haven't posted in a while, and finally I am getting an upgrade from my iBook G4 (10.4.11)
I think I'll be getting an iMac
I have always partitioned my drives about 2/3 for the OS and apps and 1/3 for files - or writing files to.
I like the benefit of having "two" drive mainly because it takes much lsee time to defrag a sammler drive

however I have heard that snow leopard does not benefit from partitioning or from defragging. (could that be true?)
I have always been fond of my "tool" programs to keep my system up and running at its best. Like TechTool , Drive Genius, Onyx, and of course applejack.

any thoughts on if there is a reason to partition or not?

thanx
--Ian
aka
ArchivalAudio

You can do that, but if you want to work with audio you'll get (way) better performance by putting all audio files on external drives.

On Snow Loepard, the system since I don"t remember the version defrag itself the drive of all files under 20 MB. Save if you fill the system drive of work heavily with files on this one you won't see much change. And as audio files (or projects) should be on different drive than the system disk anyway…

My tools of choice are OnyX, Applejack, Apple disk utility, the Terminal (for authorizations), and sometimes DiskWarrior for broken directories. OS X is rock solid IMHO. The main issue I encounter when I do maintenance/help friends are usually dead drives (far too common) or computers never switch off, with loads of old software in and "it's blocked, I switch off from the plug" attitude.

Have at least one external hard drive to work, and a decent archival policy (for system/apps/user account and files, it'll need another drive). You can use Time Machine, or a back up utility, or clone. I clone myself.

I'll weigh in on this too. i used to use partitions all the time, and with leopard and snow leopard i've stopped. all my files are on external drives, however.
i'm getting very good performance, no issues at all.

Partitions won't help you to get better performances.
On the contrary, the same HD has to deal with the OS/Apps/audio.
At the same time...

thank you for the replies
and yes I use those tools too!
over the years I have learned a lot here (specifically from you) than you so very much

--Ian
aka
ArchivalAudio

My pleasure archival Thanks are the best thing here

The only interest into partitioning for most users is to save some real estate on the oversized drives we have (note, you won't save that much estate now). But it won't do on the performance side if you're recording on the same drive, even on a different partition, save marginally.

The most important thing after this is back up!