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HD Partitioning—Why or Why Not ?

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William Faris

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I have a new G4 dual 1 Ghz not yet configured but purchased to work with Photoshop 7 and other business related programs such as Filemaker, Word, accounting stuff, etc. Some have told me repeatedly that I must partition Photoshop off from my other applications to optimize performance and safety. Others say no it will create more headaches than I want.

Honestly I havent a clue and have seen this topic pop up here from time to time but searching the archives told me little. I have never had a partitioned HD and frankly dont understand the logic or mechanics of such an arrangement. Is there somebody here that would take a couple of minutes to explain this to me and advise on what I should do.

Thanks in advance — WRF
 
William,

I'll take a crack at explaining this.

When you ad extra partitions to a disk drive, you tell the OS to break one physical drive into 2 or more logical drives. It creates separate file allocation tables, directory structures, etc for each partition.

This can be useful for several reasons. First, certain types of disk problems can stay isolated to a single partition, and thus be easier to fix. You can erase a partition easily and not touch the rest of the drive, which is nice.

Fragmentation is a simple example. If you have a lot of file curn, (creating and deleting files) it can fragment your disk. You can use a partition to isolate high-churn activites to a separate partition so it doesn't fragment the rest of your disk. Photoshop's scratch files might be a good candidate for a separate partition. If you use a separate physical DRIVE for your photoshop scratch disk, you'll get a speed benifit also.

If you use Toast to burn CDs, and want to create "hybrid" CDs that contain both a Mac and a Windows directory structure, you'll need to create a partition that's the size of a full CD. I do that, and it works great.

On the downside, partitions cut your disk into separate pieces, and it can be a pain to manage your files.

You can also set up a separate partition as another boot disk, and configure it with different options, or whole different operating systems, but that's off-topic to your question.

Duncan C
-----
William Faris said:
I have a new G4 dual 1 Ghz not yet configured but purchased to
work with Photoshop 7 and other business related programs such as
Filemaker, Word, accounting stuff, etc. Some have told me
repeatedly that I must partition Photoshop off from my other
applications to optimize performance and safety. Others say no it
will create more headaches than I want.

Honestly I havent a clue and have seen this topic pop up here from
time to time but searching the archives told me little. I have
never had a partitioned HD and frankly dont understand the logic or
mechanics of such an arrangement. Is there somebody here that would
take a couple of minutes to explain this to me and advise on what I
should do.

Thanks in advance ? WRF
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/duncanc
 
Performance: If you partition and assign a scratch disk in Photoshop on the same drive the advantage will be minimal.

Safety: if backup to a separate partition and the drive fails you will lose the lot, as it's the same drive.

Best bet is to buy a cheap additional drive (you have lots of bays) and this would give you an advantage on both counts.
 
Hi, Duncan. Yours in probably the most well written and clearly explained response to this question that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. In fact, I've cut/pasted your words into a document I'll save and use when responding to similar questions posed of me in the future. Thanks.

Mike
Duncan C said:
I'll take a crack at explaining this.

When you ad extra partitions to a disk drive, you tell the OS to
break one physical drive into 2 or more logical drives. It creates
separate file allocation tables, directory structures, etc for each
partition.

This can be useful for several reasons. First, certain types of
disk problems can stay isolated to a single partition, and thus be
easier to fix. You can erase a partition easily and not touch the
rest of the drive, which is nice.
Fragmentation is a simple example. If you have a lot of file curn,
(creating and deleting files) it can fragment your disk. You can
use a partition to isolate high-churn activites to a separate
partition so it doesn't fragment the rest of your disk. Photoshop's
scratch files might be a good candidate for a separate partition.
If you use a separate physical DRIVE for your photoshop scratch
disk, you'll get a speed benifit also.

If you use Toast to burn CDs, and want to create "hybrid" CDs that
contain both a Mac and a Windows directory structure, you'll need
to create a partition that's the size of a full CD. I do that, and
it works great.

On the downside, partitions cut your disk into separate pieces, and
it can be a pain to manage your files.

You can also set up a separate partition as another boot disk, and
configure it with different options, or whole different operating
systems, but that's off-topic to your question.

Duncan C
-----
William Faris said:
I have a new G4 dual 1 Ghz not yet configured but purchased to
work with Photoshop 7 and other business related programs such as
Filemaker, Word, accounting stuff, etc. Some have told me
repeatedly that I must partition Photoshop off from my other
applications to optimize performance and safety. Others say no it
will create more headaches than I want.

Honestly I havent a clue and have seen this topic pop up here from
time to time but searching the archives told me little. I have
never had a partitioned HD and frankly dont understand the logic or
mechanics of such an arrangement. Is there somebody here that would
take a couple of minutes to explain this to me and advise on what I
should do.

Thanks in advance ? WRF
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/duncanc
Click to expand...
--
Mike Flaherty
http://imageevent.com/mflaherty/mikesgallery
 
I agree. Firewire drives are relatively cheap. I have 2 of them (an 80GB and a 120GB) and use a partition on one of them specifically as a Photoshop scratch disk. Works quite well.

Mike
Llandy said:
Performance: If you partition and assign a scratch disk in
Photoshop on the same drive the advantage will be minimal.
Safety: if backup to a separate partition and the drive fails you
will lose the lot, as it's the same drive.
Best bet is to buy a cheap additional drive (you have lots of bays)
and this would give you an advantage on both counts.
Click to expand...
--
Mike Flaherty
http://imageevent.com/mflaherty/mikesgallery
 
William-

Another observation.

I have two internal Hard Drives in a Tower G4 (All late model Mac Towers have the cables preinstalled to use a second Hard Drive which are now very inexpensive).

On one 60 Gig Drive, I Partitioned a small space for OS 9.2 and the much larger space for OS X. The second 80 Gig Drive has both OS 9 and OS X on the same single Partition. The second Drive is used for Digital Imaging only.

The advantage is to be able to troubleshot either Drive or Partition by booting from the other Drive (Hold Option key at Startup).

I use an External Firewire Drive for backup of both internal Hard Drives.
William Faris said:
I have a new G4 dual 1 Ghz not yet configured but purchased to
work with Photoshop 7 and other business related programs such as
Filemaker, Word, accounting stuff, etc. Some have told me
repeatedly that I must partition Photoshop off from my other
applications to optimize performance and safety. Others say no it
will create more headaches than I want.

Honestly I havent a clue and have seen this topic pop up here from
time to time but searching the archives told me little. I have
never had a partitioned HD and frankly dont understand the logic or
mechanics of such an arrangement. Is there somebody here that would
take a couple of minutes to explain this to me and advise on what I
should do.

Thanks in advance — WRF
Click to expand...
--
Ken P
 
Duncan C said:
William,

I really appreciate your taking the time to craft such a well thought out response and especially one that enables the unlearned like me to follow. However it would appear that the concept and practice of partitioning may create more problems for a user of my skills that it would be worth. Too often I find myself guilty of just jumping on the keyboard trying to crank out an assignment and never really understanding where everything is stored away and why it is. This sounds like too much mental work for me so perhaps I will think in terms of another drive like was mentioned by another poster.
Click to expand...
Regards, WRF
Duncan C said:
I'll take a crack at explaining this.

When you ad extra partitions to a disk drive, you tell the OS to
break one physical drive into 2 or more logical drives. It creates
separate file allocation tables, directory structures, etc for each
partition.

This can be useful for several reasons. First, certain types of
disk problems can stay isolated to a single partition, and thus be
easier to fix. You can erase a partition easily and not touch the
rest of the drive, which is nice.
Fragmentation is a simple example. If you have a lot of file curn,
(creating and deleting files) it can fragment your disk. You can
use a partition to isolate high-churn activites to a separate
partition so it doesn't fragment the rest of your disk. Photoshop's
scratch files might be a good candidate for a separate partition.
If you use a separate physical DRIVE for your photoshop scratch
disk, you'll get a speed benifit also.

If you use Toast to burn CDs, and want to create "hybrid" CDs that
contain both a Mac and a Windows directory structure, you'll need
to create a partition that's the size of a full CD. I do that, and
it works great.

On the downside, partitions cut your disk into separate pieces, and
it can be a pain to manage your files.

You can also set up a separate partition as another boot disk, and
configure it with different options, or whole different operating
systems, but that's off-topic to your question.

Duncan C
-----
William Faris said:
I have a new G4 dual 1 Ghz not yet configured but purchased to
work with Photoshop 7 and other business related programs such as
Filemaker, Word, accounting stuff, etc. Some have told me
repeatedly that I must partition Photoshop off from my other
applications to optimize performance and safety. Others say no it
will create more headaches than I want.

Honestly I havent a clue and have seen this topic pop up here from
time to time but searching the archives told me little. I have
never had a partitioned HD and frankly dont understand the logic or
mechanics of such an arrangement. Is there somebody here that would
take a couple of minutes to explain this to me and advise on what I
should do.

Thanks in advance ? WRF
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/duncanc
Click to expand...
 
Llandy said:
Performance: If you partition and assign a scratch disk in
Photoshop on the same drive the advantage will be minimal.
Safety: if backup to a separate partition and the drive fails you
will lose the lot, as it's the same drive.
Best bet is to buy a cheap additional drive (you have lots of bays)
and this would give you an advantage on both counts.
Click to expand...
This sounds like an option that would be much easier for a user of my skill level and provide me with a transportable HD if necessary. I will look closer into this option and thanks for the idea.

WRF
 
Will-

When OS X first came out, it was Apple's policy to advise users to partition the drive (OS X and 9.2.1).

But two things happened from all appearances:
1. The OS X platform turned out to be very stable
2. It was learned that by partitioning the drive, speed dropped like a bullet.

I was in a seminar and learned this.

FYI, I run a dual processor mac, as well. With PS7.

I would not partition the drive.

If safety is your concern, backup with DVD disks or CD-R if you're files don't require a DVD's size. And use a good antivirus program--we're on UNIX now so we're more exposed.

MGG
 
Pop in a second internal drive. It is so easy, you won't believe you did it in 10 minutes.Take out 4 screws, mount the drive in the bay, replace the 4 screws, plug in the cable (which already has a connector waiting for your additional drive) close the door on the computer, reboot. You will get a message that you "have inserted a disk that is not recognized, would you like to format now'? and away you go.
]Refer to your owners manual for more explicit instructions.
 
Best information for installing a second Hard Drive is at:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/IDE/add_2nd_drive/index.html

Ken P
NucleusG4 said:
Pop in a second internal drive. It is so easy, you won't believe
you did it in 10 minutes.Take out 4 screws, mount the drive in the
bay, replace the 4 screws, plug in the cable (which already has a
connector waiting for your additional drive) close the door on the
computer, reboot. You will get a message that you "have inserted a
disk that is not recognized, would you like to format now'? and
away you go.
]Refer to your owners manual for more explicit instructions.
Click to expand...
 
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