Hard drive partitioning question

[Hardball]

My question:
I'm building a new system and will be using a Western Digital 120GB hd w/ 8MB cache and will be installing Win XP Pro on it. What are the benefits(if any) of setting it up with multiple partitions as opposed to just one large partition? I have my current system with Win98 se as one partition on a 20GB IBM drive.
If multiple partitions are a good idea, can you give me some suggestions/ ideas/ examples of how I might set this up?
Also, what would be involved with having Win 98se as a seperate partition for older programs/games?

 

[John]

Read through this thread

 

[DrexelBum]

I know one reason that a 2 partitions is better than one big hunk of info. If you set it up with one small partition, and the rest one another. Store all your games and media on the large partition, and load Windows on the smaller. That way, you can reload Windows without having to save all your info on 142 cd-rws. Btw, the benefits of fresh installs of Windows is endless, it solves a lot of problems, and not having to save up all your data makes it a lot easier to do frequent fresh installs.

 

[Feldenak]

Couple of months ago I remember seeing something in Maximum PC about using only 1 partition in XP. I don't remember the exact article (I'll see if I can find it when I get home) but it was something about how NTFS runs more efficiently with only 1 partition per HDD.

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Couple of months ago I remember seeing something in Maximum PC about using only 1 partition in XP. I don't remember the exact article (I'll see if I can find it when I get home) but it was something about how NTFS runs more efficiently with only 1 partition per HDD.

do you remember any advantages?

 

[SOSTrooper]

For a 120, I would do 40/80, 50/70, or 60/60. If you want to split into 3 40GBs, thats fine too. But never do 1 giant partition. Never.

 

[Hardball]

If I do the multiple partitions, what else should go on the partition with XP Pro? Anything? Should games have a seperate partition? What apps need to go on the XP Pro partition, if any?
Thanks

 

[XBoxLPU]

I have a 120gb hd partitioned 5gb for Windows and 109gb for programs and games

Is wonderful if you have to re-install Windows..

 

[KhoiFather]

Wait, I don't get it. If you have two partition, and you use one to install windows and the other for games and apps, doesn't that mean you can only go load into one partition at a time? Like if you boot into the partition with just the o/s, how do you get to your game and apps files on the other partition? Or is there an icon in My Computer that lets you go into it while you're in the partition.

 

[HumbleFish]

You should consider doing a dual boot system (XP & 98) on multiple partitions... It's like having insurance... If You ever get locked out of one OS, You just go in to the other and into the back door of the OS that is wacked and save all the stuff you want; then right click on the drive and click format and then install the faulty OS... It will give You alot of options... I like it!

 

[HumbleFish]

Here's dual boot instructions: http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/win2kdualboot/.

 

[andycheah]

If your apps and games are installed on a separate partition than the OS, are you able to use them after doing a format to the OS partition? I thought that some games or apps install files (like dll ones or whatever) that are needed to run and wouldn't those have been erased when the format was done?

Just curious, Andy

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Sid59

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Couple of months ago I remember seeing something in Maximum PC about using only 1 partition in XP. I don't remember the exact article (I'll see if I can find it when I get home) but it was something about how NTFS runs more efficiently with only 1 partition per HDD.

do you remember any advantages?

I'm pretty sure that 1 partition had fragmentation advantages (less is more ) in addition to being a bit faster with access times and when hitting the swap file. I'm still looking for the magazine (I have too damn many comp. magazines), I've narrowed it down and will post the specific listed advantages when I find it.

 

[everman]

Since you're reinstalling on a new HD consider this: Make 2 5gb partitions and install WinXp on both of them (dual boot). One will be your primary OS that you use all the time, the other is a backup in case your primary gets forked and you don't want to spend the time reinstalling it. Keep all of your data on another partition and apps on yet another. You could even set aside another partition for a future install of another OS.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Built a computer for a friend of mine, partitioned it to: 20GB-Op/Sys, 45GB-Music, 45GB-Pictures, left the rest - about 8GB Internet. (Download Target)
He botched a Op/Sys file HAL.DLL, and when he went to repair/restore, he got impatient, and stopped the function of the WinXP-CD.
WRONG MOVE !
But to fix it we only had to format & reinstall the Op/Sys on the 'C:/ Partition' - he lost NO DATA from the other partitions.
Saved his a$$ some sweat.
Good example of how partitioning can be helpful.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: everman
Since you're reinstalling on a new HD consider this: Make 2 5gb partitions and install WinXp on both of them (dual boot). One will be your primary OS that you use all the time, the other is a backup in case your primary gets forked and you don't want to spend the time reinstalling it. Keep all of your data on another partition and apps on yet another. You could even set aside another partition for a future install of another OS.

or you could just use Drive image to backup XP...

 

[KhoiFather]

 

[prosaic]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Built a computer for a friend of mine, partitioned it to: 20GB-Op/Sys, 45GB-Music, 45GB-Pictures, left the rest - about 8GB Internet. (Download Target)
He botched a Op/Sys file HAL.DLL, and when he went to repair/restore, he got impatient, and stopped the function of the WinXP-CD.
WRONG MOVE !
But to fix it we only had to format & reinstall the Op/Sys on the 'C:/ Partition' - he lost NO DATA from the other partitions.
Saved his a$$ some sweat.
Good example of how partitioning can be helpful.

No it isn't a good example of how partitioning can be helpful. Absolutely nothing prevents me from replacing a Windows OS installation with a clean install on a single partition that contains OS / Apps / Data. That's what directory structures are for. To replace the OS and applications you blow away the Windows (or WINNT, depending upon version) and Program Files directory structures, then you just perform an installation of the OS and apps. It's not necessary, nor even advantageous, to reformat the drive for an OS re-installation.

Insofar as hard drive failures are concerned, there's certainly no advantage to multiple partitions.

But single partitions do hold performance and (probably) longevity advantages. When you split a drive into multiple partitions being used under a single OS, the heads have to deal with multiple file tables and data locations on widely separated chunks of the drive, so the heads spend more time banging back and forth across large empty spaces on the drive. Not only does that waste time, it makes the head positioning mechanism work harder. These operating systems work most efficiently with data and software closely intermingled on the drive, NOT with them widely separated spatially. Placing data and software into separate directory structures provides the needed organizational separation to make replacement of OS and software without loss of data possible. The only case where separate partitions would hold an advantage would be where the file table itself was corrupted for the one partition. Then, if your data were on a separate partition, you would be in a better position to recover it. Just one flaw in that. I've only seen MFT corruption on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP system on dying hard drives, and dead onboard drive electronics or gouged platters makes the whole point of the separate partition useless.

Besides, if the data is important to you, you back it up to external media and / or (at the very least) other systems. And you do that often enough so the loss of interim data added to the collective will not be too painful.

- prosaic

 

[CaptnKirk]

Don't know how you think that loosing all the other data on a 120GB harddrive is a bonus.
I said he had destroyed the Op/Sys, and it had to be re-installed from scratch.
Re-formatting a 120GB hard drive would NOT have retained any information from any of the other
files he had if he had not partitioned the hard drive. By cutting partitions down into smaller sections
there is faster access within each section.

 

[prosaic]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Don't know how you think that loosing all the other data on a 120GB harddrive is a bonus.
I said he had destroyed the Op/Sys, and it had to be re-installed from scratch.
Re-formatting a 120GB hard drive would NOT have retained any information from any of the other
files he had if he had not partitioned the hard drive. By cutting partitions down into smaller sections
there is faster access within each section.

Destroyed "Op/Sys"? Please. Do you mean file system? Otherwise, no need for a reformat at all. You can reinstall "from scratch" without need for deleting / recreating partitions and reformatting anything. You can blow the operating system to hell and back without necessitating the steps you're suggesting.

If the proper data backup procedures are in place it takes little or no more time to handle even the most egregious failure doing it with multiple partitions than it does with a single one. Restoration of the data takes very little time if the system is suited to the tasks it is handling. And I'd rather deal with 30-40 minutes more time spent in the unlikely event of a need for a system rebuild than a system which is slower and less reliable long-term because the hard drive heads have to thrash about anongst the partitions for every single operation involving software and data.

And multiple partitions on a single drive being used under a single OS DO slow the system down.

- prosaic

 

[MarkFahey]

Why partitioning is not necessarily worth it