Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the 'Don't partition MacOX drives. No need to.' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Don't partition MacOX drives. No need to.
Authored by: chucky23 on May 30, '05 10:17:57AM
"So then you should mention the good reasons. Why should I seperate user data from "the rest"? This is already done. It is called home directory..."

There are multiple reasons.

- Avoiding the swap generated disk full errors that frequently destroy user prefs and data.

- Much easier re-installations.

- Data protection in event of serious disk structure problems.

And those are three of only the most obvious reasons. More valid reasons do exist. I always have a minimum of two partitions, even if I'm not doing anything fancy.

"And by forcing the swap file to use a specific area of your hard drive you lose the ability of OS X to move often accessed files to the hot area (fastest tracks on your hard drive) automatically."

Only semi-true. If your swap file partition is over 10GB, you get the exact same hot-file capability. And given the naturally defragmented nature of swap disks, it's not much of a problem to begin with.

But I personally don't give swap its own partition. From my point of view, it's too little or no gain for much too much work, and should only be done for educational purposes.

But separating /System from /Users seems like an absolute no-brainer to me.

[ Reply to This | # ]