partition HDD with Tiger 10.4
I'm new to Apple and trying to do my first computer with Apple software. I got a DVD of Tiger 10.4 to rev up the 10.1. In installing the software I wanted to partition the disk into a 10 GB part, and 30 GB part. This is the way I would do a Windows based disk.
I find the partitioning service - but things are grayed out. I can select 2 parts but they are equal in size and the ONE button mouse cannot move the partition line. The instructions say "cannot do this drive as it has the OS on it."
I cannot find my way back to "selecting the boot disk" with the external DVD. I see the internal HDD but not the external. I can browse to the DVD and see the files on it so I know the computer sees it.
I only have 1 user -as admin - since I just did the software install on Monday.
What am I missing??????
I find the partitioning service - but things are grayed out. I can select 2 parts but they are equal in size and the ONE button mouse cannot move the partition line. The instructions say "cannot do this drive as it has the OS on it."
I cannot find my way back to "selecting the boot disk" with the external DVD. I see the internal HDD but not the external. I can browse to the DVD and see the files on it so I know the computer sees it.
I only have 1 user -as admin - since I just did the software install on Monday.
What am I missing??????
Comments
iʻm new to this kind of problem solving forum, but here goes . . .
only 1 idea comes 2 mind -
pull down menu from the blue apple icon, top right corner of your screen,
select "system preferences"
select "startup disk"
select "(name of your installation disk)"
thereʻs actually a shortcut - when you hard boot, you can hold down a key but i forgot which one, that forces the boot from the optical device drive. you can probably find the info for that in the"Help" pulldown while youʻre in Finder
from there you should be able to get to the partitioning service (i never did that on the internal hd, never had the guts)
hope this helps
Mac OS X differs from Windows (also) in this respect: in a basic setup OS X really doesn't benefit from partitioning your drive. There's no need to do it - like you would do with a drive you're setting up for Windows.
If you STILL want to partition your drive (for whatever reason) after you read that: there's 2 things you should be aware of:
1. you can only partition a drive while booted from another drive (like an external drive or the install-DVD)
2. the drive you want to partition will get ERASED in the process! BEWARE!
So, if there's ANYTHING on your internal drive now that you want to keep: make a (bootabel?) backup of the whole drive - or at least those files - before you proceed with the partitioning!
-matts
2. the drive you want to partition will get ERASED in the process! BEWARE!
So, if there's ANYTHING on your internal drive now that you want to keep: make a (bootabel?) backup of the whole drive - or at least those files - before you proceed with the partitioning!
-matts
yup, i knew there was a reason i was so chicken! thanks for that warning, Matts!!!
I'm going to do the 2 partitions so I can tell my mom "put all your files on D and then back that up to a CD every couple of months". If all her stuff is together it will keep it simple. http://forums.appleinsider.com/images/smilies/1cool.gif
I don't really grasp what you think you will be gaining by going through all this trouble... your mom's files won't be in one location anyway just by doing what you said and having her obey your order.
First, there's no D. You can of course partition your drive AND call one of the partitions "D" if you like, but... Mac OS X doesn't work like Windows. So don't try to force it to behave like it would. Because it doesn't. And pretending it does, will actually get you into trouble.
Second, without some serious hacking, your home folder (with all your settings, preferences, libraries etc) is always located on the same partition as the operating system, e.g. your first and only partition on your Mac (called "Macintosh HD" by defult), buried somewhere inside the folder hierarchy. Don't mess with these folders or the files, let them be. The applications know where to find them - so you don't have to.
You can, of course, save your documents wherever you like (for instance on "D", if you insist on having a partition called just that) and even force applications like iTunes and Photo etc to place their "document libraries" including all your music and all your photos etc in this special location, on partition "D". Just by creating a partition called "D" your mom's files won't get put on "D" just like magic - not even if you tell her to "put all your files on D...". In the case of for instance iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, iCal etc it just doesn't work like that.
Third, backing up every couple of months is of course better that never, but...
And then: a CD won't hold very much if you (or she) have photos, music etc. Just burning stuff to CD's (or whatever media) isn't really a backup solution: you're then copying the same stuff over and over again (a lot of CD's) IF you don't keep records of every file you already have put on a CD and of every file you haven't.
And by doing that (for instance by putting files in diffrenet folders to keep them "organised" in those that ARE backed up and those that aren't) you just manage to destroy the organisation of the database-solution these applications use themselves = your're effectively destroying your data!
And it's a lot of work for your mom.
So, why don't you partition-wise just leave the computer as it is and upgrade your mom's Mac to Leopard and get her an external drive and let TimeMachine do it's magic? Then ALL her files (including the operating system) is always backed up. Always. Even deleted files.
-matts
MacOS X is based on Unix, and Unix does not have such a thing. On Unix, there is only ONE filesystem (its root is named "/"), holding all the files hierarchy, and partitions, network shares, usb drives and all other storage devices are plugged (the correct term is "mounted") into this hierarchy. You seen them as folders, even if they are not on your system disk, or even on your computer.
On MacOS X, mounts are located under the /Volumes folder : When you plug into your mac an USB Key named "My USB Key", the system creates a folder named "My USB Key" into "/Volumes" and mount the key on this folder. So when you browse "/Volumes/My USB Key", you really see the key content, but you do not see it as another storage device, but as a particular folder of the global filesystem namespace.
matts said that you could create a partition and name it as "D". This partition would be available as "/Volumes/D". This is possible but this not the OS X way at all.