Partitioning on Macs

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I'm switching to a MacPro next week, and I was wondering how I should approach partitioning on that system. On PC's I've always had a system partition with nothing but the OS on it, a software partition and various storage partitions (Video, MP3, Audio, Downloads etc.) The Mac I'm getting comes with a 640GB HD, and I'm adding a 250GB one I've got lying around.

To tell the truth, I'm clueless about how this is normally done on an audio-oriented Mac computer, so any suggestions are welcome. I was thinking of having a 300GB partition for the OS and programs, 340GB partition for audio use, and dedicating the 250GB hard drive for storing videos, music, photos and shit. I know it's usually preferred to dedicate an independent HD for the audio stuff, but the drive is a couple of years old already, so I don't trust it enough to hold important things (and yes, I am aware of backups )

Thanks!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Partitioning on the mac is really simple man, I don't personally run any partitions myself (I just have 3 internal drives) but it's really simple using the disk utility.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Partitioning on the mac is really simple man, I don't personally run any partitions myself (I just have 3 internal drives) but it's really simple using the disk utility.

Yeah, I know I meant the partition scheme itself, like should I have different partitions for the system and the software in case OS X needs to be reinstalled etc.

 

[mick thompson]

i think what you plan is fine:

300GB partition for the OS and programs
340GB partition for audio use
250GB for crap

the only thing im thinking about is if you could instead dedicate the secondary drive to audio (or your OS) - as in try to keep them separate. i think if you do that your going to keep your read/write times much quicker. because if the computer is trying to access plugins & audio file (which could be on either end of the drive because mac's only defrag up to 20 or 25mb's your going to get some slow down in your response time. also i would dedicate the faster drive (with more RPM's) to your audio files allowing for quicker access to read & write. that way could could minimize your delay of file write conformation to the faster drive if say your jumping into a recording half way

so your above partitions i think are fine but choose the quickest drive for your audio files and make sure you have a decent amount of RAM - that way you take the strain off your hard drives being used as backup RAM which in turn seriously slows down computers

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

i think what you plan is fine:

300GB partition for the OS and programs
340GB partition for audio use
250GB for crap

the only thing im thinking about is if you could instead dedicate the secondary drive to audio (or your OS) - as in try to keep them separate. i think if you do that your going to keep your read/write times much quicker. because if the computer is trying to access plugins & audio file (which could be on either end of the drive because mac's only defrag up to 20 or 25mb's your going to get some slow down in your response time. also i would dedicate the faster drive (with more RPM's) to your audio files allowing for quicker access to read & write. that way could could minimize your delay of file write conformation to the faster drive if say your jumping into a recording half way

so your above partitions i think are fine but choose the quickest drive for your audio files and make sure you have a decent amount of RAM - that way you take the strain off your hard drives being used as backup RAM which in turn seriously slows down computers

Cheers for the response! But as I said: "I know it's usually preferred to dedicate an independent HD for the audio stuff, but the drive is a couple of years old already, so I don't trust it enough to hold important things (and yes, I am aware of backups )"

It would be a good idea to dedicate the spare drive to the OS, but unfortunately I can't do it :/ The thing is, when I ordered the Mac, I asked if they could provide it with 10.5 instead of 10.6, which is the default version with new Macs. They agreed to install 10.5 and provide the 10.6 separately, so if I got it right, I won't have the 10.5 install medium and it's already installed on the stock HD.

Oh, BTW, can OS X partition a HD "on the fly" if the OS is already installed? Just want to make sure

 

[Nitsuj]

I'm switching to a MacPro next week, and I was wondering how I should approach partitioning on that system. On PC's I've always had a system partition with nothing but the OS on it, a software partition and various storage partitions (Video, MP3, Audio, Downloads etc.) The Mac I'm getting comes with a 640GB HD, and I'm adding a 250GB one I've got lying around.

To tell the truth, I'm clueless about how this is normally done on an audio-oriented Mac computer, so any suggestions are welcome. I was thinking of having a 300GB partition for the OS and programs, 340GB partition for audio use, and dedicating the 250GB hard drive for storing videos, music, photos and shit. I know it's usually preferred to dedicate an independent HD for the audio stuff, but the drive is a couple of years old already, so I don't trust it enough to hold important things (and yes, I am aware of backups )

Thanks!

Here's what I've read up on how the audio guys partition their drives. I'm using this approach and its pretty zippy. The system drive will be for OSX & apps and the secondary drive (1TB, 7200rpm) will be partitioned three ways with Disk Utility in this particular order because data will be accessed and read/written first.

The 1st partition will be the Project drive partitioned at 20 gig. Everytime you want to work on a project, just copy the project folder into this drive rather than work on it in a larger partitioned disk.

The 2nd partition will be for all your SAMPLES. I left mine at about 160 gig which is more than sufficient space.

And lastly the 3rd partition will be your data storage, downloads, watever. These files are accessed last.

This works very well for me and it doesn't put a strain on the system drive. Get a secondary drive for a couple more bucks. It will be worth your while.

Lastly, I don't think you can partition a drive that already has OSX residing. You'll probably need to boot from system install disks and partition it or do a bootcamp assistant. It will partition the system drive to whatever size you want.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Lastly, I don't think you can partition a drive that already has OSX residing. You'll probably need to boot from system install disks and partition it or do a bootcamp assistant. It will partition the system drive to whatever size you want.

Damn. I found this, though: http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/cli/nondestructively_resizing_volumes

So hopefully it's possible.

 

[Nitsuj]

Damn. I found this, though: http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/cli/nondestructively_resizing_volumes

So hopefully it's possible.

Just tried it and resized to whatever. Didnt work for me. It is non destructive however and u might be able to do it since your system is all new

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Just tried it and resized to whatever. Didnt work for me. It is non destructive however and u might be able to do it since your system is all new

Apparently it is possible to resize the system partition with BootCamp and then create a new partition from the remaining unpartitioned space. Hope it works!