hi!

Is there a better approach to disk partitions? I'm trying to avoid
wasted space of small files stored in large block size partitions. And
noticed that although hdsc-Setup and FWB's partitioners said minimum
block size was 3.6k, for example, a 259504MB partition, the df command
in netbsd says the block sizes are 1k for such a partition size. I've
read some of the faqs about partitioning harddrives (the bios issues for
a 2 gig drive seems like a DOS discussion). The man pages for fs
mentioned that blocks are default fragmented to an 8th of a 512 block.
So it appears that bsd rewrote the rules for using block sizes in a
given partition.

Anyway, a jaz removeable needs to be set up with mkfs and i would like
to know what is an optimal way of doing this. A snafoo with the having
many partitions is that netbsd runs out of available partition letters
(8 max, 5 useable) for a given drive.  Secondly, multiple partitions
seems to involve setting up env so that the system and programs know
where all the goodies are stored in all the possible directories--of
which some may not be mounted. When i set up three partitions below with
mkfs and started installing into the freshly mounted partions, each
partion has its own "/usr/local..." directories due to the nature of
installing .tar files. 

Since netbsd uses fragments of 512 blocks, can't i just make the whole
jaz disk a "NetBSD Root & Usr" partition and call it a day? that would
allow me to avoid all the mounting as unnecessary. Plus, there would
only need to be ONE "/usr/local..." directory also. Although, in the
back of my mind i remember a discussion of having different partitions
for different directories to reduce the risk of damage to an entire
harddrive. And if i would want that security, how do i do the env stuff?
My original partitioning scheme was 200MB for netbsd & X, 260MB for
binaries, 260MB for src/sys, and 280MB for other--given the limitations
of 5 usable partitions on the jaz (the macOS and Iomega partitions
cannot/must not be deleted).

Jaz removeable as it now is:
# disklabel
8 partitions:
#    size     offset    fstype    [fsize  bsize  cpg]
a:   407265      421    4.2BSD     0      0      0    #(Cyl. 0*-199*)
b:    80000   407686    swap                          #(Cyl. 199*-238*)
c:  2091050        0    unused     0      0           #(Cyl. 0-1021*)
d:       10       11    unknown                       #(Cyl. 0*-0*)
e:      400       21    unknown                       #(Cyl. 0*-0*)
f:   519008  1006694    4.2BSD     0      0      0    #(Cyl. 491*-744*)
g:   519008   487686    4.2BSD     0      0      0    #(Cyl. 238*-491*)
h:   565344  1525702    4.2BSD     0      0      0    #(Cyl. 744*-1021*)


df:
Filesystem    1k-blocks    used     Avail    Capacity Mounted on
root_device   197167       96437    81013    54%      /
/dev/sd2f     738764       530180   134707   80%      /vol-f
/dev/sd2g     487213       280835   157656   64%      /vol-g
/dev/sd2h     1012491      738773   172468   81%      /vol-h