Questions re: Partitioning HD for OSX & OS9x

Question

I have a Beige G3, MT, 300mhz, rev.1, with an 4GB Ultra SCSI Quantum Viking WSE that is basically a goner now. I bought a Seagate Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM 160GB hard drive to replace it, and need a little advice about how to partition it. (bought the 160GB before I learned that, as an internal drive, my Beige will only see about 127GB - oh well, live and learn....).
For a while I need to continue to use OS9 for quite a few Apps & external devices. Also, I do a lot of graphic & web work so there's a lot of revising of files going on on my machine.
After browsing through the posts here, I still have some questions:
Q. Since my computer will only be seeing 127GBs out of 160, what happens to the rest of the "unseen" 33GBs? If, for instance, I format this drive today and then get a controller card or move it to a FW case later, what happens with the previously "unseen" GBs? Do they just get added on to the last partition? Will I have to reformat the whole drive again?
Q. Is it a good or bad idea to put the OS9 Classic system folder on a separate partition from OSX? What would be the pros or cons with this? (I plan on mostly using the regular OS9x on a separate partition for a lot of my Apps and such to avoid the conflicts with Classic that I've heard about, and until I get all my software & devices upgraded to OSX).
Q. I read some posts where some people don't think partitioning is a good idea, but since it looks like I'm going to have to do it anyway in order to install Tiger, I figured I would probably go ahead and partition the rest of the drive The list below might look like over-kill, but from what I've read, this type of set-up seems to minimize and confine disk fragmentation & corruption which seems to me to be a plus - any cons to this?
Q. Also, does this order of partitioning seem ok? (I came up with this configuration after reading some info at these sites: http://www.sciencequest.org/support/computers/mac/topics/partitioning.html and http://www.themacintoshguy.com/mactips/archive/tip11.shtml
Partition 1: 7.95GB - OSX (Tiger)
Partition 2: 10GB - Scratch Disk (for Photoshop scratch disk, scanner captures, burning CDs, downloading, browser cache, etc. - in essence, no files reside here).
Partition 3: 5GB - OS9x (original)
Partition 4: 5GB - OS9x Classic
Partition 5: 10GB - Temp/Work area (Unlike the "Scratch" partition, files/projects may reside until completed)
Partition 6: 50GB - Docs & Resource Library
Partition 7: 5GB - Email
Partition 8: 20GB - Apps
Partition 9: 7.95GB - Emergency OSX system, & OSX repair utilities (Disk Warrior, & Drive Genius).
Partition 10: 5GB - Emergency OS9 system, & OS9 repair utilities, (DW & Norton).
All recommendations, opinions and tips are greatly appreciated.
~Kathleen
Beige G3, MT, 300mhz, rev.1, model #M6572LLA,Ultra SCSI Quantum Viking 4.5 WSE   Mac OS 9.2.x   RAM=640MB, Apple53C875 SCSI Card, USB card, FW card, ATI mach64_3DU Display card

Answer 1

Kathleen:
The tech forum in the ExPostFacto site (http://forum.macsales.com/) has a number of extensive discussions about partitioning and recommendations. I suggest you look there for additional discussion by people with far more expertise than me.
I do remember a couple of points from my reading in that forum.
1) If things go awry in an attempted EPF installation, under certain conditions it can alter or cause problems in the System 9 being used at the time. Having a separate partition for a duolicate System 9 for EPF to use would protect your regular working system in the event of such a mishap.
I believe one recommendation indicated you could just drag and drop your existing System 9 from your internal drive onto a new partition, even on an external drive, in order to create such a separate System for EPF use.
2) You may wish to have a separate System 9 partition for use as a helper disk for EPF to use.
3) You may wish to have a separate System 9 partition to use for System X to designate as a classic environment.
4) You may wish other partitions for applications, data/documents, etc.
As I recall, most of the detailed recommendations (I believe I saw at least 3 different such messages during my travels at that site) included a first partition of >8GB for System X, two other separate partitions (several GB) for System 9, one for desigantion as classic mode under System X, the other for use by EPF in installing and also (if necessary) as a helper disk.
If I have recapitulated this information incorrectly I trust others will set you straight. In any event, I recommend you take a close look at the EPF tech forums - a search for partitioning should yield rapid results of very helpful information. Hope this helps - Good luck!
G3 Beige mini tower   Mac OS 9.1.x   Sonnet G4 800MHz upgrade; 640 MB RAM