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I corresponded this week with a reader whose installation of OS X had become unbootable, and who was having difficulty getting the machine to boot from OS 9, which was installed (as Apple does by default) on the unpartitioned hard drive.

This is just one more example of why partitioning hard drives makes eminent good sense, even more so in this OS X transition era. It makes dual booting from OS X or OS 9.x easier, can be a great lifesaver for troubleshooting, and makes keeping your OS X and OS 9 system files segregated for order and organization easier. Also, when OS X and OS 9 cohabit on the same volume, user interactions when booted from OS 9 can have a detrimental effect on OS X's file system (i.e.: disk fragmentation). Keeping OS X and OS 9 on separate volumes results in a cleaner directory environment less susceptible to fragmentation.

Partitions can also make organizing your document files easier, and Sherlock searches can be limited to one or more partitions. By dividing up critical data, there is less likelihood of catastrophic data loss due to file corruption. For instance, a partition used strictly for a document storage is unlikely to be affected by a serious system crash. Partitioning can speed up hard drive access in real world use if you store frequently used applications and the working OS on the same partition. For example, I store all my OS X native applications on the same partition as OS X. However, it should be noted that the opposite can obtain if you have your OS and working application on widely separated partitions.

If you are using OS X on certain older supported Macs -- the beige G3 desktops, the Revision A through D (233 MHz -333 MHz) iMacs, and the WallStreet PowerBooks, -- that have a hard drive larger than eight megabytes installed, partitioning is not optional. OS X must be installed on the first partition of the drive not exceeding 8 MB in capacity.

However, the first thing I do with any Mac that comes to live in our house is to terase, reinitialize, and partition the hard drive. This has been my practice since long before OS X. Even the tiny 20 MB drive of my old Mac Plus, and the 160 MB drive in my LC 520 are partitioned.

A partitioned hard drive is separated into two or more logical volumes that behave as if they were separate hard disks. Consequently, you can install a different operating system on each partition if you wish, and specify which one you want to boot from using the Startup Disk control panel or the Startup preferences pane. For example, I have the 20 gigabyte hard drive in my Pismo PowerBook partitioned into four volumes, with OS X installed on the first partition, and OS 9.1 and OS 9.2.2 on the next two respectively.

When you partition a hard drive, all the data on it will be destroyed, so you will have to do a global backup of any personal files and applications not included on your machine's restore CD before proceeding. If you have your operating system customized to a considerable degree, it's also probably best, and certainly a time saver, to make a backup copy of the system to use when you restore your files.

To partition the drive:

1. - Insert your OS 9.x CD and restart the Mac following down the C key, so that it will boot from the CD.

2. - Open the Utilities folder, which is inside the Applications folder on the OS 9 CD and launch Drive Setup, which will look for mounted drivers on your system and display their names in the List Of Drives window. Select your main hard drive that you want to initialize and partition. Drive Setup will confirm that the drive is ready to be initialized and partitioned. If you're using the OS X install CD, select Installer + Open Disk Utility.

3. Click Initialize, which will erase all of the file directory information from your hard drive; then choose Customize Volumes from the Function menu. The Custom Setup window will appear.

Use the pulldown menu in the window to specify how many partitions you want to have (a partition map of your subdivided drive which will appear in the Volumes box with the appropriate number of dividers, which can be dragged up or down to configure the relative size of each volume).

In OS X Disk Utility, click the partition tab. Use the Volume Schem pull-down menu to specify the number of partitions you want; then drag the horizontal divider lines in the partition map window to determine the relative sizes of the partitions.

Specify the type of formatting you want (usually HFS+) in the pulldown menu in the Volume Info box.

Once the partitions are configured to your satisfaction, click OK and quit Drive Setup or Disk Utility. You will see that you now have two or more hard drive icons (plus your boot volume CD) visible on your desktop.

You will now have to reinstall a system on at least one of the new partitions in order to boot from the hard drive. Put OS X on the first partition and OS 9.x on the second partition. OS 9.x will still work fine as Classic Mode in OS X from the separate partition. Restore your application and document archive files, and you're done.

Got my copy of Jaguar today

From Ross Cottrell

It installed perfectly on my X partition, though it took almost an hour. It is a thing of beauty. Everything works. I've already imported my Palm Addresses into Address Book. The install itself involved 2 cdroms and had a log file that you could open and read during the process. Very cool. The Finder is more responsive now and there are myriad subtle changes. For example, Get Info windows now have drop down arrows for Content index, Preview, Ownership and Permissions and Comments. It's almost too much information.

You also get the latest versions of iPhoto and iMovie. It is a major upgrade. The nested folders are neat too. Well worth the money in my opinion.

A ray of hope through your article ..

From Ralf Oberleitner

Dear Charles,

Your analysis "OS X Odyssey 146 - Will Jaguar Be Worth $129?" on http://www.applelinks.com is quite agreeable, I think. Mac OS 10.1 shipped with my iBook and I think the changes to 10.2 do not justify that there is no upgrade-facility.

Anyway, the reason why I write you now is that little sentence "I use email applications that support the same mailboxes for OS X and OS 9 via aliases" -- I'd love to have such a setup! It didn't work with Netscape/ Mozilla and I didn't go into the effort of finding the right mailapp for this.

Could you give me a little hint? A central (maybe UNIX-format) place for my mails would be great!

sincerely,
Ralf

Hi Ralf;

Using aliases to synchronize both Eudora and SweetMail mailboxes between OS 9 and OS X works great. Actually, it's a three-way sync. I have the actual mailbox files installed on my OS 9.1 partition, and just put aliases of the respective folders on my OS X and my OS 9.2.2 partitions (use Command + Option for creating and dragging the aliases, and the file names will be correct). I can boot from any of the three OS versions, and the same mailbox files will be accessed by the two programs.

Also, check out this great article on Eudora for more Eudora tips: http://www.macmegasite.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=265

Charles

Re: Nightmare

From Dr Joe

Your statement:

"and it's truly a nightmare for owners of beige G3s--the predecessors of the blue-and-white towers--because OS X supports their computers (if barely) but ignores printers using the serial port."

is surely overblown. I am running 10.1.5 on my beige G3, and do not consider that it is 'barely' supported. My processor is a 476 Mz G4 [curtesey of XLR8, I have put in a Compusa FW/USB PCI board [$20.00 !!!], an ATI 7000 card and an LG 4120 Combo drive with various other upgrades. While certainly not the fastest OSX Mac out there, it does everything that other machines do. You would never apply all of these upgrades in one swell foop but it was done over some years and continues to serve me well.

drjoe

Hi Dr. Joe

My point was that it is a nightmare for folks who wnat to use their legacy Serial Port printers, which was the main context of the discussion.

Charles

Re: - Frank Falcone

From Charles Schoenfeld

For Frank Falcone:

I suspect I probably won't be the only one who writes in with this information, but here it is anyway. Each user's trash is stored in the directory:

/Users/theirname/.Trash

. . . where "theirname" is their username. Note the dot before the word "Trash". That dot renders the file invisible in the Finder, although it's still possible to get there via the "Go To Folder" command in the "Go" menu, assuming you are logged in with the appropriate permissions.

Frankly, the easiest way to empty someone else's Trash is probably via the Terminal. If you're logged in as root, then just type:

rm -R /Users/theirname/.Trash/*

If you're logged in as any other user with admin privileges, then just precede the command with "sudo ".

If you anticipate having to do this often, just remember that the above command is Applescript-able.

Best,
Charles Schoenfeld

For Frank Falcone

From Anonymous by request

Emptying the trash:

Apple says that you can shift and option keys- I don't know if that works, but it's worth a try.

It could be that the files are locked- if so, he can try to drag them all into an unlocked folder, and delete the folder. Or,

he can select all of them and click command 'i' for show info- at the top of the window it willl say "___ items are selected". Unlocking one unlocks them all, and they can then be deleted.

Hope this helps- all of these tips came from Ted Landau's 'Mac OS X Disaster Relief', a welcome addition to my book shelf.

Cheers,
Anonymous

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore

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