How to partition an upgraded SSD after my old one crashed

[CyrilP]

Hi,

I've been a Parallels user since September 2012 when I bought my 128 GB 13"MacBook Air which I've been using for the last 8 years.

The storage was partitioned with 80GB allocated for Parallels/Windows and 40 GB allocated for the Mac and I was running Mac OS Catalina.

Unfortunately, my HDD crashed and I need to replace the HDD now.

I am now planning to upgrade to a a 512 GB SSD.

I have time machine backups available to restore my data to a new SSD.

The new SSD comes pre-installed with an MacOS High Sierra.

My question is - how do I partition my new SSD after I install High Sierra?

Should I partition it in the same ratio? (1:2 like the 40GB:80GB on my time machine backup ?)

Also, what I if I want to change the ration to 1:1 - will time machine automatically transfer the windows and Mac data in the backup to the two new partitions or do I have to do that?

Please advise. I could not find an answer to my query on the website and it's the first time I'm doing this.

Since the Machine is classified as obselete, Apple won't accept it. Apple's authorized service providers gave me a quote charging almost as much as a new laptop to do all this!!!

Much appreciate any kind assistance in this regard.

Kind regards,

 

[CyrilP]

You'll need to understand How to use the Disk Manager in MacOS as well as the high level of Caution when it comes to Partitioning. Macs really don't like you playing with the filesystem (from experience) and the newer OS' don't even use a normal style partitioning (but it's possible).

A few things to note beyond that based on experience:

• Realistically, you don't need to partition the drive, but if you Do then I'd suggest (OSata) 256:256 or 128:384. Only do the latter IF and ONLY IF you don't plan to upgrade the OS further or install apps while keeping ~20Gb of the OS partition free for breathing room. Note: MacOS may not let you partition it Below 256 Gb anyway.
• Don't waste time backing Time Machine up TO the internal SSD as if the SSD crashes, then so will your backups. Your Time Machine should be on a separate drive, 2-3x the capacity of the drive being backed up, and run at least once a month, if not once a week depending on usage.
• If Apple seems too costly and you're not sure what you're doing, then there should be plenty of reputable IT companies/people in your area willing to make some money. The tasks aren't that hard give or take the difficulty of tearing down that model of Mac.

Thanks so much Aries!

From what you said (and what I read elsewhere), I don't really need to partition the drive to run windows on parallels on the Mac, right ?

That is to say, I can run the virtual machine on the Mac OS.

I'm not sure then why I had the old drive partitioned in the first place

I was worried about whether the backed up windows files would run on an unpartitioned drive and if I partitioned the drive, how I'd back up just those files to the partition reserved for windows.

Anyhow, thanks much for your help - I'm going to try do this myself - the authorized Apple partners are charging way too much.

 

[CyrilP]

Well, I got as far as getting the Windows machine to open on my Mac but it opens up to a static screen that doesn't respond. I can move my cursor over and that's it - nothing else

I do use an external drive for my Time Machine backups and retrieved my data using the migration tool. The last few backups weren't complete and so I was missing the Windows PVM.

I went to my last complete backup and manually moved the PVM to my Mac - and now have it stored in the default Parallels folder.

Though I can't access anything from Windows, the taskbar on top of the Parallels interface is accessible.

Not much help there - there's an alert for a parallel tools update but when I click 'Yes' nothing happens. It also shows the CPU usage at a 100%. The resource monitor shows the same thing - Windows utilization at 100% and Mac utilization at 33%. Isn't that weird?

The system info shows 57.24 GB of 'other' utilization and the PVM file was 39 GB so I know that the data is there but I just can't
access it.

Please help. Any suggestions would be most welcome.