to partition or not to partition?...

[krossfyter]

ambitious lemon... I went to your site...good site man. Im learning from the info you have there. Thanks for making it open to everyone.


Right now im trying to figure out wither I should partition my hardrive...if it be wise anotherwards. Since Im a graphic designer I use photoshop 6, illustrator 9, 10 and dreamweaver 4....and i love to use osx....and with most of the new apps comming out for osx..ie phothoshop 7. I was wondering if I could get some advice on what I should do about wither i should or shouldnt partition my harddrive and if i should how to do it? My computer is new so i havent put much on the harddrive.

 

[Ensign Paris]

For OSX I find there is no other way other that partition. Every machine I have not partitioned for OSX and OS9 I have had problems with.

Ensign

 

[krossfyter]

Okay ensign..so I guess I should do it. Now the question is....how do I do it considering I need step by step instructions since im not a tech person like most of you all. This is why im asking. Thanks ensign.

 

[Ensign Paris]

Try going to -
http://www.brooklineuk.com/YMUG/securearea/archives/Special/YMUG_Guide_to_Partitoning.pdf

A few guys from my local Mac User Group put this togethor a few months back for people thinging of partitioning.

Hope this helps.
Ensign

 

[AlphaTech]

no way

Ever since the first official release of OS X, I have not made multiple partitions on ANY system that runs OS 9 and X. I have not had any problems, or performance issues with doing this. I truly appreciate having one large hard drive, especially when dealing with storing large files. I make disk images for 700MB cd burns and need to keep them in one place. If I partition up my drive(s), then I would either fill up one partition, or have to do it unevenly.

It is also a pain in the royal backside if you start running out of space on one parition and need to do it over again to change the way it is set up.

My advice is to leave the drive the way it shipped from Apple. There is a reason why they do it the way they do.

 

[krossfyter]

Thanks ensign. I read some of that pdf file and I was a bit intimidated but I understood more about why one would partition.

Alpha Tech....

So you wrok succesfully without one...hmmm... i wonder if I could do that.
Being that learning how to partition seems a bit daunting I might just keep it all together...no illusionary hardrives. THere is one thing you said that I did not understand.... "I make disk images for 700MB cd burns and need to keep them in one place"
what do you mean by that?

I have 30gb hardrive on my tibook and I have an external 30gb maxtor hardrive. Also I have a combo drive. How should I go about backing up my documents, web,videos, graphics...etc..etc. for my graphic design work?

 

[AlphaTech]

What I mean is that I make cd's that fit onto the 700MB blanks. I am in charge of making the utility cd's at work for the tech's at two sites. I found that the extra 50MB is highly needed. I believe that I had a few MB free on the last version I created (for a 700MB cd). I need to keep them all organized so that I can quickly find what I need. Currently, at work, my 60GB hard drive is over 50% filled with stuff I need to keep on there. I do a tape archive every month or so, that way I don't have to worry too much about loosing everything.

You can set the disk image size either in Toast, or with Disk Copy (under OS 9).

I am also making the installer for all the software we own for the site I work at, and possible the one in Boston too. While the one where I work only uses about 335MB at present, I do not know how big Boston's will be. They have many copies of the same application that get used by different divisions and need to be seperate (different serial numbers).

For archiving your own files, it depends on how large the largest file will be. If you don't expect to see over 690MB (+/- 5 to 10MB) then you could just burn cd's. Get the 700MB cd's though. They cost the same, and the extra 50MB could save your bacon. If you are talking about doing the entire drive at one shot, then it all depends on how much you want to spend... Apple offers a tape drive through their store that can hold up to 66GB (with 2:1 compression) that is the Ecrix VXA-1 Firewire tape backup drive. More info can be found either at the Apple online store or at http://www.vxa.com/products/vxa-1-desc.cfm. It goes for about $1000, unless you can get in on the eval program (not sure if it is still running).

 

[jvaska]

cool...

damn i'm finding this site useful...

i'm in a similar situation as kross...but something i've been thinking about doing is setting up a mirror drive so all my work is automatically backed up to a second drive i have...and then i back up that onto cd occasionally...i had a pretty serious crash (meaning lost work) about a year or so ago...so backing up is a priority...

but i'm not sure just how to set up a mirror drive? do i use retrospect? any ideas out there? alphatec mentioned mirrors but i didn't quite understand what was being said...jv

 

[AlphaTech]

jvaska, no where have I mentioned mirroring drives.

If you really want to set up a RAID with mirroring, then get a RAID card, at least 2 or 3 drives identical to the one you have now and set up a RAID system. You can find the cards on Sonnet's web site (http://www.sonnettech.com) as well as elsewhere. OS X has a RAID software solution buit into it. If you want more options, then get other software. I saw a package for sale at the Apple retail store that was RAID software (level 0 and 1).

If you just want to back up a bunch o' data, then get a device that will handle your drive size. Apple has at least one listed on their web site in the store under storage. It will handle up to 33GB or 66GB (uncompressed/compressed).

Retrospect should be used for archiving only, not setting up hard drive mirroring or a RAID system.

 

[jvaska]

yeah...RAID...that's it...

sounds like it would be overkill for me at this point...but not too far from now i'll need something like this...maybe i'll just pay an expert on here to get me through it...

thanks for the info...jv

 

[AlphaTech]

One issue you might encounter with doing the RAID later is you need at least two drives to do it. In order to incorporate your current hard drive (that comes with the system), you will have to wipe it and loose everything on it (part of the RAID setup).

If you just want to add faster, stronger, better storage, then get external drives as you go. You can get the large VST drives, and stack those into a RAID setup (VST offers the software at a discount when you purchase more then one drive).

Just things to think about as you go.