Hard Drive Partitioning

[Kostik]

What are the advantages and disadvantages to creating multiple partitions on large hard drives?

Thanks

 

[KnightPalatine]

1) Faster access, since the whole drive doesn't have to be read
2) Less fragmentation and faster drive maintenance (cleanup, defrag)
3) Easier backups, if you keep data on separate partition from OS; also, you can reformat and reinstall your OS partition without touching your data