[G4] Opinions on partitioning strategy

[James Asherman]

On Feb 10, 2007, at 6:11 PM, Technophobic_Tom at comcast.net wrote:

> In the past, under OS 9, I partitioned my drives so that the system  
> files, applications, documents, and caches had separate volumes. My  
> rational being that I only needed to backup the system and  
> application files when major changes were made but I wanted to  
> backup documents several times each week. I know...I was using  
> DiskFit and could have selected which files to back up in  
> particular sets; however, I also felt that there was less chance of  
> the system or applications crashing and munging up the document  
> files if they were on separate volumes. It's also nice to have  
> clean, unfragmented space for images etc.
>
Great. Now try to forget all that.
> My son gave me his old MMD dual 1.25 400 including lots of recently  
> installed applications and 10.4.8. I backed up the whole drive with  
> Retrospect Desktop, added a HD, and partitioned that as follows: 121 
> + gigs, 10gb for DVD burning, 5gb for applications, 10gb for  
> scratch, and 1gb for downloading, and 1gb for a redundant 9.2.2  
> boot volume. Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the original  
> HD into the 121 gig volume. All is working well.

Too many partitions.

>
> Can I now simple copy the applications folder from the 121gb volume  
> into the applications volume, pull all the applications out of the  
> folder, then trash that empty folder, and replace the applications  
> folder on the 121gb with an alias pointing to the new 5gb  
> applications volume?
Have a backup drive or don't. Your choice. But you are taking simple  
and making it painful. This will bite you in the ass later, and you  
waste gigs on the partitioning.
> Are there invisible files that would be lost and not included in  
> the process?
usually
> Do application preference files under OSX get mingled in with the  
> system folder/files as they do in OS9?
Why don't you poke around in OSX . Prefs are in the library folders  
of which there at least two.
> Maybe I could use CCC to clone the folder. ????
Sure. Or you could .....just install all your stuff on one big drive.  
Partition the other one like 100/20 put 0.2.2 on the 20 and CCC your  
main drive to the 100.
  Then both drives will have lots of space and the 100 will have  
clean space.
>
> Can I install 9.2.2 in the 121gb "system" volume now or will I have  
> to uninstall OSX, install OS9, and then reinstall OSX so that I can  
> run in classic mode?
> I realize I can use the redundant 1gb 9.2.2 boot volume but mighten  
> it be useful to have both options?

You can install enough 9.2 for classic from within OSX (system  
preferences) Your potential 9.2.2 boot drive will be a separate install.
>
> Most of my old applications will only run under OS9. How can I get  
> them from my networked B&W, 7500, and IIfx and be sure all the  
> parts are there?
CD's but it isn't pretty. I'd bag it. Install them to your boot 9.2  
drive or partition.
being sure all the parts are there is a pain.

> Where do I put them?
> Would it just be easier to reinstall them?
That would be good if you have discs and serial#s but it's still old  
stuff. The new stuff is better.
> If so is that done in OS9, OSX, or does it matter?
Of course it matters. OSX all the time. Some of your olld apps might  
run under classic. Some won't. USe X as much as possible.

Jim
> _