HDD Partition Confusion..

[akshayt]

Hi

I have a Seagate SATA NCQ 160GB.

I am confused as to how should I go about partitioning once Vista is out.

I have thought of 2 options:

c: 40GB for Vista
I don't want to give less than 35-40GB for Vista.

d: 105GB
few GB worth of software and games
maybe about 10-20GB worth of downloads at a time
about 30-40GB or more worth of games


OR

c: 40GB for Vista

d: 20-25GB
software, music: all maybe worth 5-10GB

e: rest of the space for games and downloads



I won't install XP after this on this system, so that is not a problem. But I want enough space of each partition so as to not become a bottleneck due to much usage. Which idea is better. I can't buy a new HDD, that is sure. Performance still counts for me...

 

[PurdueRy]

With that size drive I would not partition

 

[akshayt]

I would never keep the OS and games on one partition. That will slow a comp down. Besides, the HDD isn't that small that you can't parition it. Anyway, which of the 2 choices is better in terms of performance or virtual memory?

 

[RMSe17]

Originally posted by: akshayt
I would never keep the OS and games on one partition. That will slow a comp down. Besides, the HDD isn't that small that you can't parition it. Anyway, which of the 2 choices is better in terms of performance or virtual memory?

Actually, as far as speed is concerned, if you just have 1 drive, having multiple partitions for games and OS will slow things down more than a single partition. This is because the drive head has to keep jumping across the drive every time a game and an OS want something.
Now, if you have 2 drives, one with an OS and storage partitions, and another with games and say.. music or whatever, that will really speed things up, because now the OS has dedicated drive head, and so do the games.

I personally am a fan of 3 drives, where I can stick OS, games, and pagefile each on it's own drive.

But if you are just using 1 drive, keep 1 partition, less travel for the drive head, faster performance. If you keep your pagefile on that hard drive, make sure you set a static permemant size for it, otherwise it tends to fragment things.

That being said, of the two options you presented, I would go with option 1.

RMSe17

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: akshayt
I would never keep the OS and games on one partition. That will slow a comp down. Besides, the HDD isn't that small that you can't parition it. Anyway, which of the 2 choices is better in terms of performance or virtual memory?

As is stated above...not partitioning the drive will not affect speed. The only downside is organization

 

[Oyeve]

The only point I see in partitioning 1 HD is if your OS gets fubared you can format and reinstall without affecting your data. Otherwise there is no benefit.

 

[RMSe17]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
The only point I see in partitioning 1 HD is if your OS gets fubared you can format and reinstall without affecting your data. Otherwise there is no benefit.

Yep

 

[akshayt]

thanks, so now I will keep 2 partitions only.