Help creating partitions on a disk

[Inikay]

Hi!

I am buying a new computer and it will come with a Seagate 160GB SATA disk.

I'm thinking in creating 3 partitions:

c: 20GB (Windows XP)
d: 90 GB (Programs)
e: 50GB, or the rest (Documents and personal files)

Is this a good distribution? Not sure about the one for the operating system...is it enough?

Thanks,

Inikay.

 

[Farmer]

Looks good. I doubt you need 50GB for documents.

 

[JBDan]

You using Partition Magic? Windows partitioner? I have done this and just don't see the justifiable reasoning behind it when you can just create folders with your programs and personal files. Partioning does nothing to improve performance at all. It does however make for a more secure file system in the event of malicious scripts/attacks. This increased security is the ONLY reason I find valuable in partioning your HD. Remember when installing apps/games/etc the default location for installation is C:/ so make sure you adjust for this and make your default install location D:/ for your programs etc... Same when dnlding to default location. You will end up with "My Documents" in your C:/ and E:/ partitions. This was all a confusion for me that made me stop partioning my HD's. Good luck though you might like it.

 

[Inikay]

It's a new rig, so I will just create the partitions before I format the disk, in the process of installing the operating system. It's more a security issue, really. I like everything in its own place

Thanks,

Inikay.

 

[bacillus]

just be aware that your actual hdd capacity as seen by windows will be a fair amount less than the 160Gb that you made your calculations for.

 

[Farmer]

bacillus:

Yes, a few gigabytes, I believe.

 

[jvarszegi]

Don't choose round numbers for your partition sizes if you want to see nice round numbers in Windows. I mean, multiply the number of gigs times 1024; so for a 20GB partition, choose 20480.

I saw a post by someone else that had ten or more partitions set up on a single disk, probably because it made them feel richer ("more stuff" in Explorer or something). I think that your twenty-gig partition is fine and sensible, but I'd combine the other two. It's much more useful to have one big block of storage-- you never have to move stuff like you will when your Programs or Documents partition starts filling up.