[X Newbies] OS X Panther Partition Size and Swap Space

[Michael Winter]

On Apr 19, 2004, at 1:53 PM, Al Poulin wrote:

> Should I set up a partition for Panther swap space?  I have the 
> instructions
> on how to do that from Terminal.  Or should I just make the boot volume
> large enough to preclude a problem?  What size would the boot volume 
> be in
> either case?

Do you really need to partition? The reason I ask is because "how big?" 
always seems to be the first question, but the question that needs 
answering first is "why partition?" There's no way to answer "how big" 
until you know why you're partitioning and therefor what's going on 
each partition. Personally, I see partitioning a drive (especially if 
being done for a separate swap partition) as something that only needs 
to be done in very specific circumstances. I'd recommend just leaving 
your OS X drive as one big partition.

>  I am planning to repartition one of my two hard drives on a 
> QuickSilver G4
> 733 to install Panther.  I could reinstall OS 9.2.2 which I been using 
> for a
> couple years or just leave it on the other drive.

I would either leave it on the other drive or do both. Doing "both" 
gives you a clean OS 9 install to use for Classic (if you need that) 
while the install on the other drive is nice to have for times when you 
may need to boot into OS 9 (if that's a consideration) -though there's 
nothing to prevent you from having more than one copy of OS 9 on the 
same drive or partition.

>  The apps and data will
> all be on other volumes, I hope.

Having apps on a different volume is going to take a little extra 
housekeeping -especially where Software Update is concerned. Assuming 
you're a relative newbie (this is a newbies list) I wouldn't recommend 
this. Having data on a different partition or drive is less of a 
problem as long as you're not worried about permissions (set it to 
ignore permissions on that drive or partition). There are ways to set 
all this up, but I'd be very sure you want to go through the hassle 
before you do it.

One final note, I'm not saying partitioning isn't the right thing to do 
in your case, just that I don't have enough information to say it is 
right or wrong, or how large to recommend the various partitions should 
be. Hope it give you a little to think about though.

-Mike