On Jan 5, 2009, at 9:44 AM, D Stubbs wrote: > > I suppose it is some kind of 'virtual directory'? > What makes no sense yet to me is how, say partition #3 could go > bad, and not the others - if it they all bunched together.
The following is vastly simplified, and there are a lot of exceptions, but should explain things. There are 2 types of disk problems, hardware and software. Many software problems with a partition are because of directory problems within that partition. If the directory of partition A gets trashed for whatever reason, the directories of partitions B and C are not affected, since they are completely independent "virtual disks". Think of this type of problem as if you had 3 firewire external disks daisy chained together (or for old school folks, multiple SCSI disks). If one disk went bad, the other 2 should still work with no problems. Hardware problems can affect 1 partition, multiple partitions or the whole mechanical drive. Examples: Say that there is a head crash that scratches a small portion of one of the platters. If the head is OK, this will most likely affect a small portion of one of the partitions, unless it is part of the directory. It should not affect the other partitions. Now imagine that that same head crash destroyed the head. This could affect either 1 partition (if it is the large partition which spans multiple platters) or multiple partitions if they are on the same physical platter (your 2 smaller partitions). Lastly are things that cause total disk failure. Some examples: The head crash is epic and spews parts of the platter or heads around the inside of the drive. Power surge that trashes the controller board. Spindle bearing failure that keeps the disk from spinning. If something like this happens, all partitions are gone and it is time to restore from your backup (cheap) or call DriveSavers with your AmEx Black card. HTH, Len --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
