I Have A New Lacie Rugged 320 GB - Do I Partition The Drive?

Question

Level 2

418 points

I Have A New Lacie Rugged 320 GB - Do I Partition The Drive?

I have a new Lacie Rugged 320GB (along with my other two Lacie external hard drives), and have
a few questions about setting this one up for what I want to do.

1. I want make a partition to save a complete eMac Hard Drive on the new
Lacie Rugged 320 for a master back-up (Tiger 10.4.11 Back-Up) This will be Mac OS Extended

2. I want to make a second partition for a future Macbook Pro Hard Drive
on the new LaCie rugged 320GB Drive (OS10.6 or later Back-Up) This will be Mac OS Extended

3. I want to make a "free space" partition for a master iTune Folder Back-Up
on the Lacie Rugged 320 GB Drive .... and to provide additional "free space"
for future important file back-ups. This will be Mac OS Extended

4. I want to add a fourth partition for a possible windows back-up. Not sure what this should be
formatted in.

Is it reasonable to section this drive off into four partitions? I would like to have a master back-up, that I could use to reboot an eMac in an emergency .... or to first use when loading my new Macbook Pro.

Secondly, I would like to back-up the Macbook Pro, so I will have a second start up drive
it it should ever be needed.

Then I would like to have an "open free space" partition where I could put immediate stuff
on and off the drive for back-up purposes (iTunes library folder, etc.).

Last, I THINK I should have a separate partition for a windows system back-up that will
be running on the Macbook Pro ... although I'm not sure which Windows/PC formatting would be
best for doing this. Or if this would even make good sense?

Any suggestions on partitoning the new Lacie Rugged 320GB will be appreciated.
Thanks

eMac/Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Lacie 1T and 320 d2 HD, Lacie Rugged 320GB HD

Posted on Jan 11, 2011 7:40 PM

Reply

Answer 1

tjk

Level 9

51,192 points

Jan 11, 2011 8:13 PM in response to DavidMac

Hi David,

Just a few thoughts:

If I understand you correctly, you can do what you've outlined, but I question whether you have enough space on a 320GB HD for all that. Have you added up all the numbers (and left a bit of "breathing room")? Also, check the actual usable space on the HD once it's formatted and partitioned. Some people are surprised that the amount is less than advertised, due to both overhead and the way HD capacity may be measured/advertised.

Regarding the Windows partition: iirc, it used to be that FAT had a limit of 4GB per file. I do not know if that is still the case, and if it is, I do not know if that would affect your decision.

Good luck.

Reply

Answer 2

DavidMac Author

Level 2

418 points

Jan 12, 2011 1:28 AM in response to tjk

The eMac drive (including all app, library, system, and user folders, will
only be about 35 GB.

The MacBook Pro is (and will probably be), no more than between 50 - 80 GB tops.
(That would include only the app, library, system, and user folders)

So each of these two could be divided into one 50GB partition, and one
80- 100 GB partion. Leaving about 130 GB for the other two possible partitions.
The 320GB (actual is around 290 GB or so), would seem more than large enough
to act as a "back-up" drive, which will be stored away for an emergency ... should
it ever be needed.

Three of the partitons are to be "Mac OS Extended" in formatting. Would it still be
possible to make an additional fourth partition for "windows" using say the "MS-DOS (FAT 32)
format for the fourth partition? My only reason for a fourth partition is to cover any
windows "system" files that OS10.5 - 10.6 may need to re-boot with.

When OS10.6 is backed-up (just the app, library, system, and user folders), does
this also include any "system" files installed to run "windows" from bootcamp? Or
with the "windows system" in OS10.6, do these Bootcamp "window system files"need to
backed-up on a separate partion (either Mac OS Extended or FAT32)?

See what I'm trying to get at?

Reply

Answer 3

DavidMac Author

Level 2

418 points

Jan 12, 2011 3:53 PM in response to DavidMac

This reference site address helped:

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/382971/external-drive-wont-partition-both-ma c/

Reply

Answer 4

tjk

Level 9

51,192 points

Jan 12, 2011 5:32 PM in response to DavidMac

DavidMac wrote:
Three of the partitons are to be "Mac OS Extended" in formatting. Would it still be
possible to make an additional fourth partition for "windows" using say the "MS-DOS (FAT 32)

Yes. Start by partitioning the entire disk as GUID, with the number of partitions you want. Then format the one as MS DOS.

When OS10.6 is backed-up (just the app, library, system, and user folders), does
this also include any "system" files installed to run "windows" from bootcamp? Or
with the "windows system" in OS10.6, do these Bootcamp "window system files"need to
backed-up on a separate partion (either Mac OS Extended or FAT32)?

See what I'm trying to get at?

Yes, but I do not know the answer. If no one can answer here, you may want to ask in the Bootcamp and/or OS X forums.

Reply

Answer 5

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 12, 2011 5:56 PM in response to DavidMac

It's not a good idea to post the same question in 3 different forums.

It wastes the time of folks posting the same answers, and if a question is asked in one forum asking for clarification, those answering in other forums won't see them, so you'll get various answers that seem to conflict.

Reply