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Partition or not?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 10:52 am
by slybass3000
I'll receive my new iMac this week-end and I would like to know if partitioning the disk is still useful especially with the latest osx.

I have a 3To Fusion drive.

Thanks

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 10:55 am
by stubbsonic
At some point I was convinced to abandon partitioning, with folks claiming that it didn't really serve much of a purpose. So I went that way.

However, I realized later that I missed being able to streamline my manual backup process so that a project and library partition could be backed up as needed, and my root drive with mail & apps could be backed up via TM and cloned as needed without much of a time and drive-space commitment.

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 10:58 am
by HCMarkus
slybass3000 wrote:I'll receive my new iMac this week-end and I would like to know if partitioning the disk is still useful especially with the latest osx.

I have a 3To Fusion drive.

Thanks
Probably not with a Fusion Drive setup. You want to let the OS sort itself out, prioritizing data location by demand. Partitioning could interfere with this scheme.

I still find partitioning useful with big spinners (HDs), especially good for storing clones of boot drives without taking up a whole drive (like stubbsonic said) and also for making best use of fast outer areas of the drive.

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 11:54 am
by James Steele
I still partition. I think it helps me in terms of an organization process. It feels "cleaner" than just using root folders.

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 7:00 pm
by mikehalloran
HCMarkus wrote:
slybass3000 wrote:I'll receive my new iMac this week-end and I would like to know if partitioning the disk is still useful especially with the latest osx.

I have a 3To Fusion drive.

Thanks
Probably not with a Fusion Drive setup. You want to let the OS sort itself out, prioritizing data location by demand. Partitioning could interfere with this scheme. ...
It absolutely could.

Get a USB 3 or Thunderbolt external and partition to your heart's content for whatever reasons make sense to you. If you have a spinner inside, it won't matter which. If it contains an SSD, the TB external will be slightly faster.

The Fusion drive only performs well when you let the OS manage it as Apple designed.

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:52 am
by slybass3000
mikehalloran wrote:
HCMarkus wrote:
slybass3000 wrote:I'll receive my new iMac this week-end and I would like to know if partitioning the disk is still useful especially with the latest osx.

I have a 3To Fusion drive.

Thanks
Probably not with a Fusion Drive setup. You want to let the OS sort itself out, prioritizing data location by demand. Partitioning could interfere with this scheme. ...
It absolutely could.

Get a USB 3 or Thunderbolt external and partition to your heart's content for whatever reasons make sense to you. If you have a spinner inside, it won't matter which. If it contains an SSD, the TB external will be slightly faster.



The Fusion drive only performs well when you let the OS manage it as Apple designed.
Not clear yet for me. Mike, you are saying that I should not partition the drive? So the sys , VI libraries and DP projects can stay all the same place but I can back-up on other devices?

I use a lot of UAD, Waves, Spectrasonics, NI and Kontakt etc...
With 32 G of RAM I believe should rock and be stable?

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:56 am
by mikehalloran
Do not partition a Fusion drive.

There is no performance advantage to partitioning any SATA drive. Some may want to do it for organizational reasons but, unless you are running different versions of the Mac OS on different partitions, even that no longer makes sense.

Put your VIs into a folder. If you want to exclude it from Time Machine, it's easily done.

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 7:58 am
by slybass3000
mikehalloran wrote:Do not partition a Fusion drive.

There is no performance advantage to partitioning any SATA drive. Some may want to do it for organizational reasons but, unless you are running different versions of the Mac OS on different partitions, even that no longer makes sense.

Put your VIs into a folder. If you want to exclude it from Time Machine, it's easily done.
Great, thanks that clarifies it ;-)

Look forward for my new Mac. Finally I'll get a pretty nice machine and DP should be happy in it ...

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:26 am
by Faywe4
it's more likely that you'll partition a drive in order to run multiple operating systems, or multiple versions of the same operating system, from a single disk. That's how Boot Camp works, by partitioning the drive and allowing you to install Windows on the other partition.

Re: Partition or not?

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:11 am
by stubbsonic
mikehalloran wrote: There is no performance advantage to partitioning any SATA drive. Some may want to do it for organizational reasons but, unless you are running different versions of the Mac OS on different partitions, even that no longer makes sense.

Put your VIs into a folder. If you want to exclude it from Time Machine, it's easily done.
This is the advice I was following when I abandoned using partitions. While I'm sure it is correct advice, both technically and practically; I DID lose some flexibility and ease with the way I do back-ups and other organizational tasks. It also added a layer of complication with regard to permissions that add to the tedium.

By all means, leave behind the partitions concept, but there may be things about it you will miss. I occasionally toy with the notion returning to partitions, but it passes.