Partitioning advice, specific question

[dogbone]

I've read a few threads and gleaned a bit of info but I've got some other questions about the best way to go about this.

To start with I've got 2 emacs and I'm waiting on delivery of a new la cie 250 gig HD.

I've downloaded super duper as that appears to be the best app.

What I want to do is have a bootable clone of each mac.

1. I guess I should create a partition for each mac and one for storing new files? Is this right. Is there any reason why I would want to create more than 3 partitions? I planned on using the rest of the HD space to dump lots of big files. Also both the emacs are networked together via an ethernet cable and ADSL router, can I leave the ext HD connected to one mac on a firewire connection and still be able to dump files to it from the other mac?

Can I make a bootable clone of the mac that isn't directly connected to the ext HD via the network or does it have to be directly firewire connected.Is there a better way to do this.

2. I originally had the idea to back up all my newly created big files but I just realised that to back up I'd have to have them on my emac which is too small so that means I won't really be backing up but just storing all my new stuff on the ext HD. So my question is, is an external HD like a La Cie less likely to spontaneously go badly wrong than my internal drives?

 

[mklos]

1. What you want to do would be fine. It would separate and categorize your stuff. No problems there and I don't see any reason to make more than 3 partitions. Make sure you have them the way you want as one you make it and start putting stuff in the partitions, you won't be able to resize them without losing ALL data unless you have a special program that does it. There is 1 program that I can think of that does just that. So just keep that in mind.

Its probably better to plug in the Ext FW HD into each eMac when you go to make the bootable image just because its faster than using ethernet and you'll have less headaches. Other than that, its perfectly ok to leave the HD turned on and as long as you have file sharing enabled, the other eMac will be able to map that drive and read/write to it just as if it was directly connected to it (it will be slower as going through ethernet is slower than going through FW).


2. Basically what you bought was a firewire case with a hd inside it from either Western Digital, Maxtor/Seagate, etc.. They're just as vulnerable as an internal HD. Its best if you leave them running as spinning the drive up and down all the time isn't really good for it. The motors inside the HDs will only take so many spin ups and downs before they start to fail. I wouldn't necessarily worry about it too much.

 

[dogbone]

great thanks for that.

Regarding what you said about HD spinning. Does that mean that it is better to have that option turned off in the energy saver panel?

"Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"

Is sleeping a HD equivalent to spinning down.

 

[mklos]

Yeah I always turn that option off. IMO, its actually a pain in the ass because your internal HD goes to sleep after so many minutes and you always sit and wait the HD to spin back up when you want to use it again. Same goes for any external HDs. So I never leave that option enabled.