Just Got an External Hard Drive

Question

I bought an Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus, with 750GB of space. I pretty excited about having it, but I want to make sure that I'm doing things correctly, right from the go.
So far, I have:
1) Connected it
2) Reformatted it to Journaled HFS+ format
3) Installed the software that came with it. (Not that I need it, I assume.)
4) Created an archive of everything that came pre-loaded on it and put the archive on my desktop
5) Partitioned it into 7 volumes (Is this a bit too much?)
Volumes:
*System OS X 4.11:*
Capacity: 39.88 GB
Available: 39.84 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s10
Mount Point: /Volumes/System OS X 4.11
Home:
Capacity: 39.88 GB
Available: 39.84 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s12
Mount Point: /Volumes/Home
Movies:
Capacity: 199.88 GB
Available: 199.8 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s14
Mount Point: /Volumes/Movies
Music:
Capacity: 149.88 GB
Available: 149.8 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s16
Mount Point: /Volumes/Music
Photos:
Capacity: 149.88 GB
Available: 149.8 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s18
Mount Point: /Volumes/Photos
Documents:
Capacity: 59.88 GB
Available: 59.83 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s20
Mount Point: /Volumes/Documents
Free:
Capacity: 58.51 GB
Available: 58.47 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s22
Mount Point: /Volumes/Free
6) Tested it (It works!)
Now I'd like to know if I did what I was supposed to do when adding an external hard drive to your system.
Do the sizes of the volumes seem right?
I have all these disk images all over my desk top. I tried to put them into one folder. Ha ha! They do NOT want to go into a folder. So I don't think I'm supposed to do that. What AM I supposed to do?
Before I partitioned the drive, I ejected it and the icon disappeared from my desktop. I wondered how I could get it back on the desktop. Tried a bunch of things and nothing worked. Then I thought, 'I'll try a restart." Damned if that didn't work. Oh, happy! Happy! Now if I eject one or all of the volumes, will I have to restart to get them back every time I want to back up or store something?
I noticed that SMART status isn't supported. Does that matter?
I'd like to back up my OS on the Maxtor. Do I really need the software mentioned in other threads (Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner)? Can't I just drop all the folders from Macintosh HD in Finder to the appropriate icon?
I know there's a lot of question here. Sorry!
I'd really appreciate a review and advise.
Thanks!

Answer 1

If there's a practical limit on the number of disk partitions, it's the number of drive icons cluttering up the Desktop (unless you set the Finder preferences to not show hard drives on the desktop). The correct size of disk partitions is whatever works for your personal use and preferences.
If you eject one partition on an external drive, all the partitions on that drive will also be ejected. You need to eject the drive before you physically disconnect it, or power it down separately from the computer; otherwise you risk damaging the drive by interrupting write activity (which includes system tasks beyond any overt copies or write that you command). It's OK to just leave the external drive powered up and connected to the computer. If you shut down the computer, the shutdown process will automatically dismount the external drive partitions; after the computer has shut down, you can power off the external drive. Turn the external on before starting the Mac. Restarts don't require dismounting or power cycling the external drive.
If you dismount the external drive, you can remount the drive partitions using Disk Utility, or unplug the external from the computer and then reconnect it. (Disk Utility obviously puts less wear on the connectors.)
A Finder drag-and-copy from the internal to the external drive will not capture invisible files (Unix systems quite literally have tens of thousands of invisible files), and copying the System and Library folders in particular will then yield unusable folders. Use SuperDuper or CCC. You can (probably) use the Finder to copy /Users if you like.
Non-support of SMART status is a pain if you ever need to troubleshoot the external drive but won't affect normal use.
Mounted disk images (which appear as drive icons on the Desktop) cannot be moved into a folder, only ejected from the desktop. If you're referring to the drive icons from the external drive partitions, those remain on the Desktop until the external drive is ejected. As mentioned, you can set the Finder preferences to hike all hard drive icons by unchecking the appropriate checkbox. If you're also referring to mounted disk images created after clciking on a disk image .dmg file, those also stay on the Desktop while mounted. You can move disk image files (the file icons, ending in .dmg) which when double-clicked create the disk images into a folder and copy that folder of .dmg files to where ever you have room to put it. Check that the copied .dmg disk image files will create a mounted disk image when double-clicked; you can then delete the original .dmg files to free room on the internal HD.