[Mac+]

I have an external Maxtor 250GB firewire drive partioned in the following ways:

10 Applications
10 OS X
50 Backup home
100 Backup iLife
30 archives
33 work in progress (the remainder of the disk space)

It does not equal 250 GB in total, I presume b/c of indexing or some such reason.

Anyway, I want to now split the "Backup home drive" into two equal partitions (25GB each), b/c I will create another user when I install 10.3.

My TiPB HD is only 20GB, and the drive called "Backup home" now holds way more than this - so I can only think of transferrng these files to the "Backup iLife" partition (which has plenty of free space) before performing the split of "Backup home" and then copying the files back to one of the newly partitioned home drives once it has been split.

My main question is - can I split the present home drive and not affect the other partioned drives, or will this process, wipe the external drive clean before beginning the reorganisation? If the latter is the case, then I will need to get all my data off the external HD somehow before doing the "reorg" and I have no idea how to accomplish this. Btw, am I correct in choosing Mac OS Extended for each of these partitions?

I'm also thinking of changing "work in progress" partition to a free space partition. How does this work exactly? Can you access free space via the Finder? Or, am I best advised to leave that drive as it is (the remainder of what is left after the partitioning has been done) and use it for files that are currently being worked upon?

Thanks for the help,
Mac+

[ast3r3x]

There is a program called VolumeWorks which will allow you to change partitions without loosing data.

site about it

$60 is a decent price for such a useful peace of software. I can give you more information about getting it if you want to IM me. ast3r3x of course.

[thuh Freak]

it is possible to repartition with a program like fdisk (the gnu/linux version atleast). i'm pretty sure that i have done it with pdisk (which is basically very similar to fdisk). i think its possible to do it for free. learning pdisk isn't too hard if you aren't afraid of the command line. i seem to recall that it was a bit iffy though, like there may be some kind of warning that you could potentially lose all your data. i recommend you atleast boot off another drive before attempting to partition it (that's probably going to be a requirement of any program that touches the drive).

but why? why partition the drive at all? theres only a few places i can think of where it makes sense: when u want to install two OSes on one hard drive, or setting up a daemon and limiting its available hd space. imo, partitioning a drive for organization is a bad idea. inevitably you'll want to re-partition (as you do now) and that has the potential of destroying your data.

[ast3r3x]

Partitioning into sections for apps, section for music...ect ect isn't really a good idea. When you start to grow toward the limit of your partition, you'll really wish that you hadn't of done that. OS X, and a lot better then OS 9, has a place for everything...and everything should be in it's place

Partitions are only useful for different OS's.

The reason you don't get the full 250GB is because the drive manufacturers are assuming a GB = 1000000000 bytes, when it's really equal to 1,073,741,824. I think that is it anyways. Either way do the math you'll see, that's the reason, maybe my math is wrong.

[staph]

ast3r3x: you're wrong since they redefined "gigabyte" "megabyte" and "kilobyte" to suit the gross consumer fraud of the hard drive manufacturers.

What you're thinking of are the "gibibytes" "mibibytes" and "kibibytes".

Go figure.

[thuh Freak]

K=thou, M=million, G=billion, etcetera. the hard drive manufacturers use the proper scientific terms. but software writers for the longest time referred to 1024 bytes as a kilobyte, and 1024 kilos as a meg, and 1024 megs as a giga and so on (for stupid reasons yet to be fully understood; well the reason is just stupid even though i think i understand it). more recently the terms gibi (ie, GiB), and kibi (KiB) and such have been used to refer to the 1024 versions. these versions are not very popular.

basically, on the drive it is properly listed, but 90% of the time you'll probably forget about that and then realize that you "lose" a few % when its on the computer. some of it is actually lost to formatting/journaling. its the operating system (ie, software developers) who have lied, not the hdwr manufacturers.

sometimes, and u wont notice unless ur looking for it, the small print somewhere will define the terms. so if they want 1GB=456bits, they'll write that.

[Luca]

Yeah, what are all those partitions for? I could see creating two, MAYBE three partitions, but that much is nuts.

I keep one 20 GB partition for my OS install and my applications, and the rest of my 200 GB hard drive is data. That way, if I ever have to wipe and reinstall the OS, I won't lose anything. Oh yeah, and with any applications I don't have CDs for, I will keep copies of the installers on my storage drive.

I could see maybe using a third partition as a general "backup" space, but that's about it.

[Majost]

Today's Pick of the Week over at www.macosxhints.com is iPartition. $35, and Rob gives it a full fledged 10/10. That's not an easy thing.

Direct link here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...41130014827278

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by thuh Freak ... [snip] ... but why? why partition the drive at all? theres only a few places i can think of where it makes sense: when u want to install two OSes on one hard drive, or setting up a daemon and limiting its available hd space. imo, partitioning a drive for organization is a bad idea. inevitably you'll want to re-partition (as you do now) and that has the potential of destroying your data.

Originally Posted by Luca Yeah, what are all those partitions for? I could see creating two, MAYBE three partitions, but that much is nuts. I keep one 20 GB partition for my OS install and my applications, and the rest of my 200 GB hard drive is data. That way, if I ever have to wipe and reinstall the OS, I won't lose anything. Oh yeah, and with any applications I don't have CDs for, I will keep copies of the installers on my storage drive. I could see maybe using a third partition as a general "backup" space, but that's about it.

Thanks "Freak" and Luca.

I wanted to keep an iLife drive separate for iTunes pretty much so I could store all of our CDs we have to rip onto it. I thought this would take up heaps and heaps of storage and didn't want to have to access this as a general disk drive when playing music. I also thought that the work in progress drive would be a good place to do some audio recording - and once the songs are finished then I could transfer them to the backup area. I thought this would be the best way to go in case that partition of the drive got corrupted it would not affect any other stored or archived work. The separate OS X and applications partition is silly though - I should have kept that as just one.

You are correct though - in that now I wish to reorganise my drive. Am I correct in reading your advice as keeping 3 partitions only:
20 OS X install (including applications)
200 Backup of home - including all of iTunes and current audio recording
30 "the archives"

Also, what is the difference between free space and partitioning the rest of the disk with a title of free space. I am confused about this distinction.

Finally - Luca - are you saying you keep the disk images of those applications you don't have CDs for (internet downloads I guess) on your 200MB partition?

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by ast3r3x Partitioning into sections for apps, section for music...ect ect isn't really a good idea. When you start to grow toward the limit of your partition, you'll really wish that you hadn't of done that. OS X, and a lot better then OS 9, has a place for everything...and everything should be in it's place Partitions are only useful for different OS's. The reason you don't get the full 250GB is because the drive manufacturers are assuming a GB = 1000000000 bytes, when it's really equal to 1,073,741,824. I think that is it anyways. Either way do the math you'll see, that's the reason, maybe my math is wrong.

Thanks for this advice too ast3r3x and for the offer of "acquiring" Volume Works ... I might pass on it presently though.

[Luca]

Originally Posted by Mac+ Also, what is the difference between free space and partitioning the rest of the disk with a title of free space. I am confused about this distinction. Finally - Luca - are you saying you keep the disk images of those applications you don't have CDs for (internet downloads I guess) on your 200MB partition?

The way you are using "free space," I assume you mean "unpartitioned space." That is, space that you didn't create a partition in. If a space is not partitioned, then it can't be accessed, period. You have to create a partition and name it "free space" (or whatever you want) and that will be accessible as another volume.

Yes, I keep all the installers for my applications (shareware and freeware stuff that I downloaded, as well as updates for applications and the OS) on my extra 170 GB partition. That way, I can wipe the 20 GB startup partition if need be, and have everything reinstalled in a snap if I want.

[thuh Freak]

first, "free space" is space that is on the hard drive but effectively unavailable by the OS (and thus any program running). leave as little free space as possible, as it is just a waste. its merely an indicator, during partition, to see how much of the hd is left to use.

second, the "Backup of Home" partition puzzles me (i may have missd something thoguh). where is your actual home dirs going to be? i ask because there is little benefit to backing up data on two separate partitions on the same physical piece of hard ware (ie, if the drive fails, ur sol no matter what partition its on).

i've never really done any tests, but i wouldn't be surprised if partitioning doesn't really affect accessing the drive. not entirely sure, but i suspect that access to any part of the drive will probably have to be queued up by the kernel, just the same as if all were on one partition. i could be wrong on this though.

i recommend, if possible, you format it all as one partition.

[Luca]

Yes, I've found that in OS X, it's best to just leave one partition since it's so picky about where you put stuff. Applications get weird if they're not in /Applications. iTunes, iPhoto, and plenty of other apps insist on putting everything in /Users/Home. Also, OS X has the archive install feature, which lets you basically reset the OS to a factory installation without affecting your data. If your hardware is hosed, you're screwed no matter what like thuh Freak said.

I find the extra partition very helpful for me in Windows. First of all, Windows is less picky about where you put stuff. I can't think of an app that doesn't let you choose the installation folder. So if I install something big, like a game, I just enter DGames\Warcraft or whatever. And since I am not really confident in Windows to be problem-free, this allows me to wipe and install quickly.