Getting the WD 120gig, how should I partition it?

[StevenYoo]

Hi all,
I got the WD 120 gig in the Hot Deals forum for $200. How should I split my partitions?

Here's what I think:
3 gigs for the OS
6 gigs for applications
111 gigs for games, mp3's and movies

How should I split the games/mp3's/movies?

How many partitions do you guys think I should have and how big should they be?

I will be running XP Pro - FAT32

I posted this in the peripherals section too

 

[nateholtrop]

why partitition leaveit all on one????

nate

 

[spanky]

good lord thats a lot of bytes....

 

[teriba]

a) 1 partition
b) ntfs

 

[jpsj82]

if you are going to partition it leave a lot more then 3 gb for your os. I am not sure how much space win xp takes up, but my win 2k is taking up at least 2 gb. remember after a while your os will grow in size from the size you installed it at.

 

[Logix]

Partitioning is a good idea. In the future, if you need to reformat and reinstall your OS, you won't have to backup all your mp3's, movies, etc.

I'd create another partition for your games, separate from mp3's and movies.

 

[JellyBaby]

Perhaps more importantly how are you going to back it up?

 

[StevenYoo]

<< Perhaps more importantly how are you going to back it up? >>



I'm not too concerned with backups. I always backup my documents and drivers onto CD or onto Zip. mp3's and movies are expendable to me.

So here's what i think now:

5 gigs for the OS?
8 or 9 gigs for applications
40 gigs for games
the rest for mp3's and movies

still dunno about FAT or NTFS though.

 

[yoda291]

<< Perhaps more importantly how are you going to back it up? >>



easy. make a ghost image of the OS partition. If/when it crashes, just restore the OS and all links therein...keep a copy of registry on cd just in case. Total space to backup...3 -6 gigs.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< I'm not too concerned with backups. >>

Famous last words.

<< make a ghost image of the OS partition >>

I've been thining of buying Ghost. Can it backup a part of a partition or are you forced to make an image of the whole thing? I would assume the later since so many advise creating a 4 GB or so OS partition for imaging purposes.

For a full backup you could always get another 120 and put it on a rack-mount. Insert, backup, remove, place in safe place. Better than tape, CD/DVD, etc.

 

[Electrode]

For WinNT, I would recommend:

10 GB FAT32 for the OS and applications
110 GB NTFS for data

For Linux, I would recommend:

6 GB ext2 for /
45.5 GB ReiserFS for /usr
68 GB ReiserFS for /home
512 MB swap for swap space

 

[Ionizer86]

My 40gb is currently 4x 10gb.
I'd say that maybe you can do 3x40gb or 4x30gb. You'll want some large partitions because you may decide to dual boot some OSs some day.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Three advantages to partitioning:

Less fragmentation.
Faster defrags.
Faster searches.

I would go NTFS for your MP3 partition, FAT32 for your OS partition, and whatever you want for the others.

 

[Kanalua]

Go NTFS for all, I think, 4-6 Gigs for OS partition, 20-40 for games, rest for data/mp3's etc...

My opinion...

 

[Ismisus]

don't download warez, moviez...that way you can return your huge hard drive for something smaller.

No one needs 120Gb,unless they are...but I can see from your posts that you're not.

 

[StevenYoo]

<< don't download warez, moviez...that way you can return your huge hard drive for something smaller.

No one needs 120Gb,unless they are...but I can see from your posts that you're not. >>



no no no, not warez. I need all the space for Lego Porn. DUH!

 

[Mday]

4GB for OS, put your installation files there , and maintain a fixed swap file
8GB for applications
1GB for sharing if you are on a network
several 710MB for CD burning, if you burn
8GB for games, i find it good to separate the games from apps
other is data partitioned for maintenance

i suggest using ntfs, in which case you can even encrypt a partition...

 

[yoda291]

<<

<< I'm not too concerned with backups. >>

Famous last words.

<< make a ghost image of the OS partition >>

I've been thining of buying Ghost. Can it backup a part of a partition or are you forced to make an image of the whole thing? I would assume the later since so many advise creating a 4 GB or so OS partition for imaging purposes.

For a full backup you could always get another 120 and put it on a rack-mount. Insert, backup, remove, place in safe place. Better than tape, CD/DVD, etc. >>



as far as I know, you gotta backup an entire partition at a time. But I do know that the new Ghost can add specific files to an already existing image.

 

[Ameesh]

why would you use fat32 instead of NTFS?

 

[yoda291]

fat32 is slightly faster, but fragments easier, tends to not like multiple users and advanced security options, encryption is a no-no, but win9x can't see an ntfs partition, so if you dual boot, you lost drive space.

 

[silverpig]

Here's how I'd do it:

10 gigs ext3 for linux
500 meg linux swap
30 gigs fat32 for XP/programs
rest for data files (mp3s movies)


But since you don't seem to be interested in linux:

30 gigs for windows/programs (for integration with the the registry)
90 gigs for data

I used to have a separate partition for my OS, but found that some programs had to be on the same drive as my OS in order to work properly. CS was one of them.

 

[err]

This is how I would do it.

c:\ NTFS 10 GB (WinXP and your APPS)
d:\ NTFS 110 GB your data

this way if your OS fuxked up, you can always reinstall on c: and keep all your data. Also, if you decide to uninstall your OS and install new version of windows, you can always wipe out c:\ and install your OS without worrying about your data.

If you Ghost regularly, or if you do file backup, I suggest,

c:\ NTFS 10Gb
d:\ NTFS 100 GB
e:\ FAT32 10 GB (for ghost)

Keep it simple. Keep your data partition big. I have an 80 GB drive that I don't partition and only 4.5 GB left now.

eRr

 

[yakko]

Make 20 6 gb partitions.

 

[yoda291]

I would go 6gb partition for the OS(7 if you use xp) and whatever apps need to be in the same partition as the OS(NTFS), and 74 GB data/programs partition and save your images in a folder tucked away on this partition(FAT32). It's how I've done up all my drives and it hasn't given me too much trouble. And if you want extra partitions later, you could buy Partition Magic 7 and rearrange a little easier.

 

[dionx]

20GB for one OS along with apps..

100GB for everything else including games