aaron901 Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 another noob question. do you guys ever format your mac? i mean like for pc, you gotta format at least once a year to keep it running really smooth, so i keep all my mp3, mov, and documents on another hdd, therefore i can format my pc anytime without backing up. now im gonna switch over to use mac, i wonder if i can keep my mp3 and stuff on the hdd of the laptop, or i need an external hdd to store these stuff in case mac osx needs to be formatted occasionally like windows. thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewster2100 Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 i keep all my mp3, mov, and documents on another hdd, therefore i can format my pc anytime without backing up. thats what i do, cause i know windows could take a dump on me at any time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the evn show Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 I've got 10.2.2 installed with journaling enabled so i'm a little less concerned about catastrophic failure than I once was. None the less I still backup nightly to a *nix computer and make cd backups every month or so. To those who aren't backing up I ask: "Is your data really NOT worth the $5/month in CD-Rs it would cost to back it up properly?" That all said I still do regular maintenance (including reinstalls) on all of my machines. Every 4-6 months I format/repartition a computer and reinstall the OS and software with all the latest bug fixes and patches; it's just good house keeping. It's been my experience that regular formats are generally not required as often on a mac but YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessejlt Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 I would say giving Windows a full year is pushing it just a bit :-p Anyways, osX is very stable and doesn't become buggy and corrupt like Windows does. However! It is always a good idea to keep your documents / pics / backups / mp3's on another HDD because you never know what might happen :no: In OSX, your "Home" folder stores everything that you would want to have on another HDD. It's easily moved to another partition via many great utilities that change the paths within the OS so that the OS thinks that the "Home" folder actually resides on the same Partition / HDD as it does, even though it does. Therefore, when it comes time to format / reinstall / whatever, you can safely trash the OS partition / drive and all your important crap is nice and happy on another partition / HDD. If you would like some names for a couple of great utilities to do this for ya...lemme know. My general suggestion for mac partition tables is as follows: 500MB for Swapfile 500MB for OS 9 (might need it for something) 1/3 of your HDD for OS 10.x.x 2/3 of your hdd for your "Home" folder jesse ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 "Is your data really NOT worth the $5/month in CD-Rs it would cost to back it up properly?" my data worths way over $5, therefore i would consider buying an external hdd to store it. backing up to cd-r is just a booooooooring process that i'd never do. yea, just few minutes a month is not a big deal but pardon me, i just don't do that. ;) jessejlt, i would like to know which software handles this best! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drewster2100 Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 I've got 10.2.2 installed with journaling enabled so i'm a little less concerned about catastrophic failure than I once was. None the less I still backup nightly to a *nix computer and make cd backups every month or so. To those who aren't backing up I ask: "Is your data really NOT worth the $5/month in CD-Rs it would cost to back it up properly?"That all said I still do regular maintenance (including reinstalls) on all of my machines. Every 4-6 months I format/repartition a computer and reinstall the OS and software with all the latest bug fixes and patches; it's just good house keeping. It's been my experience that regular formats are generally not required as often on a mac but YMMV. "Is your data really NOT worth the $5/month in CD-Rs it would cost to back it up properly?" i know i dont want to take all that time to back it up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted November 30, 2002 Veteran Share Posted November 30, 2002 Mcas don't get bogged down like windows do. Here's how I had mine setup, 2 partitions, one for the OS and another for data, I used netinfo to move my home directory to the data partition, this meant that every programs settings were also on that partition. If I ever ran into trouble, I formatted, reinstalled the OS on the system partition and I still had all my data and kept all the settings to everything. Bookmarks, photoshop settings, system settings etc. it was a perfect solution and meant you have a system up and running *exactly* like it was 10 minutes ago. Flawless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 Mcas don't get bogged down like windows do.Here's how I had mine setup, 2 partitions, one for the OS and another for data, I used netinfo to move my home directory to the data partition, this meant that every programs settings were also on that partition. If I ever ran into trouble, I formatted, reinstalled the OS on the system partition and I still had all my data and kept all the settings to everything. Bookmarks, photoshop settings, system settings etc. it was a perfect solution and meant you have a system up and running *exactly* like it was 10 minutes ago. Flawless. cool. 60GB HDD, how would you partition it? and how? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted November 30, 2002 Veteran Share Posted November 30, 2002 I had a 40gb drive and I partitioned it 10gb for the OS and it's apps, then the other 30gb was for my files like images, movies, mp3's etc. I'd format yours maybe 10gb/50gb, 15/45 or 20/40. Depends if you play games as well. Applications don't take up a lot of space. As for how, when you boot from an OS X CD, when setup stars, go to File - Disk utility (it could be different, I can't quite remember) and you'll have a graphical partition manager like Partition magic. Just click and drag to create your partitions then start setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 thanks thanks thanks :) :) :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BroChaos Veteran Posted November 30, 2002 Veteran Share Posted November 30, 2002 correct me if i'm wrong, but part of the reason windows gets bogged down is because software doesn't correctly remove all of it's .dll's and registry entries when said peice of software is uninstalled. however, in osx, there are no extra dlls (well not technically .dlls, but you know what i mean) and there is no registry, so this isn't an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patoz2k5 Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 I have 2 partitions on my 60 G hd. (i used to have 3, one for XP pro, one for Program files, and one for misc downloads +mp3's) i found it easier to have only 2 because when i formatted i ended up formatting my program files also, because i changed them often. Right now my HD is set up like this c: 13 GB (Os + Programs) x: 43 GB (music + downloads + etc.) I used partition magic 7 to set all of this up, its a great program! * dont ask me why it only equals up to 56 GB...AND there is NO free space :cry: * Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BananaMan Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 I have 2 partitions on my 60 G hd. (i used to have 3, one for XP pro, one for Program files, and one for misc downloads +mp3's) i found it easier to have only 2 because when i formatted i ended up formatting my program files also, because i changed them often. Right now my HD is set up like this c: 13 GB (Os + Programs) x: 43 GB (music + downloads + etc.) I used partition magic 7 to set all of this up, its a great program! * dont ask me why it only equals up to 56 GB...AND there is NO free space :cry: * The reason why is simply because hard drive manufactors overstate the capacity of their storage, they use powers of 10 as opposed to powers of two, which means a megabyte to them is 1,000,000 when it's actually 1,048,576. So, with your 60 gig hard drive, it should have a capacity of 64424509440 bytes, but because of the numbering system all you have is 60000000000, which means you've lost 4424509440 bytes, which is 4219 megs, or 4 gigabytes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 You could consider me a hardcore partitioner. I had my g4 as follows: 3 gig OS9 10gig OSX and Apps 35gig Then I had a partition for mp3s, pics, and movies 20gig A backup partition 15gig Then a spare I used for OS X 10.2 beta builds. AFter that, usually it was a backup On my pc I have: c:\ 10 gig - Windows d:\ 20 gig - Programs e:\ 27gig - Games (and backup) f:\ 30gig - mp3s, movies, pics g:\ 8gig - backup I need to change some of the partition sizes to make my backup bigger. Oh and for OS X, don't bother making a pagefile partition. It helps absolutely nothing. OS0 it was nice, but it won't help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 I have 2 partitions on my 60 G hd. (i used to have 3, one for XP pro, one for Program files, and one for misc downloads +mp3's) i found it easier to have only 2 because when i formatted i ended up formatting my program files also, because i changed them often. Right now my HD is set up like this c: 13 GB (Os + Programs) x: 43 GB (music + downloads + etc.) I used partition magic 7 to set all of this up, its a great program! * dont ask me why it only equals up to 56 GB...AND there is NO free space :cry: * :blink: we're talking about mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 10gig OSX and Apps you really are a hardcore partitioner :D btw, is 10GB enough for OSX and Apps? basically i think i'm just gonna install simcity4, final cut pro, photoshop7, macromedia studio mx, office v.X... and those useful little apps which i think doesn't take up much space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 Yeah 10 was enough room for me. I had a ton of small stuff plus officev.x, photoshop, dreamweavermx, illustrator, MOHAA and another bigger game. I think I only filled 6 gig of it too. For some it may not be enough, but it was fine for me. You can always (and i did a couple) install games on a different partition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted December 1, 2002 Author Share Posted December 1, 2002 i guess im gonna partition it as 20GB for osx and apps, 40GB for mp3, and buy an external hdd for movies. thanks for all the help. i love you guys. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvorgold Posted December 1, 2002 Share Posted December 1, 2002 im planning on formatting as soon as i boot my mac up (since one of my friends advised me to do that)...and i'll probably install os9 for classic crud... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nova_rock Posted December 2, 2002 Share Posted December 2, 2002 i've done it 2 times ever when upgrading family computers to OS 9, just to give it a clean install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerbero Posted December 2, 2002 Share Posted December 2, 2002 I did it right after I got the computer (that was 10.1.5 btw), cause I like to have everything installed correctly, not an OEM install. Then I did it with 10.2 instead of just upgrading, for basically the same reason. After that I haven't reformatted. I have my 40 gig drive set up with 8 gigs for OS/apps, and the rest for my home folder, with music, movies, downloads etc. I think I'll buy a firewire dock and a 120 gig drive sometime after christmas though, as soon as I can afford it.. 40gig is a little low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted December 4, 2002 Author Share Posted December 4, 2002 Mcas don't get bogged down like windows do.Here's how I had mine setup, 2 partitions, one for the OS and another for data, I used netinfo to move my home directory to the data partition, this meant that every programs settings were also on that partition. If I ever ran into trouble, I formatted, reinstalled the OS on the system partition and I still had all my data and kept all the settings to everything. Bookmarks, photoshop settings, system settings etc. it was a perfect solution and meant you have a system up and running *exactly* like it was 10 minutes ago. Flawless. how do you use netinfo to move your home directory to another partition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyerXL Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 Yea, I did a clean install when I finally installed jaguar a couple of weeks ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey$cale Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 hmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey$cale Posted December 4, 2002 Share Posted December 4, 2002 correct me if i'm wrong, but part of the reason windows gets bogged down is because software doesn't correctly remove all of it's .dll's and registry entries when said peice of software is uninstalled. however, in osx, there are no extra dlls (well not technically .dlls, but you know what i mean) and there is no registry, so this isn't an issue. i am with you on that one bro =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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