Partitioning

For those who aren't at NAB...

My int hd is divided into 2 partitions: #1 for OS/applications, #2 for media. I want to add Motion to my #1 partition, but it would nearly max it out. Is it possible to shift the partition boundary a few gigs to increase the #1 partition size? The only other option I can think of is to re-format & re-partition the entire thing...which would not be fun at all!

Thanks for your help!

If you don't use some special tool to partition the HD (I don't even know if there are any) you must reinitialize your drive to change partition sizes.

Today with HFS+ you don't need to partition and having a second partition doesn't do anything special to allow it to act like a second hard drive. You can just as well have a folder for the media and the OS/Applications on the rest.

Now you know why it is better NOT to partition your startup disk!

Foley's right. Partitioning a hard drive is as much fun as partitioning a house while you're living in it. Generally avoided if it's even possible at all.

It is strongly urged that you put a second hard drive in the machine and make that your data drive. Blow out the partition on the System Drive to include the whole drive and then put your applications back on.

This will clean up your System Drive because you will need to "clean out the attic/garage" and it will force you to know where all your applications, licenses, and keys are.

By about the third day you will have a very respectable machine.

***DO NOT** do this in the middle of a project.

Koz

Having your media directed to a separate partition on your boot drive does NOT qualify as having it on a separate drive for the reasons of splitting the disk access load - it's the same physical platter, using the same read head, they have to take turns for access, no benefit. In fact, as you're finding, it becomes a liability. Direct your media to a completely separate drive, and don't bother partitioning any of them.

Scott

<<< a separate partition on your boot drive does NOT qualify as having it on a separate drive>>>

What he said.

The next thing that people do is buy an external or portable FireWire drive for the movie data. Doing that instead of a second internal drive comes with rules. You could have stability problems and dropped frames if you use more than one FireWire connection to your Mac. That means you can connect a camcorder *or* a FireWire drive. There are ways around these problems, but they come with even more rules.

The Second internal drive comes essentially without rules and will give you good stability and reliability.

Koz