What is the recommended partition scheme for mac os x?
As mentioned by the other comments, Apple's default partition scheme is to have everything on ONE partition.  While not recommended (potentially due to not being easy to do), it is possible to move a home folder to a different partition.

Here is how:


Create a partition to use for the home folder (Disk Utility is the built-in choice to do so)
enable the root user

open System Preferences
click on Users &amp; Groups
click on Login Options
open the padlock on the lower left-hand corner
click on "Join" next to Network Account Server
click on "Directory Utility"
from the menu "Edit" click "Enable Root Account" and supply a password for that account

log out of the current to-be-moved user
choose "Other" at the login screen
type in root into the username field and supply the password you just gave it
navigate to your other partition and create a base home folder (to use Apple's naming convention, create a folder named "Users")
navigate to the system's Users folder and copy the user's home folder over to the other partition.
open System Preferences > Users &amp; Groups
open the padlock on the lower left-hand corner
right-click (or Ctrl+click) the user you want to move and choose "Advanced Options"
for the field "Home directory", either click the button "Choose" (if it is there) and select the new path or type in the new path.

If you type it in, the path starts with /Volumes/&lt;volume_name&gt;
Important: Use the proper capitalization as depicted on your system or you may run into problems
Do NOT change anything else on that form (e.g. user ID) or you may end up not be able to log in or use the system with the other user

click on "OK"
restart your computer holding down the Alt key until you see boot options on the screen
choose the recovery option (e.g. "Recovery HD-10.10")
choose the language when asked
from the menu "Utilities" choose Terminal
type in resetpassword and hit Enter
choose the hard drive you normally use to boot from
choose your user
Click on "Reset" at the bottom of that window to reset permissions
reboot your system normally and try to log in to your user


If this is working for you as expected, here is the clean-up:


remove your user account folder from the system drive (to save disk space on your system drive)
disable the root user again to improve system security (follow the same steps as outlined above and choose "Disable Root User") this time


In case it is not working (though I would understand that it will), you can use root to log in and move the home directory back to where it was using System Preferences > Users &amp; Groups > Advanced Options (right-click on that user).

I hope this guide helps.