i find it very useful to have at least 2 boot partitions setup, that way when the one you normally use gets corrupted you can still boot on the other one (usually if the one you've selected doesn't work the machine will switch to another partition, if available), or you can boot to the alternate boot partition and use disk repair tools on the first/primary boot partition without having to boot to a cdrom that has the repair utilities (diskwarrior is good, but you still need apple's disk first aid sometimes). doing the repair work from another partition is not only easier than booting to a cd, but much faster since the hard drive is faster than the cd rom drive.
beyond that, it depends on what you're doing with the machine. i do several different types of things and have separate partitions to help me keep things organized, for instance i have one with all my various utility software and applications i use often, one for software and hardware development, another just for technical information relating to macs and computers in general, a "misc." catch all partition for assorted weirdness, one that i store my graphic programs and graphics files on, one that just has information and programs relating to "cnc" (computer controlled mills and lathes for metal working and such), a spare partition that's a little larger than a cd or dvd so i can collect files there to burn onto a disc, and another small partition just for my web applications like browsers and download managers. you don't have to have all those partitions, you can do much the same thing just by creating multiple folders in one partition, but this helps me use sherlock to find things faster without having it sift through the whole drive. in any case, a second boot partition with all your' disk repair utilities (which should also be on the main boot partition) is a very good idea, even if the primary boot patron can't be fixed this at least gives you a way to access all of your data and worst case you can erase the primary partition and reinstall the os there. you will eventually want diskwarrior or something similar (disk warrior and apple's disk first aid are the best however, imho). if you've no idea how much space to allocate for different things using multiple folders is best since you can't easily change the size of a partition without backing everything up, repartitioning, and restoring everything. in any case, depending on what you will be doing 20G is huge, the machine i'm using right now has a 26G drive and i've got it pretty full, but i do collect a lot of information and do a lot of different things on it. 20G still isn't puny, and such drives are still being made even though there are "huge" 160G+ drives available now, but a casual user is unlikely to need that much storage. if multiple people/family members will use it you might also consider setting each user up with their own partition (including the os and extensions), that way they won't cause problems for each other. ------ > >I was recently given a Beige G3 Mini Tower. It did not have a hard > >drive installed. With the computer came a Seagate IDE 20 gig HD > >which I plan to install and initialize. I have never had a HD so > >large although it is modest by contemporary standards. I plan to > >install OS 9. I think I should partition the hard drive but I am not > >sure how many partitions to install. ------- -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
