Partitioning advice - Lion, WinXP and separating user data

[theoretician]

Am about to install lion on my first hackintosh. I have a single 500GB drive and I am looking for some advice about partitioning strategies. With my more typical linux machines I would separate off user data so at least have a root "/" and "/home" partition and I would be keen to do this under OSX - I also would like to be able to share user data between OS X and Windows. Any suggestions?

Here are some key questions for me:
(1) Is the partition table on a hackintosh DOS like (ie max 4 primary of which one could be extended containing lots of logical partitions)?
If so then how does the OSX disk utility decide on primary/logical partitons?

(2) Is it normal on a hackintosh to have a /Users on a separate partition?

(3) Is FAT the only reliable filesystem that can be shared - seemed to see mixed info on the web about this. There seem to be fuse drivers for ntfs - are they reliable enough for read/write?

(4) Is it typical to have a rescue type partition which can be used to recover the OS X system partition?

(5) Any examples of a partition scheme that works for people?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Going Bald]

Am about to install lion on my first hackintosh. I have a single 500GB drive and I am looking for some advice about partitioning strategies. With my more typical linux machines I would separate off user data so at least have a root "/" and "/home" partition and I would be keen to do this under OSX - I also would like to be able to share user data between OS X and Windows. Any suggestions?

FYI, Windows XP will not install on a GUID formatted hard drive. Period. If you want XP and OS X on the same drive, Install OS X. Make an image. Reformat the drive MBR, 1 partition, free space with a 3rd party software like gParted, then partition it and format it MBR with however many partitions you want.Install WinXP, restore the OS X image to a partition. Be aware that the autoupdate for OS X will not work - you will need to download all updates. Best to go ahead and upgrade to Win7, IMO.

Here are some key questions for me:
(1) Is the partition table on a hackintosh DOS like (ie max 4 primary of which one could be extended containing lots of logical partitions)?
If so then how does the OSX disk utility decide on primary/logical partitons?

First 4 are primary, after that are considered extended. WinXP must be installed in one of the first 4 partitions and yes, the EFI partition created when you format the drive with OS X disk utility counts. Best to reformat with gParted or other 3rd party software.

(2) Is it normal on a hackintosh to have a /Users on a separate partition?

Some do, some don't. In general, older experienced users not only have separate partitions but where possible prefer separate drives as well. See http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/09/mov ... ition.html

(3) Is FAT the only reliable filesystem that can be shared - seemed to see mixed info on the web about this. There seem to be fuse drivers for ntfs - are they reliable enough for read/write?

If you are not concerned with the file size limitation of FAT, best to use FAT32 for a shared partition.

(4) Is it typical to have a rescue type partition which can be used to recover the OS X system partition?

Most either have a backup external drive or create images and burn to disc. My preference is external HDD and use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the drive rather than image it. This lets me boot from the clone and repair or erase and clone back on the main HDD.

(5) Any examples of a partition scheme that works for people?

That is up to you and what you need. I no longer dual boot, but when I did, OS X on first partition, Windows7 on 2nd partition (note: it can be the other way), shared on the rest of the drive. OS X Users on a separate drive + Win7 Users and app data on a separate drive.

 

[john738411]

Hmm, great. My post was deleted. I only wanted to help out...

 

[theoretician]

What a great forum -
Going Bald: Thanks very much - very clear advice and makes much sense.
john738411: I've no idea where your post went - not deleted by me. But I did see it before it went and it was helpful since I had not appreciated the newer GUID Partition Table till I read it hence discovered the non-starter of this with WinXP.
Thanks again to both.