Jeremy Derr writes: >On Wednesday, March 5, 2003, at 07:34 PM, Gerald E. Uhlan wrote: > >> My question is, if you partition a drive, with OS X on one and OS 9 on >> another, don't those files stay within the designated partitions? > >unless something (a person or a program) moves or copies them elsewhere >-- but this is no different than any other file on the hard drive. > >>Doesn't partitioning tell the computer that a given partition resides from >>'this' physical sector to 'that' physical sector, and the next partition >>resides from 'the next' physical sector to 'whatever' physical sector, and >>so on to the end of the drive? And that when writing files to a particular >>partition, it would place them in the first available space within that >>reserved "drive" space? Otherwise, what would be the point of partitioning >>a drive? A simple folder could serve the same function if that's not how >>it works. Can anyone elaborate on just how partitioning actually works? > >that's pretty much how partitioning works, though the >first-available-space clause is only semi-true. even given these facts, >there's not much point to partitioning as far as I'm concerned.
There are several reasons to partition a drive: 1. So you can have multiple operating systems on the same physical hard drive. 2. So you can try a new operating system without losing your old one. 3. So you can have a bootable emergency partition to deal with most drive related problems. 4. So you can copy backup files to another location without the expense of a separate drive or file server. 5. So you can set aside free contiguous space for the Photoshop swap file or use as virtual memory. 6. So you can have OS X and 9 completely separate, making it easier to completely get rid of OS 9 if you decide at some point that there might actually be a good reason for completely abandoning the ability to use the classic environment. 7. Organization. I keep all my web-related projects on a separate partition. 8. Faster drive optimization. With less files, defragmenting or optimizing a partition is faster. I'm sure there are other reasons that Mac users have for partitioning their drives, but these are some of mine. >in fact, as far as OS X is concerned, partitions ARE kind of like >folders. every partition except the boot partition is, essentially, a >folder in the /Volumes/ folder (which is invisible). The icon you see >on the desktop is really just a shortcut to the applicable folders in >/Volumes/. Except that when you move files from one directory or folder to another in the Mac OS, the file moves. When you drag a file or folder to another partition, the Mac OS (classic or X) copies it to the new location. That's a very different and very important difference. The Mac OS treats partitions as though they are separate drives, allowing users to do the same. -- Dan Knight, president, Cobweb Publishing, Inc. <http://cobwebpublishing.com> <http://lowendmac.com> <http://digital-views.com> <http://digigraphica.com> <http://lowendpc.com> <http://reformed.net> Microsoft Windows? How 20th century! -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
