Has Anyone Partitioned their Hard Drive in 3 Three?

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Has Anyone Partitioned their Hard Drive in 3 Three?

I have decided to partition the new 750GB internal hard drive I have purchased into 3 partitions.

The reason for is I will be using both Snow Leopard and Lion so I will need a partition for each of these in addition to one data partition.

The data partition should save space not having to install my photos, music etc and certain applications on both.

My main problem is I now have the confusing task of deciding how much space to allocate into each partition. How much should I give to the Snow Leopard, Lion and Data partitions and why? Below is some general information

750GB to play with
Need to create partitions Lion, Snow Leopard and Data
My new hard drive is a Seagate hybrid drive (part SSD, part HDD) if this makes a difference

If anyone has done 3 partitions before regardless of what OS's you installed I would greatful if replied. Many thanks.

All help appreciated 🙂

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Jan 26, 2013 10:30 AM

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Answer 1

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Jan 26, 2013 10:39 AM in response to darkhorse85

It depends of the applications you want to use on each operating systems. First, I'm sure you want to assign as much space as possible to your data partition, so you can play depending of the applications you are going to use on each operating system.

If you want to install some applications on the data partition (you can do it), you can assign to each OS X about 50-100 GB, and the rest for the data partition. Also, buy an external disk to make backups

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Answer 2

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 10:55 AM in response to mende1

Aside from the issue of incompatibility, how would I decide whether or not to use an application (or version of it) solely on one OS? Is there any advantage to installing applications on an OS partitions instead of the data partition?

I have an 2TB external hard drive with data an some free space. And, yes I do want assign as much space to the data as possible.

Thanks for the quick response.

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Answer 3

steve359

Level 6

17,169 points

Jan 26, 2013 10:58 AM in response to darkhorse85

Be warned ... OSX and all OSes need breating room. OSX needs 15% "free space" always to do normal housekeeping. When you take space away from OSX, be sure to leave 20 GB unused in the OSX partition.

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Answer 4

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 11:01 AM in response to steve359

Good to know! Thanks Steve.

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Answer 5

steve359

Level 6

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Jan 26, 2013 11:03 AM in response to darkhorse85

Di nada

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Answer 6

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 11:12 AM in response to mende1

Hello,

An OS partition of 50-100gb sounds excessive, given that Snow Leopard for example, only takes up around 5gb of space? What would be the reason(s) for giving what seems like such a large amount of space to each OS partitions?

Thanks again.

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Answer 7

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Jan 26, 2013 11:10 AM in response to darkhorse85

Some applications require special files on ~/Library (this type of applications come with an installer), so you have to install them on the OS X volume. For example, you should be able to install "drag & drop" applications on the data partition without any problem, and you should install PowerPC applications (or unsupported apps) on the Snow Leopard partition because you can't use them on Lion

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Answer 8

mende1

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Jan 26, 2013 11:11 AM in response to darkhorse85

Because of the apps. I said it was an approximation and it depends of the apps you are going to install on the OS X volume (read my last comment)

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Answer 9

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 11:23 AM in response to mende1

Okay thanks

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Answer 10

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 11:36 AM in response to mende1

Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with what it is that defines applications as "drag-and-drop" applications?
How I can find out which are applications are drag-and-drag applications?
Is there way I can find out which applications would require special files on Library, (I think iTunes is one of these applications)?

Thanks for being attentive when answering my questions 🙂

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Answer 11

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Jan 26, 2013 11:42 AM in response to darkhorse85

1. "Drag & drop" applications are the applications that are installed just dragging them onto Applications folder, without using any installer. Most of the OS X apps are "drag & drop" ones.

2. You will notice that most of the "drag & drop" applications don't come with an installer, so they just ask you to drag the app icon onto Applications folder.

3. One example of application that requires other files is Microsoft Office for Mac. It comes with an installer and it creates files on Library folder. iTunes isn't applicable because it comes preinstalled with OS X

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Answer 12

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 1:53 PM in response to mende1

Thanks thats helpful.

So I assume what I need to do to determine the partition sizes is...

Calculate total size of these of each different the groups of applications

Add the size the size of the OS

Add about 15% plus on top of the space required for "breathing room"

...does that sound about right to you?

Are there any other applications that you tell that need the Library/ special files?
What is the best way for me to find out these which these applications Library and special files?

This good I feel I'm getting some where 🙂

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Answer 13

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Jan 26, 2013 1:46 PM in response to darkhorse85

1. Correct.

2. Simply, applications with an installer require additional files that are automatically installed. I think another application is VirtualBox

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Answer 14

darkhorse85 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 2:30 PM in response to mende1

Seen as I'm not sure how to distinguish between, which applications would have needed an installer in past when/if they were installed on my machine.

When the applications are already on your hard drive(not the new one) is there another way of finding out which these are? Is it possible to run a search for them on my computer, this would save me a huge amount of time?

Many thanks

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Answer 15

mende1

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Jan 26, 2013 2:34 PM in response to darkhorse85

Unfortunately, there's no way to check that

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