Partition external HD
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From: salgud on 5 May 2008 12:44 I'm getting my first Mac, an iMac in the next month or so. I have a 120 Gb external HD to which I'm backing up all my Windoze files for transfer. After I effect the transfer, I want to partition and reformat the external HD. Can I partition it so that part it is for Time Machine, for routine file backup, and part of it is a bootable drive for emergencies? (I know that Apple recommends a TM drive be about 1.5 times the main drive, but at least for now, I don't have anywhere near 250 Gb of data. More like 30 Gb, including Leopard. So a 60 or 80 Gb partition for TM should be sufficient with room enough even as I add more files.) Also, I will be running Parellels for some Windoze apps, do I need a FAT or NTFS partition for that? Assuming this kind of arrangement can work, how big of a partition do I need for the bootable drive? I also welcome any suggestions as to other possible uses for partitions so I can do this once and not have to do it again later. What do others use partitions for and what size partitions do you recommend? Thanks in advance.
From: aRKay on 5 May 2008 14:11 In article <1uedpva9e95l1.dhdqo0rcvfk6$.dlg(a)40tude.net>, salgud <spamboy6547(a)comcast.net> wrote: > I'm getting my first Mac, an iMac in the next month or so. I have a 120 Gb > external HD to which I'm backing up all my Windoze files for transfer. > After I effect the transfer, I want to partition and reformat the external > HD. Can I partition it so that part it is for Time Machine, for routine > file backup, and part of it is a bootable drive for emergencies? (I know > that Apple recommends a TM drive be about 1.5 times the main drive, but at > least for now, I don't have anywhere near 250 Gb of data. More like 30 Gb, > including Leopard. So a 60 or 80 Gb partition for TM should be sufficient > with room enough even as I add more files.) Also, I will be running > Parellels for some Windoze apps, do I need a FAT or NTFS partition for > that? Assuming this kind of arrangement can work, how big of a partition do > I need for the bootable drive? > I also welcome any suggestions as to other possible uses for partitions so > I can do this once and not have to do it again later. What do others use > partitions for and what size partitions do you recommend? > Thanks in advance. You have asked a number of questions and I not sure what your really want to accomplish. 1. How big is your external hard drive? The reason for asking is yes it can be erased and partitioned as a Mac drive with two partitions. My 2.4 GHz iMac has a 250 GB drive but i am only using about 80 GB so split the 300 GB external into two partitions. One is called Time Machine Back Up and the other is SuperDuper Backup. I back up my primary drive using TM to one of the partions and use SD to make the other a boot drive. This gives me the best of both. I have TM for minor repairs and can boot from the other external drive if needed. Be sure you partition your external with some elbow room. If it is a small drive you may want to make one partition and dedicate it as either a TM or SD backup. Yes, i know some people mix both SD and TM but they are asking for trouble. My simple setup works and it has saved my six several times
From: salgud on 5 May 2008 14:18 Thanks for your reply. On Mon, 05 May 2008 10:32:44 -0700, Michael Vilain wrote: > In article <1uedpva9e95l1.dhdqo0rcvfk6$.dlg(a)40tude.net>, > salgud <spamboy6547(a)comcast.net> wrote: > >> I'm getting my first Mac, an iMac in the next month or so. I have a 120 Gb >> external HD to which I'm backing up all my Windoze files for transfer. >> After I effect the transfer, I want to partition and reformat the external >> HD. Can I partition it so that part it is for Time Machine, for routine >> file backup, and part of it is a bootable drive for emergencies? (I know >> that Apple recommends a TM drive be about 1.5 times the main drive, but at >> least for now, I don't have anywhere near 250 Gb of data. More like 30 Gb, >> including Leopard. So a 60 or 80 Gb partition for TM should be sufficient >> with room enough even as I add more files.) Also, I will be running >> Parellels for some Windoze apps, do I need a FAT or NTFS partition for >> that? Assuming this kind of arrangement can work, how big of a partition do >> I need for the bootable drive? >> I also welcome any suggestions as to other possible uses for partitions so >> I can do this once and not have to do it again later. What do others use >> partitions for and what size partitions do you recommend? >> Thanks in advance. > > I think you need to prioritize your requirements and figure out if this > disk is going to be best use for them. From your post, you seem to want > to do multiple things, each with their own set of requirements: > > - Time Machine backups (not big enough) I don't understand this. I thought I needed about 1.5 times the data backed up for TM. Not so? > > - Parallels (must be formated FAT32 as MacOS X can't format NTFS) then > can't use for Time Machine > > - Multiple partitions (currently MacOS X can't create multiple > partitions of HFS+ and NTFS. Neither can XP AFAIK.) > > Decide what you want to do then setup or replace your disk with one that > will the task you want. I don't think this will do all of it. So if I created a FAT32 partition, just big enough to run Parallels? Not doing any large files, mostly running M$ Project for testing purposes. Would that be a problem?
From: salgud on 5 May 2008 18:05 Thanks for your reply. On Mon, 05 May 2008 13:11:36 -0500, aRKay wrote: > In article <1uedpva9e95l1.dhdqo0rcvfk6$.dlg(a)40tude.net>, > salgud <spamboy6547(a)comcast.net> wrote: > >> I'm getting my first Mac, an iMac in the next month or so. I have a 120 Gb >> external HD to which I'm backing up all my Windoze files for transfer. >> After I effect the transfer, I want to partition and reformat the external >> HD. Can I partition it so that part it is for Time Machine, for routine >> file backup, and part of it is a bootable drive for emergencies? (I know >> that Apple recommends a TM drive be about 1.5 times the main drive, but at >> least for now, I don't have anywhere near 250 Gb of data. More like 30 Gb, >> including Leopard. So a 60 or 80 Gb partition for TM should be sufficient >> with room enough even as I add more files.) Also, I will be running >> Parellels for some Windoze apps, do I need a FAT or NTFS partition for >> that? Assuming this kind of arrangement can work, how big of a partition do >> I need for the bootable drive? >> I also welcome any suggestions as to other possible uses for partitions so >> I can do this once and not have to do it again later. What do others use >> partitions for and what size partitions do you recommend? >> Thanks in advance. > > You have asked a number of questions and I not sure what your really want > to accomplish. > > 1. How big is your external hard drive? The reason for asking is yes > it can be erased and partitioned as a Mac drive with two partitions. As I said, 120 Gb. Right now, I have less than 15 Gb of data. So a TM drive of 23 Gb should be plenty, if the guideline I read is correct. It said about 1.5 times the size of the drive I'm backing up, but I think it should really be 1.5 times the amount of data I'm backing up. Is this not correct? > > My 2.4 GHz iMac has a 250 GB drive but i am only using about 80 GB so > split the 300 GB external into two partitions. One is called Time > Machine Back Up and the other is SuperDuper Backup. I back up my > primary drive using TM to one of the partions and use SD to make > the other a boot drive. This gives me the best of both. I have TM > for minor repairs and can boot from the other external drive if needed. > Pretty much what I'm thinking. > Be sure you partition your external with some elbow room. If it is a > small drive you may want to make one partition and dedicate it > as either a TM or SD backup. Yes, i know some people mix both > SD and TM but they are asking for trouble. My simple setup works > and it has saved my six several times I want to do the same thing. I want to have a bootable partition on my 120 Gb external, whatever amount of space that takes. Do you know how big it should be? Then take the remainder of the 120 Gb for TM. Leopard's footpring is 9 Gb. I would think the bootable drive shouldn't have to be much bigger than that, but I don't know how much overhead space is advisable for the bootable drive. Does anyone know? Then I want to take the rest of the external drive for TM, unless there's something else that I'd need another partition for. I've heard of people using them for ripping CDs/DVDs and other things. Is this really necessary? This way, I'd have more than enough space on the 120 Gb drive to do everyting I need, at least until my data files approach 2/3's of the size of the TM drive. At that point, I'd have to look at upgrading the external. Any other suggestions? Is there any other backup function that is not covered by this scheme?
From: Jolly Roger on 5 May 2008 21:43
In article <1uedpva9e95l1.dhdqo0rcvfk6$.dlg(a)40tude.net>, salgud <spamboy6547(a)comcast.net> wrote: > I'm getting my first Mac, an iMac in the next month or so. Congrats. Welcome the the Mac community! We're glad to have you. : ) > I have a 120 Gb > external HD to which I'm backing up all my Windoze files for transfer. > After I effect the transfer, I want to partition and reformat the external > HD. Can I partition it so that part it is for Time Machine, for routine > file backup, and part of it is a bootable drive for emergencies? Sure. > (I know > that Apple recommends a TM drive be about 1.5 times the main drive, but at > least for now, I don't have anywhere near 250 Gb of data. More like 30 Gb, > including Leopard. So a 60 or 80 Gb partition for TM should be sufficient > with room enough even as I add more files.) Ok so... You'll use /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility to do the partitioning. You'll create a ~10 GB partition for the bootable emergency partition, formatted with HFS Extended. You'll install Mac OS X on that. Then create another partition with the remainder of the space to use as a Time Machine partition. > Also, I will be running > Parellels for some Windoze apps, do I need a FAT or NTFS partition for > that? Neither! Virtualization software like Parallels Desktop and vmWare Fusion, by default, create a file in Mac OS X that acts as a hard drive for the guest operating system to Mac OS X, the file is just a binary file. To the guest operating system (Windows), it's the startup drive. So while you can instruct both to use a FAT/NTFS partition, there's really no need for one. > Assuming this kind of arrangement can work, how big of a partition do > I need for the bootable drive? I'd say around 10 GB should be plenty. > I also welcome any suggestions as to other possible uses for partitions so > I can do this once and not have to do it again later. What do others use > partitions for and what size partitions do you recommend? > Thanks in advance. Personally, even with my Unix/Linux background, I avoid partitioning if I can help it, and only create as many as I absolutely have to, because repartitioning isn't something I like to spend my afternoons doing, and the drawbacks usually outweigh the benefits. ; ) -- Please send all responses to the relevant news group. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. I do not read posts from Google Groups. Use a real news reader if you want me to see your posts. JR |