[mechdrew]

I know that Journaling takes up a little more space than just plain old Extended. And I am aware the extreme benefits. But hear me out on this one.

A lot of users are having problems with 8 GB drives barely not having enough space. What happens if one tries to install on a partition that is not Journaled? Will it still function, and will it actually make a difference? My goal here is simply to get the OS installed, let the user remove the extra fluff, enable Journaling and be on their merry way. What say you?

[yan_vn]

Hi.

First, we should check how much space journaling really takes on a 8GB drive.
Second, if it is just for give it a try, why not. And I think people who wants to run OS X with a few hundred MB free are not really thinking of a daily professional usage.
But since an installation on a non Apple hardware is still having some troubles sometime, for "real life usage", I don't think disabling an option that enable you to recover better from instability is a good thing.

My conclusion : 8GB is possible, but less usable and less stable.

Yan.

[mechdrew]

I already understand the implications of running the OS without Journaling, let me make myself clear:
A few of the people who bought 8 GB Minis are having a problem with installation. While many have had success installing with only a few MBs to spare, a select few lack a few MBs, usually around 34, in order for installation to proceed. What I am trying to find out is if not using Journaling during installation will give them enough free space to do the normal install. After that they would eliminate some of the programs they don't need and such, then reenable Journaling. This is not supposed to be a permanent disable, just enough to get the OS installed.

[nathan7]

My friend's 8gb was about 39mb short until he tried this, and this method worked for him.

After booting the installer, open Disk Utility and partition as GUID partition table with a single FAT partition. Quit Disk Utility and proceed with the install. Select Erase & Install in the options then do a custom install to minimize space required.

[mechdrew]

Thanks for the tip, but there are a few threads about the FAT format technique not working for everyone. I'm just looking for the answer to the Journaling space at install.

And I would have tried this already, but I have a 16 GB SSD, so I'm no help.

[bobstone]

well, i dont know about journaling and what not but I did an install to a ext hdd and trimed it down a LOT and I gt it fully functioning with about 1.6 - 2 gig spare, have to check it again to see what it is at. the biggest space save is to disable safe sleep and get rid of the 1-2 gig file it creates, ( depends on ram size ) once i did all that i just "restored" it to my ssd

[mechdrew]

Originally Posted by bobstone

well, i dont know about journaling and what not but I did an install to a ext hdd and trimed it down a LOT and I gt it fully functioning with about 1.6 - 2 gig spare...

That's great and all for some of us who have USB drives to do this, but it is likely that if someone bought an 8 GB Mini they were thinking about price. Actually, the real point of all of this is to ELIMINATE a step in the installation, it's a lot more time consuming to image the drive after install, not to mention that most USB drives are slower than the internal SSD.

Can anyone just confirm whether or not disabling Journaling gives more install space at installation time? That's the only I'm looking for, not alternative solutions; I know about most of those.

[yan_vn]

Originally Posted by mechdrew

I already understand the implications of running the OS without Journaling,

Sorry Mechdrew for not having understood your question. So far, I have no way to check if disabling journaling saves so much space. If few Megas are necesary, perhaps it will do the trick, but this will not turn 8GB SSD on a true good option for OS X (or any modern OS fully featured).

Yan.

[chazzek]

There was a thread earlier that discussed saving space by deleting the journal: http://mydellmini.com/forum/how-to-g...ce-p31959.html. A few of us found that the journal is 8MB and seems to be independent of partition size, so I doubt you'll gain the space you need. Try it though -- once you trim the install, you can enable the journal in Disk Utility.