I don't remember the procedure. You might try to use the search function on this forum to find out about that. Just my 0.02 
Forgot to answer your other questions:
My system partition is 20GB (I have a 60 GB harddisk in my TiBook). This way I (hopefully) have enough room for any applications I want to install. Maybe this will turn out to be a big waste of space, so what?
If you decide to partition your drive, you find the Disk Utility in the menu bar once you have booted the OS X installation CD/DVD. I found it intuitive and self-explanatory, especially if you have previous experience with DOS fdisk
Dis Utility cannot change a disk's layout afterwards without erasing the entire disk. This is, however, possible with 3rd party disk utilities.
My system partition is 20GB (I have a 60 GB harddisk in my TiBook). This way I (hopefully) have enough room for any applications I want to install. Maybe this will turn out to be a big waste of space, so what?
If you decide to partition your drive, you find the Disk Utility in the menu bar once you have booted the OS X installation CD/DVD. I found it intuitive and self-explanatory, especially if you have previous experience with DOS fdisk
Dis Utility cannot change a disk's layout afterwards without erasing the entire disk. This is, however, possible with 3rd party disk utilities.
Arden
Where mah "any" keys at?
The first step is always back up anything important.
Next, I recommend for a 40 GB hard drive that you create a partition of 4 GB for OS X and 1 GB for OS 9 if you're installing it, and a partition of 35 or 36 GB for your data and applications. Run Disk Utility and set each partition to HFS+ (not HFS or UFS).
It never hurts to keep your OS separate from everything else. You can install X onto the 5 GB partition, and it will install everything it needs, then you can see what it installs and what other applications install simply by what's been separated out. I recommend you don't install anything else onto this drive (unless it pertains to the system), and that you don't move anything off of it. You may need to sort through it later down the road, and this way it's a lot easier.
Next, I recommend for a 40 GB hard drive that you create a partition of 4 GB for OS X and 1 GB for OS 9 if you're installing it, and a partition of 35 or 36 GB for your data and applications. Run Disk Utility and set each partition to HFS+ (not HFS or UFS).
It never hurts to keep your OS separate from everything else. You can install X onto the 5 GB partition, and it will install everything it needs, then you can see what it installs and what other applications install simply by what's been separated out. I recommend you don't install anything else onto this drive (unless it pertains to the system), and that you don't move anything off of it. You may need to sort through it later down the road, and this way it's a lot easier.
Pengu
Digital Music Pimp
Personally, for ease of use, etc. I have a 20gb drive, in to partitions, 1 is a 2gig UFS for my home (i changed the info in NetInfo) The rest of that drive is for OSX, and applications are installed to the defaul location, on the system partition. the other drive, a 40gig, is one partition with my music, downloaded installers/disk images etc on it.
bobw
The Late: SuperMacMod
I have a 60GB as my main disk and two others for backup. The 60Gb isn't partitioned. OS 9.2.2 is on one of the other disks. One partition on another disk is for duplicating my main OS X disk. For saftey, I would recommend getting another disk to clone your main disk. Partitions are good, but if the drive fails, all is lost.
You see my info below. The three drives partitioned as....
Disc1
Urbansory (OS X) 7gb
Urbansory (OS 9) 6.5gb
Scratch Bin 15 gb
Disc2
Urban Storage 15.6gb
Urbansory NM 12.2gb
Disc3
Backup 10gig no partition
Now i have a ton of apps on my X partition, I think i should have made it 10gb, but I still have 3 gb free on that partition. And when it comes to a problem, one partition can die and the others will still be going long enough to make repairs.
Disc1
Urbansory (OS X) 7gb
Urbansory (OS 9) 6.5gb
Scratch Bin 15 gb
Disc2
Urban Storage 15.6gb
Urbansory NM 12.2gb
Disc3
Backup 10gig no partition
Now i have a ton of apps on my X partition, I think i should have made it 10gb, but I still have 3 gb free on that partition. And when it comes to a problem, one partition can die and the others will still be going long enough to make repairs.
Yeah, I thought it is best to keep personal data on a smaller seperate partition. So, it is ok to just have OSX on it's own partition and then an apps partition for any 3rd party music software, games, adobe stuff, etc.? (kind of sensing mixed answers...) This is how I do it on my soon to be banished PC, but I didn't know how much it really helped. It is nice to keep personal and MP3s on seperate partitions... I have another question on this subject:
If reinstalling OSX and you have a seperate partition for apps are they still functional after a reinstall? I think OS9 they would be ok, but I wasn't sure how stuff installs on OSX? Is it still "basically" drag and drop? I hope there isn't some lame uninstaller like Windoz junk when you want to remove apps.
Also, I had watched the IT guy one time at work as he reinstalled everything on my MAC to change partitions and it totally kicked ass on f-disk!
If reinstalling OSX and you have a seperate partition for apps are they still functional after a reinstall? I think OS9 they would be ok, but I wasn't sure how stuff installs on OSX? Is it still "basically" drag and drop? I hope there isn't some lame uninstaller like Windoz junk when you want to remove apps.
Also, I had watched the IT guy one time at work as he reinstalled everything on my MAC to change partitions and it totally kicked ass on f-disk!
As I already said, there's quite a lot of software which simply refuses to install to a partition different from the system partition. Some examples:
* almost everything from Apple
* Steinberg software, e.g. Cubase SX
* Roxio Toast Titanium
* Utilities such as Logitech Mouse Software
I would take this into account regarding how much space you reserve for the system partition.
* almost everything from Apple
* Steinberg software, e.g. Cubase SX
* Roxio Toast Titanium
* Utilities such as Logitech Mouse Software
I would take this into account regarding how much space you reserve for the system partition.
Regarding your other Q: There is no installer database as on Windows. Uninstalling software is just deleting it. However, things have become a bit more complex in OS X because some apps require more than just the executable files (e.g. system-specific preferences, user-specific preferences, additional libraries and stuff like that). This means that you have to look into different places for related files if you really want to entirely undo an installed software. The locations in question are, however, obvious once you know them (mainly the system-wide as well as the user-specific Library directories).
I've never felt the need to partition my disk. Follow the KISS principle--keep it simple! There is little benefit to trying to decide in advance how to dedicate your disk space.
The few exceptions to this rule are if you want to install separate systems, for testing or backup.
The few exceptions to this rule are if you want to install separate systems, for testing or backup.
Cool, Thanx for clairifying that, that's what I figured you were getting at. If partitioning you have to keep this in mind to allow for programs you may want to add that insist on being within the system. I'm really looking forward to getting an ibook very soon! I'm trying to get ahead start on my sytem setup, thanx for all your help!!!