Do I need to partition my hard drive on Mac as I used to on my old PC?

Kindly provide me with your advise. On my old Windows OS pc it was a good practice to partition my hard drive to (e.g. C: and D:) where C: was for system and D: for data (pictures, music, documents etc.). If anything went wrong with the system (virus, any other issue) I simply reinstalled C: from my last restore point done by my back up software (from an external HD) and all was fine. Data on D: were not harmed at all.
DO I NEED TO CARRY THIS PRACTICE OVER TO MAC OR CAN I SIMPLY JUST HAVE ONE DRIVE(NOT SPLIT TO TWO OR MORE)?
PS: I know there are almost no viruses or malware for Mac so no need to point that out. Thank you

Thank you for both of your answers. At the same time I am back to square one
David, yes I do know back up. I have Time Machine running and backing up to my external HD as I type. I am also considering starting to use CCC to create an alternative to TM (as there seems to be a bit of confusion as to how it works, what it keeps and what it eventually dumps. It appears to work in a way where if you want to make sure your data is REALLY backed up you have to have the file on your primary HD at least 8 days so they make it to the weekly back up which stays until your back up drive fills up).
Anyone, any thoughts on the partition on Macs? Go for it or do not worry and keep just one?

Similar Messages

  • I would like to be able to view my security cameras at my home on my apple. I have been told that I would need to partition the hard drive to be able to take a windows program. Is there apple software that would allow me to see my security cameras

    I would like to be able to view my security cameras at my home on my apple. I have been told that I would need to partition the hard drive to be able to take a windows program. Is there apple software that would allow me to see my security cameras on my mack book pro

    Your security cam questions may have answers if you read the security cam or nanny cam section on EZJim's Website 

  • Need help reformatting my hard drive for mac only

    Help please
    Need help reformatting my hard drive for mac only with my toshishba hard drive

    What Mac is this please, with what version of OS X?

  • Do I need to partition my hard drive to use Airport to back up my files on my iMac intel?

    Airport Utility was pre-installed on my iMac (Intel) and I don't know how to use Time Machine with Airport.  I want to backup my hard drive and thought that Time Machine would do this. I receive a message to select a Backup Disc.  Do I have to partition my hard drive to have the backup on my iMac? Alternately I could purchase an external hard drive with USB 3.0.  Would Time Machine detect the USB external drive so that I could select that as the Backup Disc?  Are there any cons for Apple wireless hard drives?

    The idea with Time machine is to use it to back up to an external drive. Once connected you would tell Time Machine to use that drive.
    However before you do that, connect the external drive and open Disk Utility
    1. Click on the external drive
    2. Click on the Erase tab and select Mac OS extended, Journaled.
    3. Click Apply
    When finished it will be formatted correctly and then open Time machine and tell it to use it as the Time machine backup disk.
    a handcrafted note by roam

  • How to partition the hard drive in Mac OS 9?

    I  have a 366 MHz iBook Clamshell, and to install Yellow Dog Linux without wiping OS 9, I must partition the hard drive. It does not have any CD tray, and the hard drive is 10 GB.

    If you are trying to partition the disk you are booting from, then no, it cannot alter it's partition map while booted.  You will have to use some alternative boot device (ordinarily this would be a bootable CD, but you'll need to find some workaround like an external device).
    Also, the utilities in OS 9 will only repartition that drive by erasing the whole thing.  You will need to boot into a Linux OS with one of the Linux partition tools if you want to non-destructively alter that discs partition table (use something like GParted on a bootable UBuntu disc or something like that).

  • Partition external hard drive-what format do I use

    I'm trying to partition an external hard drive by following the instructions in the disk utility help and am confused about which "format" to use. My choices are: Mac OS extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended, Mac OS Extended (case sensitive, journaled), Mac OS Extended (case sensitive), Unix file system and Free space.
    I've looked in the forums and in the disk utility for definitions of these terms and am sorry if its there and I just don't see it.
    On a different subject is there any opinion as to whether I should create a partition that should or should not be used for startup? What is the difference and which is better?
    Thank-you very much,
    Margie

    Choose Mac OS extended (Journaled) unless you have a specific reason to use another format.
    (31565)

  • Need help with second hard drive on mac G4

    I recently took apart another computer and installed the hard drive on top of the "master" drive hoping I would be able to download more videos, music ect but when i try and download anything message pops outs that my disk is almost full i need help as you can see. I thought all i had to do was connect the drive but I guess that wasn't it.

    chuck818, welcome to Apple Discussions.
    What size is your Master HD & how much free space do you have? Are you getting messages about the HD being full?
    Insufficient HD space can lead to many problems - freezes, directory/file corruption, etc.
     Cheers, Tom

  • How to format hard drive with mac air for use on mac and pc

    I'm new to MAC and can't make much sence of what has been said to do in other questions. All I want to be able to do is use my 500gb My Passport hard drive on my MAC and other PC's. I have saved all the data that I want to keep on another hard drive so can re-format the hard drive if needed. I want to do all the set up on my MAC AIR.
    Please help,
    Cheers Hutch

    Reading assignment:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT
    Ciao.

  • 7200 rpm hard drive for Mac Book..use up battery faster?

    Would a 7200rpm hard drive use up the battery faster in a Mac Book. There wouldn't be any problems with heat or anything either, would there?
    thanks!!

    The power requirements are virtually the same for their 5400rpm counterparts (100GB Seagate Momentus 5400rpm to 7200rpm for example) so on that front I wouldn't be concerned.
    What I would consider is that 7200rpm drives do in fact get hotter than their 5400rpm drive counterparts not to mention that can be much noisier. While I wouldn't expect the difference to be serious it is worth considering.

  • Partitioning Internal Hard Drive between Mac and Windows

    So I receently ordered a new MacBook to replace my old PC and my old Mac. With 2 GB of Video Ram (With the Nvidia 750M), I was hoping to be able to run my Steam Games decently (I understand that a Mac isn't going to run on max graphics or anything, but I figure it will do alright) using Boot Camp.
    My question is how would you guys recommend partitioning the 1 TB internal drive? I was hoping for a Mac and a PC System Partition with the majority of the storage space left as "shared" between them (I use Paragon NTFS for Mac, and MacDrive for PC, so I'm not sure what format would be most stable for the shared storage). What do you guys recommend?

    Well,  let me start by saying that with the default Boot Camp tools, you probably won't be able to setup more than the 2 OS partitions on the internal drive of your notebook.  Not that it can't be done with other tools, but it is not a quick and easy setup to do, so if you are going to undertake it, please be prepared for issues, and do it from the beginning.  There is a decent thread on this forum about "repairing after you change your partitions" which has plenty of information about the problems you will be facing and how to work around most of them.
    Having said that, when I was using Boot Camp on my MBP with a 750GB drive, I gave 500GB to MacOS, and 250GB to Windows 7.  I also used Paragon's NTFS for MacOS driver, and Paragon's HFS+ for Windows driver (after having use MacDrive for several years).  This combination allowed both OSes full access to the entire 750GB drive, and I put my Thunderbird and FireFox profiles on the MacOS partition, but could access them from either OS that was booted.  That solution worked great for me for years (until I upgraded my MBP and opted to eliminate Boot Camp and only run VMs for Windows).
    With the proper drivers, either OS would be able to utilize your external drives, but keep in mind there are still some Mac utilities/apps which will only work with an HFS+ formatted partition,  just like there are some Windows programs that do the same with NTFS.  Personally I found that I would have to "share" my external drives with other Windows users more than Mac users, so I formatted most of mine NTFS, and just took the minor performance hit when accessing them under MacOS.

  • New hard drive for mac, how do i move all the old over?

    My partitioned HD on my mac now has too small a partition for the OS 10.3 to run stably. As I believe it is impossible to enlarge the partition OS runs on without erasing the whole HD first I want to put a larger HD into the mac. How can I move everything from old HD to new? I have all the panther and relevant application discs but I will lose all my mail messages, music etc. Or at least I will not be able to move them to the new HD etc without a fight.
    Is there a simple way? I have the mac that is g4 blue, I think it will take a slave drive
    I must stress I don't have a storage problem per se I could just get an external HD if that was the issue. I simply have too big a system now to run well on the stupidly small partition I created years ago. thanks
    N

    Nick:
    You have given very little information on your computer, so it is difficult to give a comprehensive answer to your issue. A few suggestions:
    1. It is neither necessary nor recommended to partition an internal Hard Disk Drive if you are running only one version of OS X on it, except on some older G3 machines which require that OS X be installed on the first 8 GB.
    2. You can move/backup your entire HDD including your OS, Users Folder etc. by cloning to another HDD using a utility like SuperDuper
    or Carbon Copy Cloner. You can clone to an external firewire HDD, to a second internal HDD, or to a second firewire Mac via Firewire Target Disk Mode. If you tell us exactly what mac you have and what other equipment I can be more specific.
    3. It is possible to repartition your HDD on the fly. There are several utilities that are available like Volume Works or iPartition. However, I have not heard of successful repartitioning with those. The only one that I have successful reports from is DriveGenius, which, incidentally, has other functons like Directory repairs and disk defragmentation.
    Please do post back with further questions or comments.
    Cheers
    cornelius
    Message was edited by: cornelius

  • How to Backup & Partition Internal Hard Drive

    I have a macbook pro 2.4ghz. I need to partition my hard drive to have a separate volume for photoshop scratch disk. How do I actually back up the drive prior to the reformatting? Do I create a bootable clone to restore the main volume.
    Specific steps would be very helpful. Thanks

    So, using Carbon Copy Cloner I first do a full copy of my internal drive (the one I will partition). This will copy any data files as well, correct? I then format the internal drive, creating the partition I need (making sure one is adequate to hold my back up/full copy). How do I then restore the full copy from the external drive to the internal partition? Does this include the OS or do I need to reinstall that and run for all of the updates, etc?
    The basic thing to keep in mind is if you want to clone a complete, bootable copy of your drive, the +target partition+ (regardless of how big whole drive is) has to be at least as large as the items on the partition you are copying. With this mode of copying it is all or none but you need to use it to get the bootable option.
    Cloning will copy your data files, OSX, OS9, updates, etc., everything. It makes a _complete, bootable duplicate_ of your internal drive when used in full copy mode. So you need to start off with the external firewire empty, or not care about anything on it because it will all get erased.
    First, repair permissions on your internal and make sure it is in a healthy condition. Then use CCC as I instructed in an earlier post and clone your internal to the external. Run Disk Utility and verify the external drive just to make sure there weren't any problems while cloning. Then go into your System Preferences, Startup Drive, select OSX that should now appear on your external, and restart. This does double duty of making sure that your clone really is bootable, and you are now working off your external drive so you can work on your internal drive from the external drive (no need for startup disks). Things should look pretty much identical to how they looked when you were working off your internal except your external drive will probably be positioned in the upper right hand corner instead of your internal.
    Oh, if you have like 90 GB of files this can take quite a while.
    Once you have established the external drive is working you can start up Disk Utility and partition your internal drive. Unless you need me to I will have breakfast now instead of doing a blow-by-blow account of that. Just keep in mind that if a "get info" of your external drive says you have xx.xx GB of stuff then you need to make sure one of your internal partitions is at least that size. Oh, it is probably a good idea to make the first partition on your internal drive the one to which you will re-clone (if that is a word) your original drive contents; the one with the operating system.
    Once you have partitioned, you run CarbonCopyCloner and again use full copy mode to copy the things on your external onto one of the internal partitions. Run verify on the internal partition just to make sure all looks good. Use Startup disk to choose the internal's copy of OSX as startup and reboot.
    At this stage you have one bootable internal partition with everything that used to be on that drive, and an external drive that is bootable. I find the latter very handy because Disk Utility requires you be booted from a different drive that that which you are repairing and using startup disks is slow.
    You also now have a backup of your internal drive. If you want to, in future you can use CCC in non-full mode to backup your main internal partition. It will just copy off modified files, but you can read the details in the CCC Readme.
    Brian

  • HT4818 When I try to partition my hard drive for Windows 7, I get an error saying The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. I have a 2006 Macbook Pro I believe and I really need assistance as soon as possible.

    I have Windows 7 Premium Home and I have downloaded the Drivers and when I click Boot Camp Assistance to partition my hard drive, it says, "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." I can't do any backup really because I don't have an external hard drive to work with. I tried repairing disk permissions but that did not do anything. I really need a lot of help with this with some easy, step-by-step tutorials or something. I believe I have a 2006 version of Macbook Pro(4,1).

    Once you have obtained an external drive and connected it you will 'clone' your internal drive to it.
    Download Carbon Copy Cloner (it is not free but there is a fully functional trial version which is). Use it to clone your internal drive to your external drive. When that is done you will reboot from the clone and use Disk Utility to erase the internal drive (choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) as the format (this is normally preset, but check). Make sure to give the external drive a 'distinctive' name, don't want to get drives mixed up in this process.
    Once that is done you will use Carbon Copy Cloner (from the clone) to restore the external to the internal.

  • I need to install windows 7 on my iMac. I used the bootcamp assistant to partition the drive (101Gb). My bootcamp partition, when I am to choose a partitian, was deleted (by an instructor) I think I might need to repartition my hard drive. What do I do?

    I need to install windows 7 on my iMac. I used the bootcamp assistant to partition the drive (101Gb). My bootcamp partition, when I am to choose a partitian, was deleted (by an instructor) I think I might need to repartition my hard drive but I am not sure. What do I do? I haven't ruined my iMac have I?

    Help! I can't do my college homework if I can't run windows on my iMac! (school is on windows, limited access to the library)

  • I have a 1TB external hard drive (NTFS) that has all my files from my old PC, how do I create a partition on it for HFS  without formatting it so that I can use it for Time Machine and the like?

    I have a 1TB external hard drive (NTFS) that has all my files from my old PC, how do I create a partition on it for HFS  without formatting it so that I can use it for Time Machine and the like?

    There aren't any 3rd party apps or anything. I use PC's and Mac's at school and the only computer connected to a printer at my house is a PC so i need access to both

Maybe you are looking for