Best boot drive and how to partition?

What would be the fastest boot drive I have been looking
at the 1tb seagate?
How do you partition the drive so the partition with applications and software is on the
outer edge of the disc?

Asked so often, have you looked at some of the threads in the last weeks?
http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?objID=c194&search=Go&q=boot+drive

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Mirrorerd boot drive and separate service partition - unsupported ?!?

Hello
i have setup my SL MacMini (2 internal HDs) in a way that I have splitt the harddrives into two parttitions and mirrored them.
Which is possible in the Installer (and even with Lion) . Which gives you the layout shown below. On the seperat partition are also all service data (Mail,Web,...).
From the beginning I had once per month one partition dropping out of the mirror. it was always the same partition/disk having issues.
It was no problem getting it back via: "diskutil appleraid repairmirror 5B12C7D9-89DC-4593-8BEB-28B3F6F6C5FA disk1s2".
As the frequency has gone up i decided to give the MacMini to AppleCare. They found that the motherboard had some issues and exchanged it. But they also mentioned that this way of setting up the drives is unsupported by Apple. You always have to use the full harddrives and mirror them.
Can anyone confirm this ?
For me this sounds stupid. Any process from a user filling up the the homedirectory will make the full system unusable.
Yours
Wieland
P.S.: By exchanging the motherboard the issue didnt go away.
[macmini:~] % diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_RAID                         120.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OSX                134.2 MB   disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_RAID                         379.5 GB   disk0s4
   5:                 Apple_Boot Boot OSX                134.2 MB   disk0s5
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_RAID                         120.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OSX                134.2 MB   disk1s3
   4:                 Apple_RAID                         379.6 GB   disk1s4
   5:                 Apple_Boot Boot OSX                134.2 MB   disk1s5
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS mirror                 *379.5 GB   disk2
/dev/disk5
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS server                 *120.0 GB   disk5
[macmini:~] % diskutil appleraid list
AppleRAID sets (2 found)
===============================================================================
Name:                 server
Unique ID:            8FA04354-2C35-4A13-A7ED-FA74B3F8CE1C
Type:                 Mirror
Status:               Online
Size:                 120.0 GB (119999987712 Bytes)
Rebuild:              automatic
Device Node:          disk5
#   Device Node       UUID                                   Status
0   disk0s2           DA38BBE3-041C-402A-87EC-074FDE9800EC   Online
1   disk1s2           4D77F50D-48E8-4051-BEF4-0A42EED309E8   Online
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Name:                 mirror_i
Unique ID:            FFEBF2F1-8718-41ED-8032-FD7BE5FA74A0
Type:                 Mirror
Status:               Online
Size:                 379.5 GB (379521794048 Bytes)
Rebuild:              automatic
Device Node:          disk2
#   Device Node       UUID                                   Status
0   disk0s4           57636927-E251-4443-901B-466242D5E4D0   Online
1   disk1s4           DF9D9DC3-C4FE-43D5-836A-5997F9AAD182   Online
===============================================================================

Everything I've seen about about professional apps and looking for extra speed suggests partitioning the boot drive to put your system on the outer, fastest part of the disk and separating your boot/apps and your data.
There was, or is, slightly conflicting info here:
http://macperformanceguide.com/
On the one hand, Lloyd discounted boot drive speed as a factor in day to day work, and emphasized putting DATA on the outer partition, particularly for scratch. However, once he tried a superfast solid state boot drive:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-LightingFast.html
He was sold! Your set-up and purchases clearly indicate performance is your priority. With 4 1 TB drives in RAID, the extra space on the 300 raptor doesn't seem significant for extra data storage.
I looked hard and had trouble finding a definite recommendation for boot partition size or ratio, but 80 GB seems a ballpark number. You want a cushion. If you can guesstimate the potential size of your boot and apps, some of the speed junkies might be able to give you the optimal number. Nice set up, by the way.

Can OS X drives be protected from boot camp, and how to backup?

1. If I create a boot camp partition on my main drive, can I somehow protect my other drives and OS X partitions (and main drive OS X partition) from any possible tampering from a Win7 boot where I'm running software that could be infected or problematic?
2. How will I back up (and restore)? I've been using Carbon Copy to clone my drives, but unsure if that will also clone a Boot Camp partition?

Installing Windows 7 Beta and RC:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866970&tstart=0
(and answered as best I could in your other thread):
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2102367

How to use ssd as boot drive and hdd as storage on a macbook pro 13

Does anyone know how to use SSD as boot drive and have HDD in optical bay as storage on a Macbook pro 13. I mean in that both drives work as one . by formatting using mac software . I would like to run all programs and OS but would love to have my downloads and useless data on run on my 1tb 5400rpm hdd without me have to manual send it there..

Does anyone know how to use SSD as boot drive and have HDD in optical bay as storage on a Macbook pro 13. I mean in that both drives work as one
Each drive mounts as a separate volume. There is no convenient way to make them look like one contiguous volume.*
Franky, with an hdd and a ssd I would recommend you put your home dir on the hdd and leave the ssd for the OS and your key applications. It's relatively easy to do and I think better than moving only portions of your stuff.
How to Move the Home Folder in OS X – and Why
* There are ways to to make musltiple volumes appear as one large drive but I think it is beyond the scope of this discussion and not appropriate to this configuration.

No bootable device --- insert boot drive and press any key?

A while back I tried installing windows 7 on the iMac which is now running on Mountain Lion. Installing windows wouldn't work. I tried every possible option and tried so many times to get it to work but it wouldn't. Now I have another issue. I went to disk utility and have erased the partition that was created. Except everytime that I boot up my iMac, it tells me
No bootable device --- insert boot drive and press any key?
I have no idea how to get rid of that. I have to always hold down option so that I can choose my apple partition. I was reading online and people say that there is a problem with the Hard Drive, that Master Boot Record is currupt. How do I fix that? Would I need a new harddrive? I dont care if I have to loose all my files, except I dont want to beleive that the only way to fix it is to reinstall Mountain Lion, because in the process of trying to install Windows 7 I reinstalled Mountain Lion like 3 times... So doubt that reinstalling Mountain Lion would fix this issue. Is something wrong with my Hard Drive and is there a away to fix it?

Do a PRAM reset, open System Preferences > Startup Disk and select Macintosh HD

Creating a Boot drive and a data drives

I have just installed a new 750 GB hard drive into a PowerMac G5, it had a 160 GB drive already, and I left that in there. I would like to use the older smaller drive as the boot drive, and the newer bigger one as the user data drive.
How do I go about doing it to minimize problems? I can clone the older drive onto the newer one, using disk utility. Once I do that, then what? Please give me some detailed steps.
Where do I divide things up, put system and applications on the boot drive, and users on the data drive? What about Library? What about things like etc, tmp, and var? Will I have problems cloning users? Please help

You do not need to clone to the new drive, unless you want to be able to startup from it.
Just use Disk Utility. Select the new drive in the Disk Utility sidebar. If you just want one partition on the drive, you can use the Erase tab to format it. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format type. If you want to partition it and format it, use the Partition tab. One possibility is to create two partition, with one partition being about the size of the 160GB startup drive. You can then periodically clone your regular startup drive to that smaller partition to have a bootable backup (very useful for trouble-shooting). The second partition can be the rest of the space. How you partition the drive is up to you...
You should keep your system and library files on the startup drive. You should generally keep your application files on your startup drive, in the Application folder. You may also want to keep all of default first level folders in your Home (user) folder on the startup drive. These are the folders like Documents, Music, Movies, etc. that are created during the OS installation.
Inside these user folders, I have moved my large folders (such as +iTunes Music+ at <home>/Music/iTunes/) to my second drive. Then I create an alias named exactly like the moved folder, and put it back in the original location. When iTunes is started, it should act like the folder was still on startup drive in the default location. Alternately, you can move the folder and tell iTunes where the new location is in its preferences, but I like using the default settings when possible.
You should be able to take similar actions to put your iPhoto library folder and others on your second drive. If you have sub-folders in your documents folder, you can also alias them to folders on your second drive. Essentially, most of your user-created data can be on the second drive, but it will look like a default setup in Finder and to the system.
There are more technical things you can do, such as move your entire user folder to the second drive. You can look at those possibilities as well...

Time Machine, External Hard drive, and the Windows Partition

Is it possible for me to back up my mac with Time machine, and also back up my windows partition on the same HD? I just got the External HD today, so I'm very new at this. Thanks for your help.

Time machine does not work with windows drives.
however the way I have backed up my bootcamp partition is to use diskutility to make a dmg of the windows partition. I then only make regular backups of my user account on the windows partition.
You could partition the new external drive and make 1 partition hfs+ and the other fat32. Then when booted into windows it will see the fat32 partition on the external drive. Then you can carry out backups from within windows to that partition.
Timemachine will backup your mac partition with no problems.

How do I move a back up to another external drive and how does the Mac Book then find the new back up?

how do I move a back up to another external drive and how does the Mac Book then find the new back up?
I currently have the back up on a Time Capsule, I want to move it from the Time Capsule to another external hard drive.

Did you read the link to the Pondidni website? You will have to select the Time Machine HDD for the new MBP and the old one in System Preferences>Time Machine:
Ciao.

I am using a verizon email address and microsoft office for mac outlook program to manage my emails. Does any one know if the apple outlook version offers the ability to save emails as a pdf so that I can save it to my hard drive and how to access?

I am using a verizon email address and microsoft office for mac outlook program to manage my emails. Does any one know if the apple outlook version offers the ability to save emails as a pdf so that I can save it to my hard drive and how to access?

This is the Microsoft forum site that parallels what Apple has:
Office for Mac forums
It's not uncommon for MS employees who work with the Mac side of the business to help there. All in all a useful resource for Office:Mac

After an update my airport is not working. It won't turn on. Do I need to redownload a driver, and how?

After an update my airport is not working. It won't turn on no matter how many times I press the turn on Wi Fi button. Do I need to redownload a driver, and how?

Hello
Try this
plug a WIERED mouse , start up your imac , hold on mouse buttons for 30-40 second at least by chance cd could be ejected
HTH
Pierre

Startup Drive full. What should I move to an external drive and how?

Startup Drive full. What should I move to an external drive and how? By "how" I mean what would the steps be to move photos and music so I could take them off the Startup Drive.

iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
See also:
iPhoto: Issues with FAT32-formatted drives

I have one 120GB SSD and one 1TB SSHD, how do do I make one of them my boot drive and the other my data drive?

I'm currently upgrading my mid-2010 Macbook Pro 13", I've purchased some new RAM and also a 120GB SSD and a 1TB SSHD (Hybrid SSD and HD) with the intention of using an OWC data doubler to get rid of my dvd drive and place the SSD drive there instead. So after I've placed everything into the Mac, how do I make the SSD my boot drive with the OS on it and everything, and the SSHD where all my data (music, photos etc) are stored?

Youll need to CLONE your internal HD to your target (temporarily) external drive.
1. grab carbon copy cloner or (my fave) superDuper CLONE app.
2. attach target clone drive via USB in an enclosure or HD dock. Firstly format the target (external new) HD in disk utility in “Mac OS extended journaled”
3. clone internal HD to target HD (external) [takes about 40 mins depending on size]
4. Boot ONCE from external (go to sys. preference to boot from external) to TEST the new Clone
5. open bottom (see videos on ifixit or youtube on same) and remove old, install new.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Replacing+MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+ Drive/10378/1
Done
(FIRST TIME after installing, boot will be SLOW,...normal and ignore that).
Clone APPS
Superduper does not clone the recovery partition, but that is NOT necessary if you keep the original HD as a “backup clone”. Most don’t bother with the recovery partition in a clone, however that is your prerogative.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
(Free superduper APP above)
CCC App
http://www.bombich.com/

How to back up Boot Camp and how to resize FAT partitions

I suppose someone has already addressed this topic herein, but in case someone needs help I am leaving with you what I learned.
I started with a partition sized to 18 gigs and installed Windows XP on it. Soon the drive became full after I installed software and various disc images so I can play games. I wanted to resize the partition to 28 gigs without losing my data, leaving 46 gigs on my Mac partition.
I was not sure what would work so I chose several methods of possible restoration. The easiest was to boot to the Mac and use Disk Utility to make a Disk Image of Boot Camp. The next precaution I took was to back up my settings with the Windows Files and Settings Wizard. Lastly, I booted to Mac and turned on viewing of hidden files. Then I copied all the files off the Windows XP partition onto an external drive. I also tried Acronis True Image while in Windows but it was not compatible.
I also discovered a free program called Winclone (http://www.tuaw.com) that makes an image of the Windows partition and restores it for you, much like Disk Utility works.
In OSX, I ran Boot Camp Assistant again to rejoin the partitions. Then I ran it again to partition the new drive to 28 gigs.
The first thing I tried to do was to use Winclone to restore the Winclone image. That failed with errors. Then I tried to use Disk Utility to restore the drive and Disk Utility would not allow me to restore the disk image onto the drive. I am not sure why Apple is so unsupportive of implementing their Disk Imaging technology within the context of their own self-created Boot Camp technology.
Anyway, the last thing I could try was to copy the files back onto the new partition or to give up and reinstall Windows and use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to restore my Windows settings.
After partitioning the drive with Boot Camp Assistant, I copied the files over and rebooted. Windows said there was an unsupported drive. Then I realized that I missed a step in the installation instructions provided by Apple for Boot Camp. I forgot to format the drive again using the Windows XP install CD, that the Apple says is necessary.
So I booted up the Windows cd and erased the Boot Camp partition and made it a FAT drive so that I would be able to copy my files over to it from OSX, which I would not have been able to do had the drive been formatted as NTFS.
As XP started to install its software, and it started to copy files from the cd, I pressed the power button to shut down the Mac. (Do this at your own risk. I am warning you that this could damage your computer, so do NOT try this if you feel uneasy about it.)
I booted into OSX. Then I trashed the few files that Windows had started to install on the Boot Camp drive. Then I copied all my backup files back onto the partition.
Here is a widget that will allow you to view hidden files in OSX: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/hiddenfiles.html
I rebooted the Mac and held down the Option key while restarting. When the Mac and Windows drives appeared at the startup screen, I selected Windows, which booted up successfully. It then recognized the partitioned drive as new hardware and required me to restart, which I did.
I wanted to convert my drive from a FAT drive to a NTFS-formatted drive.
This is how I did that:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984(TechNet.10).aspx
After converting Boot Camp to NTFS file system I noticed an immediate speed increase in Windows XP. I
In conclusion, Disk Utility is a good method of backing up your partition, as it allows you to use a password to make a disk image of your drive. It also allows you to copy the files off the disk image onto the Windows partition. But it would be a lot simpler if Apple allowed them to use Disk Utility to restore the whole image back onto Boot Camp.
Other methodologies I did not get to explore because I am happy with my results:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-71165.html
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=241035

After copying your files back to the Boot Camp partition you may get this error message when you boot up Windows XP. Notepad opens with this message "[.ShellClassInfo] LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\System32\Shell32.dll,-21787". If this happens to you please see this article from Microsoft. I had to perform both Methods 1 and 2 to remove the messages. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330132

How to reduce the size of c:\ drive and create new partition for my new DV6-6b20se

Hi,
I have just bought new notebook HP DV6-6b20se with i5/6GBRAM/750GB HDD/Win7 home premium
there are c:\ drive & recovery drive - I want to reduce the size of C:/ drive and creat one or two additional partitions for my personal data.
so.. please refer me to a guide in order to do it without loosing my original system (windows 7 home premium)
And what's the prefered size for c:\ drive
Thank you.
Basil
[Personal Information Removed]

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External Boot drive and time machine?

Been away from the mac/s for awhile... Just recieved my new mac mini hooked up to an external drive, in this case a very nice mini stack V2 with 500GB and more importantly 7200RPM drive. When I first turned on Leopard I of course designated the external drive as my backup for time machine.
That done can I still use the external drive as a bootable drive? I want to gain the increase in performance from that hard drive by doing so.
If YES I just install my OS on to that drive and then once done select it as my boot drive in system preferences? Any help appreciated.

I'm not sure you would want to have a backup to the same drive you boot the system from, and Time Machine won't give you the option to select the same partition your boot copy of MacOS is in. You may be able to repartition the drive into two (or more) logical drives and do it that way, but realistically to get the best performance from the system you'd probably want to use the external not just as the boot drive, but also for data storage. That being so, you clearly wouldn't gain any real benefit backing up to the same drive even if you could do so, so you might perhaps instead designate the mini's internal drive for Time Machine use, or add a second external and designate that.

Best boot drive and how to partition?

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