Please let me add a couple variations on a theme. I have a g4
QuickSilver with two internal hard drives, both 40 GB. The Main Drive,
a Seagate, is the operational one, with OS X 10.3.7, OS 9.2.2, all
applications including Classic ones, and all data going back to the
days of the LC. The other drive, the original IBM which came with the
machine, is now in three partitions. One partition still has OS 9, the
OS 9 applications, and the data as of the time I installed OS X on the
Seagate over a year ago. That partition has plenty of space so I use
it to backup the data from the main drive. And occasionally I backup
data, including Mail, to CDs. The second partition on the IBM is OS X
Emergency for testing and playing around. The third partition is
Scratch for Photoshop Elements which runs on the Main Drive.
A few more comments below.
On Oct 24, 2005, at 11:24 PM, G-List wrote:
Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:02:33 -0600
From: Doug McNutt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [G] How many partisions?
At 19:58 -0400 10/24/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
--Just got a new 100 GB HDD for my G4 Sawtooth. The old 60 GB (which
is going
to another Mac) has three partitions: one for OS's and applications;
one for
data; and a scratch volume. I am presently running 9.2.2 but plan to
switch to
10.3.9 as my main OS on this machine during the next week or so.
I assume you're not taking about 10.4 because you need to talk to Macs
running on OS less than 9. It's a logical choice that I have taken.
I understand it is best to keep the OS X applications and the "regular"
data files on the same volume as the OS X. OS X does very nicely in
managing the data files and preventing fragmentation. Partitioning a
drive for these functions is not as important with OS X as it was with
the legacy OSs. But, some users who have enough video and music data
to fill up hard drives find it best to keep that stuff on separate
drives (not partitions on the main drive).
The OS's, Apps and utilities can be backed up to DVD's and/or another
drive
as needed when changes are made.
Naah. Just plan on re-installing from original media.
This is the situation that I am in. Consider carefully what you need
to update the OSs and the applications. For software upgrades and
updates, I do not like to allow the downloads on the fly which
simultaneously update the software. Rather, whenever possible, and
always with Apple software, I identify what updates I need as time goes
by and then I download the software packages. After opening the
packages to update the computer, I archive the packages in case I need
to use them again. No downloading a second time.
However, I would prefer, if I ever get around to it, to use Carbon Copy
Cloner or a similar backup tool that can deal with OS X hidden files,
to make full, bootable backups of the OS and applications.
Soooo.......... Should I continue with my three partition system (I
don't
like the desktop clutter) or just have everything on one 100 GB
volume???
The scratch partition is unnecessary. There seems to be no reason in
OS neXt for a swap partition and I donno how to tell the OS to use it
anyway.
Many experts say that using a scratch partition for the OS is best left
to experts and not for casual users. If the scratch partition is for
Photoshop or a similar application, you tell the application to use
that space. By all means do that.
The G4 will handle another - slave - ATA drive internally. Are you
sure you don't want to leave the 60G there?
Excellent question. You could have one volume on your new drive, and
split the smaller drive into partitions. One alternative for the
smaller drive is to put it into an external Firewire enclosure and make
it bootable as well as serving for scratch and backup purposes. If you
Sawtooth dies, or the new hard drive suffers a catastrophe, your
external drive can run on another Mac very readily. Perhaps I should
plan to do that too.
Al Poulin
Anger, hate, and revenge are for the devil, forgiveness is for God,
proactive self-defense is for the rest of us.
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