Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / December 2004

[I don't see what this has to do with portables. Follow-ups set to
<news:comp.sys.mac.system> only.]

No.

- Mostly that IMO there's no benefit
- If you ever want to change partition sizes, you'll have to reformat.
(2 applications appeared recently that claim to offer repartitioning
without dataloss. I haven't heard good or bad about them, but it seems
to me hardly anyone is using them.)
- Apple's installers expect Apple's aplications in the original place.
- As far as I know a dedicated swap partition has nothing to offer to OS
X. (I recall reading how someone had set up a separate *physical disk*
for swap space and seeing only a little speed improvement. Just a
separate partition would offer even less.)

[Note follow-ups]

If you only have one disk, it's probably best to have
the swap space close to the middle of the files you use most.

Otherwise, the disk head is constantly running out to where
the swap is and back to where the data/code is.

My disk is in several partitions, BUT the only
reasons are (1) to separate users who are disk hogs
from the O.S. and swap space, and (2) so that it will
be easier to restore if we trash a partition.

I'm a compulsive tinkerer, and so are both sons,
so the latter is a definite possibility.

One common objection is that partitioning means one partition
will have wasted space that another might need.

This may be true for some people, but is it for everyone?

I survived for four years with six Gigabytes.  Now my smallest
partition is 15 Gig.  I could be wrong but I suspect there
will still be lots of empty space when the computer gets
replaced.

I guess in a rambling way, I'm saying the answer is "It depends"  :-)

Yes.  A swap partition may not be all that helpful since you only have one
disk but I sure find it much more convenient to have only the system and  OS
X-included apps on it's own 9 GB partition.  In your case add a couple of GB
for swap if you don't create a dedicated swap partition.  Basically, if
you're burning DVDs you need at least 4.2 GB of free space on the system
partition to burn.

With my 3rd party apps and user stuff on different partitions I can start
fresh with a new install of the OS (like when reverting to 10.3.5 after
crappy 10.3.6) without restoring those apps or user data from backup, or
worrying about what type of install to choose.

No.

Greg