How do I format an external USB harddrive into two partitions?

[jebus197]

I think the bottom line is I probably just don't like OS X very much. Having used it for ust over 4 weeks now I can't say I've enjoyed it very much at all. Conversely I think it would have been more fun to have it on a hackintosh - but to have it on the real thing has somehow just been significantly less interesting. Maybe I'll try to live with it for a while longer, but it's likely that when Windows 7 comes out I may opt to trade my Macbook Pro for something more appropriate.

[Binary]

  jebus197 said:

I think the bottom line is I probably just don't like OS X very much. Having used it for ust over 4 weeks now I can't say I've enjoyed it very much at all. Conversely I think it would have been more fun to have it on a hackintosh - but to have it on the real thing has somehow just been significantly less interesting. Maybe I'll try to live with it for a while longer, but it's likely that when Windows 7 comes out I may opt to trade my Macbook Pro for something more appropriate.

I find the same conversely with Windows 7. When using the Beta it was infuriating me to no end.

That's why there are different products for different people ;)

The problem you seem to be having is that you want OS X to be Windows. That just isn't going to happen.

Either you're willing to learn a different approach, or you're best of staying with what you know.

[jebus197]

No it's not even that. I just don't like the way it works. Plain and simple. I'm not sure I like he new Windows 7 preview pane thing either and sticking with Windows will have its consequences - like viruses etc. But that usually equates to a reinstall of about one a year on average and in the course of my own research I've read about enough people backing up and reinstalling OS X. In the course of 4 weeks I've already had to do this once - and indeed you personally recommended (yet another) reinstall. So the situation in this regard seems at least comparable to that of Windows - although clearly in this case it's for different reasons. Its simply about the overall net advantage to me - and so far there doesn't appear to be any.

Anyway I'm done with this topic. There's nothing more I want to say about it.

[Ricardo Gil]

My Windows and OSX installs have lasted for years without breaking. I honestly don't know what happened with yours.

[jebus197]

Windows - the occasional bit of dodgy software I guess, or bad hardware, or bad drivers. I've never owned a PC long enough to say if it would last for years or not. I used to build a lot of PC's - but lost interest in that due to the time and expense involved. I am by no means (at all) the only person who has become used to (quite) occasional Windows reinstalls. Check out the interweb if you need any further evidence of this. There are millions of forum posts everywhere where people have had similar experiences.

As for OS X. I can't talk about that. Within two weeks of getting my new Mac Book Pro, the Dock inexplicably stopped responding to right click actions (there was no options after right clicking on the dock, or on any of it's icons, although left clicking the icons still launched them) and after following all of the standard advice (like deleting the dock.plist etc) the only remaining advice seemed to be a full reinstall. That an the fact that spaces and expose would intermittently and inexplicably activate randomly (though occasionally) when I was typing made a reinstall at least seem like the most desirable option; though after 17 and a half hours of reinstalling and rebuilding everything the way it was before, my interest and enthusiasm for the platform had understandably waned.

OS X reinstalls aren't as uncommon as you might think. In the course of my research into the possible causes of this problem, I found plenty of people reinstalling their Macs with OS X and plenty of other Mac users advising other users to do so.

So as I said previously, the situation on both platform (although for different reasons) seems really quite comparable. You certainly get Windows users who boast about never having had to reinstall their OS. But you tend to find that these are good upstanding citizen sorts who never download anything from potentially illegal sources, and who have often lucked out by investing in good quality hardware too.

If you never downloaded anything of 'questionable' origin and have good hardware then yes Windows installs can last for a very long time.

Don't know about OS X though. Do people really keep this for years? Isn't it tempting to upgrade to the newest version when it comes out?

I don't know. I don't care that much either. I've pretty much made my mind up to sell this system within the next month or so and to get myself a nice beefy laptop in preparation for when Windows 7 comes out. There are other issues with this system too. I don't like the way OS X works in general and I don't like the keys on it either. They are heavy and clunky and not very accurate and I'm always having to go back and do corrections.

In any case I've satisfied my curiosity about his platform and now I have I will just be happy to move on and do other things. As another poster said, that's why we have choices.

[Ricardo Gil]

  jebus197 said:

As for OS X. I can't talk about that. Within two weeks of getting my new Mac Book Pro, the Dock inexplicably stopped responding to right click actions (there was no options after right clicking on the dock, or on any of it's icons, although left clicking the icons still launched them) and after following all of the standard advice (like deleting the dock.plist etc) the only remaining advice seemed to be a full reinstall. That an the fact that spaces and expose would intermittently and inexplicably activate randomly (though occasionally) when I was typing made a reinstall at least seem like the most desirable option; though after 17 and a half hours of reinstalling and rebuilding everything the way it was before, my interest and enthusiasm for the platform had understandably waned.

OS X reinstalls aren't as uncommon as you might think. In the course of my research into the possible causes of this problem, I found plenty of people reinstalling their Macs with OS X and plenty of other Mac users advising other users to do so.

So as I said previously, the situation on both platform (although for different reasons) seems really quite comparable. You certainly get Windows users who boast about never having had to reinstall their OS. But you tend to find that these are good upstanding citizen sorts who never download anything from potentially illegal sources, and who have often lucked out by investing in good quality hardware too.

If you never downloaded anything of 'questionable' origin and have good hardware then yes Windows installs can last for a very long time.

Don't know about OS X though. Do people really keep this for years? Isn't it tempting to upgrade to the newest version when it comes out?

I don't know. I don't care that much either. I've pretty much made my mind up to sell this system within the next month or so and to get myself a nice beefy laptop in preparation for when Windows 7 comes out. There are other issues with this system too. I don't like the way OS X works in general and I don't like the keys on it either. They are heavy and clunky and not very accurate and I'm always having to go back and do corrections.

In any case I've satisfied my curiosity about his platform and now I have I will just be happy to move on and do other things. As another poster said, that's why we have choices.

That's a strange problem you had there with the dock. As for the expose problem, it might have been related with the touch pad. Capacitive touch pads are often too sensitive, and even a slight touch of the wrist may trigger it. Even my G4 had that problem...

You said that in the course of your research you found plenty of people reinstalling their Macs. Well of course you did, you were searching for people with problems after all, it doesn't mean it's a common thing (same thing goes for any OS).

The OS reinstall frequency is really up to the user. I remember fiddling with w95, w98, linux, etc and screwing them up, sometimes twice a day. Nowadays, I just use the computer for the apps, I also don't go to shady websites, so my installs last longer (Work PC and laptop installs have lasted for almost 3 years now, using XP).

My old iBook ran OSX 10.3 for ~3 years. One day I decided to format it because, simply put, I was curious about the install process :). It came pre-installed and the OS never broke down so I had never installed it.

IMO, every current OS is more than prepared to run for a long time, just as long as the user behaves accordingly.

Anyway, I hope you get a laptop that fits you better. Good luck with Windows 7, seems like a worthy successor to XP (Y)