Should I partition a new drive?

Hi,
I just purchased a new 1TB drive for my G5. I have a 200GB in the first bay for the OS and Apps. My question is, is there a technical reason why I would partition the new drive? The only things I've found online (albeit breifly researching) is that it is useful for multiple boot systems (which I don't care about), keeping the OS seperate from the data incase of an OS failure (surely a Windows thing, but again, not a problem as my OS is on a seperate drive), and finally, to help keep things organised (one partition for music, one for photos, etc), which I also have no interest in.
I could not see any information about a technical or performance based reason wy I might want to partition the drive.
Can any one shed any light?
Thanks,
C.

I would never live on a Mac without an emergency boot drive or partition, a backup of my working system, AND keep 10.4.9 around while still using 10.4.10 (a fall back).
That is how much (or little) I trust OS X, and what I know of the problems that even a 'little' security update havoc you can run into.
Backups can be sparse disk images as well as a regular volume (or "partition").
Because files can get scattered all over a drive; you want to use the outer 1/3 for performance; you don't want to have to backup all the contents of 900GB drive; you want to use some of it for static files, archived, that aren't used but need to be stored somewhere.

Similar Messages

Should i partition my new mac?

Hey i was recently informed that if i partition my macbook pro it will have better performance and use applications faster. as i am a design student i need to use a lot of adobe programmes which usually slow down any computer, and have varioud open at a time. is it recommended to partition the hard drive into two? one for applications and other for files? and if so, how would i do this?

There are a lot of opinions about storage partitioning. I do not bother partitioning the internal storage, but do partition the external drives I use. That is to allow use of more than one Mac OS X and separate backup partitions. External drive partitions also permit specific partitions to store things like iPhoto libraries instead of on the internal space.
A good source of external drives is OWC, http://www.macsales.com I have three of their drives.

How should I partition a new hard drive - for data storage

My original drive was failing, so I installed another one, with the operating system on it, so that when that one failed, it was not a problem. Now I have a 2nd one that's failing (or has possibly failed, though I do have it backed up using Time Machine . I bought another drive today - a 2 TB one and want to install it, possibly partitioning it - maybe with a partition that holds the operating system and some of the software, (though don't know if that's a good idea or not), and part for the data backup of videos I've made, and slideshows from Aperture, etc. - just "stuff". What is the best way for me to partition it?

Unless you have very specific requirements, such as wanting to install more than one OS, there's no advantage to creating multiple partitions.

I am setting up Time Machine on 2 computers which will use the same external network drive. Should I partition the ext drive

Should the dirve on a networked external drive be partitioned to support the use of Time Machine on 2 Macs that are on the Network. The disk is a 2 Gig Drive and I would like to use some of the disk for external shared storage.

You are aware that there are problems with using NAS drive for Time Machine?
http://trick77.com/2011/07/15/about-os-x-lion-nas-time-machine-compatibility-net atalk-gpl-violations/
Allan

Should i partition the boot drive to maximize Logic performance?

I'm about to receive my Mac Pro 3ghz, 8 gig RAM.
I bought 3 x 10,000rpm raptor drives, and one Apple 250 gig drive.
After speaking with Applecare, I've decided to RAID the 3 drives, and use them for audio and sample streaming.
I'll use the apple drive for the OS. I decided to do this because Applecare said that the hard drive speed isn't very relevant for running the OS and applications. RAM is the main issue there. Hard disk speed comes into play when accessing and writing files. So using the RAID for samples and audio, while using the 7200rpm drive for the OS will be the optimal config.
Soooo, that leaves me with a 250 gig drive for the OS. Obviously, that leaves me with a great deal of extra space. I'll need to back up the files on the RAID drives frequently, so i'm planning to store the backups on the OS drive.
Should i simply save the files on the drive, or would it help Logic's performance to partition the drive, keeping the
OS seperate from the backup files? Or would partitioning hurt Logic and general OS operations?

In theory partioning the drive and putting the OS on the first partion will keep the OS files in the drives fastest region, even if fragmented.
You can then use the second partition for backups and if the need arises erase and clean install the OS partition.
It freaks me out however, and if i had the choice and money i'd definately go for a phisically seperate (internal) harddisk for backups.

Can I reformat and partition a new internal hard drive with the Snow Leopard disk?

I'm planning on installing a new internal hard drive in my 15'' Macbook Pro. Can I format and partition the new drive with the Snow Leopard disk or is it just an upgrade from Leopard? Thanks much.

You should be able to do that.
If you want to change the sizes of existing partitions this may help:
Enlarging a partition

How can I install OS 10.9.4 on a new drive & delete it from my old drive?

I just got an SSD and would like to have it be the drive that runs my system (10.9.4) software. I'm not sure how to install the system software on that drive and get it off the regular drive.
Can anyone point me to instructions for doing that or tell me how?
Thanks!

How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Recovery HD. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of
      the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive
      is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the
      Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from
      the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
      (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
      GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and
      wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the
      drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main
      window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the
      Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to
      return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several
      hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
Boot Using Command+R keys:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
      "COMMAND" and the "R" keys together.
3. Release the keys when the Utilities Menu appears.
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

Drive failure, how to reinstall on new drive

Hi, I have an Envy TouchSmart 15 which seems to have a bad drive (short DST check fail RGDUHF-71G7JL-MFGJWK-60UJ03) and while I can boot up Windows and log in, from that point onwards I cannot do anything except move the mouse pointer. I cannot launch the recovery program to create a recover disc from this and the boot-time repair/restore options all hang. I've also run chkdsk on its drive when connected to a second computer (in a USB cage) and chkdsk reports no issues.
So, I have bought a new drive and I'm wondering how to get Windows 8 on it. I also have a second, identical HP Envy which works fine and am wondering if I can create a recovery USB thumb drive from that 2nd machine, boot the 1st machine from that thumb drive and reinstall it from scratch but I am under the impression that the recovery media can only attempt to recover a drive that is already installed, but it will not do a full reinstall.
Is the only option here to buy the media from HP at $50? If so, does it come on USB because I do not have a DVD drive.
Thanks.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

One additional comment: despite the fact that I had gone from a 750GB drive to a 1TB drive, the recovery procedure partitioned the new drive in an odd way. It left me with only 130GB for the primary boot partition (C: drive with Windows) and left 800GB as unallocated space at the end of the drive. Between the C: partition and the large, unallocated space there was a recovery partition so I had to use EaseUS (Partition Master Free) to swap the recovery & unallocated partitions and then merge the C: and unallocated partitions so that I now have a 930GB C: drive.
BTW I now realize that I should have posted this thread in the 'Recovery' rather than 'Lockups/Freezes' forum so if an admin wants to move it there, that's great.

Cloning TC backups to external HD with data on it already - should i partition the HD? How to do this safely?

hi. i found a discussion directing how to clone backups onto a HD for proper backup transfer. what it didn't anwer for me, was something else. i have data on the HD i am trying to use as a temp destination for my TC backups. Should i partition the destination drive and have my old data on one volume - TC backup on the other? please help if you could with instructions on how to do it safely without distroying my data! THANKS A BUNCH!
OS mountain lion, 1st gen TC, 500gb, destination HD - WD passport for mac, 1tb.

Yes. Time Machine works better if it is in total control of its storage space.
Of course partitioning the drive in a Time Capsule is only possible by removing it and doing the partitioning on another computer.
If this were mine I would get another external drive and connect that to the Time Capsule. Move your data to the new external and allow Time Machine to use the whole internal drive in the Time Capsule instead.
Allan

HT5096 I need to transfer a time machine backup to a new drive. It keeps failing.

I have a 2TB Time Capsule that I was using for Time Machine for both a MacBook and an iMac. The iMac sparse bundle became corrupted earlier this spring and I was unable to delete it, so I need to reformat the TC. First, however, I need to move the TM sparse bundle for the MacBook to a new drive that I have set up just for TM for the MacBook. After reformatting, I plan to only use the TC for the iMac. I tried moving the sparse bundle tonight to the new drive, following directions listed in several places on this site and on Pondini's site. However, it failed. I am going to guess that it failed b/c I was not hooked up to the TC via ethernet. (I was on WIFI). The new backup drive is a 2TB external that was plugged directly to the MacBook. So, now I have connected them via ethernet. I am again reparing the TC volume using Disk Utility, just to make sure all permissions, etc, are ok before moving. Will I be able to move this file to the new drive easily, or should I plug the new drive directly to the Time Capsule and move it that way (while MacBook is connected via Ethernet).
Alternativey, is there a way to just archive that sparse bundle for the MacBook before I erase the drive?
FYI I am still running Snow Leopard on these machines, but trying to clean up the time machine backups today before installing Lion and moving to iCloud, so time is of the utmost importance here.
Thanks so much!
Kat

OK, this has now failed twice. I repaired the drive using DU and there were no problems (even though it took 2 hours to go thru everything to verify). Right now, the MacBook is connected via Ethernet to the TC. The new TM drive (WD 3TB external, USB 3.0/2.0) is attached to the MacBook via USB. I really need to keep this TM backup for the MacBook and also need to erase the TC. How can I accmplish both? I thought that there was a way to archive a TM sparse bundle?

Partitioning my hard Drive for PC Games

This would be my first time asking a question to Apple Support Communities. I have a question regarding partitioning my hard drive for PC Games. I would have to use boot camp to install windows to be able to play those pc games... but before i buy windows 7 OS i want to know if this is going to work to play the games that i want. what to look for about system requirements ext.. so that i dont waste money. I have a macbook pro. OS X 10.8.5 Intel HD 4000 , Nividia Geforce 650 m. 2.7 processor intel core i7 , 16 GB of memory DDR3 when i look at system requirements with the games what am i looking for so that i dont waste my money i am knew to the mac os so any advice i can get. should i go this route of partitioning my hard drive?

Kingstonpro wrote:
...before i buy windows 7 OS i want to know if this is going to work to play the games that i want. what to look for about system requirements ext.. so that i dont waste money
when i look at system requirements with the games what am i looking for so that i dont waste my money
Determine your Mac's ability for 3D games
What my user tip will allow you to do is get the performance rating of your video graphics and then you can compare that rating with the one the developer provides as the minimal amount you need to run the game you want.
Some developers do not easily list the performance requirements because they sell so many titles to people who don't know any better. Your obviously not that type of person.
should i go this route of partitioning my hard drive?
To get the full hardware performance of the hardware to run Windows 3D games, you need to install Windows into Apple provided BootCamp. and boot up the computer directly into Windows.
However it's also possible to run some Windows games (2D and simple ones) in a virtual machine program in OS X, provide they use OpenGL drivers (not only DirectX)
You install BootCamp first, then use a commecial virtual machine software like VMFusion or Parallels Desktop to copy the BootCamped Windows to use it as a virtual machine in OS X.
You will then have two Windows on your Mac, one in BootCamp and the other in a file on OS X to run at the same time as your using OS X.
There is the free VirtualBox too, but it doesn't have the ability to copy the BootCamp partition, but it's free and updated longer without begging for more money all the time like the commercial versions do.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?
I would Like to get more information about the question should i partition my hard drive to be able to play pc games does this really work to be able to play those games
Yes, you will get better performance direct booting the Mac into Windows to play most 3D games.
This means you will have to find a copy of Windows 7 to purchase online, the 64bit retail disk of Win 7 Pro or better.
is their any thing i need to know about the techinal aspects of installing windows on my mac computer... is there anything that i need to watch out for so that this would work. I just want to make sure that it will work.
Basically BootCamp does all the work setting up the partition for Windows install, then it hands you off with a list of printed instructions to install Windows.
Mac's cannot format NTFS drives, so when you boot off the Windows disk, you first have to change the format of the Bootcamp parittion to NTFS (from FAT32/MSDOS that Apple formats it as)
When you finish with BootCamp, the machine reboots and your looking at a blining line on a black screen, reboot the computer holding the option key down, this enters Startup Manager and you can select OSX to boot and get online for assistance.
However if you read the BootCamp material, it should explain everything, also there are video's on YouTube as well how to go about things.
There is Mac drivers that need to be installed into Windows, so that you can get online and other things in Windows.
I advise having another computer or Internet device so you can come here to ask in the BootCamp forum for assistance with your install as your computer will be out of operation while installing Windows.
If you don't think you can handle it, a local PC/Mac tech can do it for you.
you know on games that you buy they have system requirements what if it ask for a diffrent kind of Graphics gard, like radon or another Geforce type. should i pay attention to those diffrences. What is the rule of thumb on the details techinaly...
Determine your Mac's ability for 3D games

Can't find new drive when looking for start up disk

I upgraded to a new SATA HD on my G5. The process that I took was to copy the replaced drive via Super Duper. I moved the copy to my internal back up drive and then swapped out the old drive for a new drive. When I booted up, I did so from the back up drive and had no issues. I then partitioned the new drive and moved the files from the back up drive to the new drive. I then went into prefs to change the start up disk to the new drive - however, it is not showing up. The drive does show up in system profiler and I can navigate through it. However, nothing it is not picked up in start up??? Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance

Hi Turner100-
If you did not clone the drive onto the new one, then you must install OSX on that drive in order to have it boot the Mac.
Luck-
-DP

Want to partition a new External Hard drive for both pc and mac

Hello!
I am going to partition a new Seagate external hard drive for both my pc and mac. What format do I choose for the PC partition? MS-DOS (FAT), ExFAT, or Free Space.
Thank you!
Nikki

If I may suggest:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting has completed select the main entry for the new drive (mfgr.'s ID) then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Click on the large partition rectangle then click on the Add [+] button. The partition should divide into two equal volumes. Resize as you prefer. Select the second or bottom volume to use on the PC. Set the format type to ExFat, then click on the Apply button. Wait for the two volumes to finish mounting on the Desktop.

Brand new SSD. Old drive went bad and no back-up. How do I go about formatting etc. with the new drive. I get a failed message when trying to partition or erase new drive to format.

Installed a new SSD as my other blew it's age. I have no back-up and need to format the new one. I go in and either partition or erase and get and error message. Please help.

Zachy,
It goes something like this...
Put your new drive in the enclosure. Use Disk Utility to format it, etc. I'd give it a slightly different name than the original. Let's say you have Old Disk and New Disk as your drive names. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Old Disk to New Disk. Now you should have an exact copy, which you can test by rebooting and holding down the Option key. Choose New Disk from the list and let it boot, make sure all is well.
Shut down and physically swap the drives. Take Old Disk and put it in the enclosure. Now your system has a new disk with a lot more space and you can reformat your old disk and just use it for large files or whatever.

Expand HD Partition in Lion on New Drive

I have a new disk drive in my macbook. It is running lion. It is a 500 GB drive. My old drive was 160GB. The new drive boots as the HD drive but only uses 159 GB. I have tried to expand it to 500GB in Disk utility but it will not let me and just goes back to 159GB. I can add a 340 GB partition but I want it all together.
How can I expand HD so that it uses the entire 500GB?
Any help is much appreciated.

You can expand it, the question is what you can accomplish with repartitioning the drive.
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle downwards to fill the gray space all the way to the bottom. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
If this doesn't work then add a new partition in the gray area. Once you've added a second partition try deleting the new partition, then extend old partition.
One probable reason this may not work is that in installing Lion the Recovery HD has been placed at the end of your existing volume. While the Recovery HD partition is there you cannot extend the partition. So, the best thing to do in this case is to boot from the Recovery HD, repartition the drive into a single partition of 500 GBs and let Disk Utility relocate the Recovery HD. Of course you will have to reinstall Lion:
Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repartition the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

Should I partition a new drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for