The Authoritative Partitioning Discussion

mr. k · #1 November 3rd, 2003, 09:35 PM

Well. In anticipation of getting panther (and it looks like I'm also gonna get a 40GB firewire HD too) I want to do everything it takes to optimize my aging iMac and keep all my data safe. I've been reading up on partitioning - and among the 50 threads here about partitioning at least 20 of them just ask if you can partition your drive without wiping the data on it. Most of the other threads aren't too helpful, and after some googling and a search over at macosxhints.com I figured I would come here to try and get a consensus.
Of all the reasons to partition a disk the reason I find most compelling is separating the system from my applications and users, so I can overwrite the system without copying my data all over the place next time I need to install a new OS. Another advantage looks like creating a swap drive, which is covered in an article at resexcellence.com.
I was thinking about creating three partitions --

System (5GB)
Data (34GB)
Swap (1GB)

I don't do much video editing, nor do I photoshop outrageously large images, so I don't believe I would need a scratch drive, and don't want to go crazy with partitions and have one for each users and applications and documents and developer...
But because I will probably have to live with this computer until I go off to college and I don't want to have to mess with is all the time I just want to create the best scenario now. I wanted to get some feedback on how big the system partition should be, if all it will actually hold is /System and /Library. I think I will set fink up on the Data partition, and just link it to the / directory for simplicity.

Urbansory · #2 November 3rd, 2003, 09:57 PM

Well I would go...

System 7gb
Data1... your choices
Data2.... same
Swap/ downloads 5gb

I like to have more than one place to store data just in case i have a partition crash, I know I SHOULD have saved a copy to a back-up partition. And i like to keep anything i download away from my work files, because if i lose the downloads, who cares, I can download them again, losing work is a major set back.

I have 6 partitions over 3 hard drives.

System - 7gb
OS 9 and X apps - 6.5
Scratch Bin - 15
Data - 15
Data 2 - 12
Backup - 10

I have had problems where i lost a partition, but salvaged data to another partition. I keep all my apps that are not installed with the OS off the system partition, after reinstalls... my apps are already in place and ready to go. i also have a backup disc image of these apps on Data2, just in case my OS9 partition goes down, which it recently did, so that worked out great.

Pengu · #3 November 4th, 2003, 02:22 AM

I have a slightly simpler setup, which will chage soon when I get a new 80/100/120 gig drive.
I have a 20Gb drive split into 1gb for my Home dir, (this could be used for multiple users if need be) and the rest for the system and apps (if the system is reinstalled, it's often helpful to reinstall your apps as well) and i also have a 40 gb drive which is currently used just for other data, like music (25 gb is too much for home drive) music videos, web sites for people, downloaded installers and updates, stuff like that.

Once i have the new drive, I'm going to simplify it to 20Gb Drive, unpartitioned: System, Applications, etc. (everything except MY Home basically)
80/100/120Gb Drive, unpartitioned: My Home drive, with all music, videos, work files, installers, etc.
40Gb: probably used for emergency or backup space.
I used to use a small partition on a seperate drive for a swap drive, but after a re-install of the system, i decided it really wasn't worth the hassle on my system. you may find greater speed increases, but it only really helps when it's on a different drive and i wouldn't suggest putting either your system or swap drive on a firewire drive.

Arden · #4 November 4th, 2003, 06:08 AM

Ask Jason about his partitioning setup. Geez!

bobw · #5 November 4th, 2003, 10:03 AM

Mr K

Don't go by the article at resexcellence.com. It is way out dated. Panther defrags automatically.

You can't repartition a drive without reformatting.

If I were you, I would use the enitre new drive without partitioning, for Panther. There's no real advantage in what you'lll be doing, and I think you'll find the machine will seem a bit faster doing it this way.

I would use CCC to clone this new Panther drive to the exisitng drive for an exact backup, incase of problems.

When the time comes that you will want to install a new system, you'll have everything on the bacjkup drive, just incase you decide to wipe the main drive for a clean install. You can move back things from that drive. Just make sure to use CCC every couple of weeks to have a current backup.

toast · #6 November 4th, 2003, 10:24 AM

I have Panther disk (17Gb) and Classic disk (2Gb or so).
This works quite well, although I'm planning to abandon Classic if I can have Unreal Tournament running fast enough in Panther.

mr. k · #7 November 4th, 2003, 04:04 PM

OK, what I really wanted to know was if it's better to partition the drive if all I'm gonna do is use some cute tricks to trick the system into looking like it's got the default tree structure (/users even though users is at /volumes/data/users, /applications at /volumes/data/application...). I can see where it would be useful, you could overwrite the system partition without backing up and copying over the data partition. But is bobw right? Is it really worth it to break the disk up into partitions? Does it take more time then it's worth?
Right now I'm leaning toward partitioning it as above. And bob - I thought that the whole point of the swap disk was so things that were supposed to happen in memory but couldn't fit into your available ram were written to a somewhat random sector of your hard disk which was slow, and could cause minor fragmentation. And why let the fragmentation happen in the first place, when you can prevent it?

Urbansory · #8 November 4th, 2003, 05:40 PM

Yea you will need to reformat, can't get around that. It is easy and takes virtually no time to setup. As simple as selecting the number of partitions and setting their sizes.

I believe it is worth it for the reasons i noted. As far as the swap files, I don't worry about those, because my system partition has more than enough room. i use the scratch bin for scratch disc space # 1, then my others as 2nd and 3rd discs for scratch.

I have a lot of memory, something i was told at my first professional job, you can never have enough memory, and that still holds true to this day. So i rarely swap out, unless i have a lot of Apps open that are using up a lot of my resources.

Long story short, I would make that system partition a bit larger, just in case you need that extra space, basically breathing room for the system to write data freely as needed in a wide space, than a small space where it needs to jump all over to save this data.