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I know it is recommended to create a swap partition or add a swap drive to a Mac so that the OS's partition does not easily become defragmented quickly and seek time is reduced. However since I have a notebook adding a second HD for an OS X swap is not an option.

 

I also am going to be installing Linux (Debian) onto the same HD. I always create a Linux swap partition in front of the Linux partition when I do a Linux install.

 

I'm going to be starting with a fresh HD and I wanted to know if OS X swap volumes and Linux swap volumes can co-exist and function normally on the same HD so long as they are managed correctly?

 

FYI, I'll also be installing Windows on this HD too. My HD partitions will look like this in this order from the front:

 

NTFS/OS X Swap/OS X Journalized/Linux Swap/EXT3 Journalized

 

Also, do you think I should use a journalized file system or not considering what I'm doing?

 

Thanks!

"...do you think I should use a journalized file system..."

For Macintosh? Of course (HFS+). For Linux? I think it's a good idea also (EXT3, ReiserFS) not only to have more protection against bad shutdowns but also to avoid the long, long time that we must wait for to check the system disk incorrectly unmounted when that shutdowns happen.

As far as to have a swap partition in Mac OS X, it isn't really required for a good operation, the only way I think you can improve your memory management is putting the swap partition into a different disk but not if the system partition and the swap partition are in the same disk.

Now I think about your interesting question: ¿Os X and Linux sharing one swap partition? I don't know if the filesystem is identical, perhaps it's so, somebody can comment anything about this?

"...do you think I should use a journalized file system..."

For Macintosh? Of course (HFS+). For Linux? I think it's a good idea also (EXT3, ReiserFS) not only to have more protection against bad shutdowns but also to avoid the long, long time that we must wait for to check the system disk incorrectly unmounted when that shutdowns happen.

As far as to have a swap partition in Mac OS X, it isn't really required for a good operation, the only way I think you can improve your memory management is putting the swap partition into a different disk but not if the system partition and the swap partition are in the same disk.

Now I think about your interesting question: ¿Os X and Linux sharing one swap partition? I don't know if the filesystem is identical, perhaps it's so, somebody can comment anything about this?

 

The reason I asked about journalizing is I was worried about OS X seeing files on the EXT3 partition when booted an vice-versa. I know in generally it's a good idea to run journalized. Sorry. Also I'll be running Vista on this test drive because it's "suppossed" to support viewing files on Linux & Unix partitions. If this rumor turns out to be true then I may format the OS X partition as UNIX.

 

Yeah I was not going to bother with an OS X swap because it was the same drive but since I'm doing a Linux swap anyway I figured why not, lol. Just to see if I could do it and to do it I guess, hahaha...

 

Hmm, interesting question because I would only ever have 1 OS booted at a time. I don't know though, I just don't feel comfortable about 2 different OS's using the same swap, even if they were both Linux. MAYBE if they were the same flavor. I'd be worried about temp residule data left on the swap at shutdown possibly being overwrote by the other OS. VERY interesting to consider however.

I know it is recommended to create a swap partition or add a swap drive to a Mac so that the OS's partition does not easily become defragmented quickly and seek time is reduced. However since I have a notebook adding a second HD for an OS X swap is not an option.

 

Where did you hear that BS from? I've never read anywhere that recommended manually creating a swap partition for OS X.

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