iBook Hypothetical

[Charles Martin]

> From: <gecina at earthlink.net>
> I have a graphite clamshell iBook running OS 9.2.  (also have a 7300 
> Power Mac
> & [temporarily] an iMac).  I'd like to add to the collection a small 
> 12-inch
> travel book (ice book?) running OSX/Classic.  Except that when I'm 
> running
> Classic on the iMac the System folder scares me.  It looks as though X 
> and
> Classic overlap in the System.  I see a lot of blank documents, etc., 
> which
> probably belong to OSX.  I'm afraid to be as bold as I can be with the
> stand-alone OS9.2 on my iBook.
>
Don't let it scare you. The two systems do not overlap. The blank 
documents you see in OS 9.2 are a side effect of OS X having a fair 
number of invisible files that become visible in 9.

There is a little shareware tool called "Mac Mach BEGONE!" that when 
set as a startup item in 9 will make those blank documents go away, but 
does not affect OS X in the slightest. You can get this little free 
wonder at versiontracker or macupdate.com.

>  On an ice book, for example, would it make any sense to use a
> partitioned disk with OS9.2 installed on one half (complete system) 
> and OSX
> installed on the other half (complete system)?  Does such a plan make 
> sense?
> I realize that a good-sized hard disk is necessary for that.
>
You could, but it's a lot of wasted space IMHO, and you run the risk of 
running out of space in the X partition in the not-too-distant future 
as you find you use OS X more and more and OS 9 less and less.

Unless you have a specific reason for partitioning (like audio/video 
work), it's probably best to just leave it as Apple sets it -- one 
partition for both.

> Another idea has crossed my mind:  This is a wildly hypothetical 
> question —
> With the clamshell iBook, could I plug in a firewire exterior hard 
> disk and
> install OSX on it?

That would work fine and sounds like an ideal solution for your needs.

Chas
"We don't want to be like Windows. We want to do everything better. We 
are intent on creating the greatest computers and the best computing 
experience in the world. And we are the only ones who can say that with 
a straight face."
- Greg Joswiak, Apple VP of hardware product marketing