Partition benefits . . .

[Richard Gaskin]

Kay C Lan wrote:
> Still there are a couple of situations where the extra OS on separate
> partition comes in handy, even for OSX;
> 
> 1) defraging your startup disc
> 2) extremely rare on OSX but if you ever install something and suddenly run
> into problems, being able to restart off the other partition and do your
> days work and worry about troubleshooting the normal partition at a more
> convenient time can be a real "phew" moment.
> 3) being able to do work whilst running maintenance - you can't do anything
> whilst AppleJack does it's thing.

Like my grandfather used to say, "When faced with two compelling options 
  each with strong merit, choose both." :)

Whenever I get a new Mac I resist the temptation to start loading stuff 
right away and instead partition it first, so that I have one smaller 
partition dedicated to diagnostics and maintenance utilities.

There are things Disk Utility can do from a separate volume that it 
can't do when repairing permissions on the active volume, and of course 
tools like Disk Warrior only run from a separate volume.

Having the second partition takes only a minute to set up, but gives me 
the convenience of knowing I always have a second volume with me no 
matter where I am.

That said, I also carry an external FireWire drive.  The FireLite series 
from SmartDisk are ultra-tiny (just over 3" long), weigh next to 
nothing, with a rounded form factor that slips in an out of a backpack 
pocket very easily.  They're powered by the FW connection, so they need 
no additional power source or cabling other than the included FW cable.

These drives are very robust -- I've dropped all of mine at one time or 
another, twice even during accesses, and they just keep on working well 
like they've never had any such abuse.

The FW400 interface lets me back up all the work folders on my hard 
drive (>30GB) in just a few minutes, and the FW800 model does it all in 
what feels like less than a fourth of the time -- it's so fast I find 
myself double-checking the drive just to make sure it all copied. :)

<http://www.smartdisk.com/eWeb/smartdiskus/www/staticpages/fireliteporthdd.asp>

No, I don't work for them.  Just love their product.

Currently all of their models are rated at 5400 RPM, so it's on par with 
Apple's built-in drives.  Good luck finding a 7200 RPM portable drive; 
I've been trying, but thus far in 80MB capacities I can only find the 
raw drives, and only from two manufacturers.  I bought a FW enclosure 
thinking I might get around to building my own drive, but I've been so 
happy with the FireLite I can't say I've ever been sufficiently 
motivated. :)

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
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