İ1995 Kevin Jaques. All rights reserved excepting that this file may be copied for non-commercial purposes, unchanged. No warranties apply. I am just a user volunteering my observations.

Each partition has, in order, I think, the following parts:
	Boot Blocks
		identifies the filing system
		contains bootstrap code to run the drive (to supplement that already in ROM)
	Master Directory Block
		name, size, remaining space of volume
		location of system folder
		for each 32764k, the minimum file size goes up another 0.5k
		partitioning would therefore duplicate this amount
	Volume Bit Map (VBM)
		shows what blocks are used. (bit 0 represents block 0)
		Each sequential bit is true if the corresponding block is used.
		logically, partitioning canıt affect this size, only break it up into pieces.
			However, it would duplicate the header, if any, for each partitition.
	Catalog Tree
		Norton Utilities describes it as a B­Tree, which they say means ³Balanced Tree²
		Contains the organization of the hierarchical system.
		The header of the tree contains the location of the root node
		The root node contains up to 11 index records.
			Each Index Record:
				represents a range of file i.d. numbers
				refers to another node which further divides the remaining range.
				When the File Manager is looking for an i.d., it:
					finds the index record whose range includes that i.d., then
					goes to the node to which that record points,
					repeats the process as necessary
					until the record finally points to a leaf node (file node).
				Each file has:
					a resource fork (for stuff that doesnıt change much and may be identified by
						name or id number and type)
					a data fork (for data).
	The catalog tree represents each file with a file node (³File Control Block² (³FCB²)).
		Each file node (FCB) contains
			name
			i.d. number
			modification date
			creator
			file type
			all the little flags and crap
			the beginning and length of 3 pieces of each fork.
				If there are more pieces, it must refer to the extents tree to locate them.
Track 0 is the outside track
	Logical sector numbering is used, so that the order is:
		side 0, track 0, sectors 0­Š
		side 1, track 0, sectors 0­Š
		side 0, track 1, sectors 0­Š
		side 1, track 1, sectors 0­Š
		etc.
Assuming the block size is 1 sector, then
		the 1st 15 blocks (0­14) are taken up with the stuff so far.
			This is confusing, because it doesnıt leave room for the Catalog Tree or Extents Tree.
			Anyway, Physical Block 15 is usually data Block 0 as a result.
			Partitioning would not likely increase the size of the leaf nodes in the tree,
				since there is still only 1 node/file.
				But will the organization itself could be increased?
					If there is more data, a balanced tree is more important to efficiency.
					Does that mean that less data in more trees is less efficient?
					Anyway, all the headers would be duplicated.
Extents B­Tree
	as stated above, this contains information on all the little file chunks floating around
		after the first 3, which can be stored in the catalog tree
	partitioning would likely not increase this size
		but the header would be duplicated.
	reducing fragmentation would actually reduce the size of this tree.
Data
	Partitioning Information
	The File Manager in the System does the work
		to write a file:
			it requires:
				the i.d. of the containing folder
				the name of the file (plus the data, type, creator, etc.)
			it finds sufficient space in the VBM
			marks the VBM bits Œin useı
			searches the catalog tree (Œparsesı)
			writes the file information to the catalog tree & extents tree
			writes the data
HardDisk Tool Kit partitioning
	recall that every 32M adds  0.5k to the minimum file size
	when you copy from a big partition to a small, it reduces itself automatically.
	you set a maximum size (upon which the minimum file size it based)
		note, 32767 makes it 0.5k, but 32768 makes it 1.0k
		My 730 mb driveıs minimum file size was 11k.
			A fairly big partition of 98303 makes it only 1.5k.
			There are substantial disk space savings, if, you have lots of small files.
		A larger minimum file size tends to reduce fragmentation
			 because later changes are accomodated within the original allocation.
		you then set an actual size.
			subsequently, the size can be adjusted up or down but only to the maximum.
			However, the adjustment requires the moving of all subsequent partitions
				they strongly suggest a thorough backup.
		remember, the outside (lower numbered) tracks are fastest
			 so put system, then apps, then docs in use first.
I swear that more volumes makes the machine slower, especially on desktop drawing.
	If all the partitions are searched, it must be slower.
		rather than looking in one big indexed phone book, you have to look in each of
		several smaller indexed phone books)
	However, all the makers of partitioning software swear it is great for speed.
	I really canıt see how except the following:
		searches restricted to a particular partition will be faster.
		if you dismount a lot of the partition
	For speed, I would say that if you need it all mounted, you will lose
		but if you can dismount much of it, you may win.
		The jury is out.
Note, System 7.5.1 with all my stuff in 9507 used about 46 mb.
My allocations are:

	Name										Max		Actual		Used		Min File Size
	Startup							98303		98303	46000								1.5
	Apps								196607	196607	94000								3.0
	Docs									 98303	  98303	94000								1.5
	Archives.clts			98303	  50000	44000								1.5
	Archives.Acc			98303	  81800	43000								1.5
	Apps for Filing 163839	150700	104000							2.5
	BU.Odd							 65535	  20000	13000								1.0
	BU.Even						  65535	  20000	13000							 1.0
Total									 884728	715713	451000	

Note that my hard drive is supposed to be 730M.
	I donıt know how much was available prior to partitioning.
	By partitioning, it is reduced to 716M.
	Even assuming I had the whole 730mb available, that is a minor 14M drop.
	My minimum file size dropped from 11k to an average 2k
	I made a huge savings in space. 
Note that disk maintenance must be performed on each partition.
	e.g. disk doctor, disk optimizing, desktop rebuilding
Creating or deleting a partition wipes out everything on it
	but re­sizing is just risky. If it goes well, nothing is lost.
I found that if the partitions are set to auto­mount (to appear when you start up), you can then dismount them, and refer to them by their alias. If they have not been mounted since start­up, the alias will fail to find them, and you have to use a SCSI mounter like HDT Toolkit Primer to do so.


This ³Article² was brought to you by:

Kevin Jaques, B.A. LL.B.
of the
Jaques Law Office

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