Help me partition My new 150 GIG raptor

[easyriders]

Hi all,

Well after the weekend my new 150 gig raptor turns up and was wondering what the best way to partition it was for both ease of use,minimal defragmentation,and performance.

My hard drive setup is:

System/windows 150 gig raptor
1x 250 gig storage (pictures,letters admin stuff)
1x 250 gig storage (MP3 collection)
1x 250 gig storgae (Video files,editing clips mini dv stuff)
1x 250 gig storage (hard drive image and general backup purposes)

Now whats the best way to partition my raptor?
Is it best to have a windows on one partition?
games on a partition/programs on another
Where should I stick my page file?

If you had this setup what sizes would you use?

I want the best performance and it to be easy maintainable.

It was easy before I had 2 x36 raptors in raid and just installed windows and programs on the whole span of the two drives leaving the others for my data.

Now I have so much more space for my system files and will be starting from scratch again with a fresh install any input would be appreciated.

 

[nadirshakur]

Welcome.
I personally would keep it all in a big chunk. But that's me and I know my needs. Honestly choose whatever works for you as long as you back up.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

How I have my partitions setup. I believe in organization, so I partition the stuff accordingly.

I put my page file on the RAID 0 array, and setup Photoshop scratch disk on there as well.

 

[Luckyboy1]

You may wish to consider at this point buying a program called Acronis. Not only does it make setting up the partitions easier, it makes it so you can set the chunk size bigger than 2, which is all Cousin Billy's will let you do. You can stripe as long as you like and I've been told that won't make up for having a bigger chunk size.

Acronis also can be set in a mode that does a better job of whiping the disc clean than Cousin Billy's programming. Don't think of Acronis as a short term expense. Think of it as a long term investment because you can use it drive after drive setup and format after format process.

And the best part is it makes the process easier. You stand less of a chance formatting FUBAR and we all could stand less of that!

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: easyriders
Hi all,

Well after the weekend my new 150 gig raptor turns up and was wondering what the best way to partition it was for both ease of use,minimal defragmentation,and performance.

My hard drive setup is:

System/windows 150 gig raptor
1x 250 gig storage (pictures,letters admin stuff)
1x 250 gig storage (MP3 collection)
1x 250 gig storgae (Video files,editing clips mini dv stuff)
1x 250 gig storage (hard drive image and general backup purposes)

I want the best performance and it to be easy maintainable.

Since you have multiple drives already, a single partition would offer the best performance and easiest maintanence. Folders are more flexible and efficient than partitions for organization. The page file can go on either the Raptor, or on your least used standard drive, or both.

 

[nadirshakur]

Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
you can set the chunk size bigger than 2, which is all Cousin Billy's will let you do

what's chunk size?

 

[easyriders]

Hi thanks for the replies.

I read that putting the page file on a seperate disk is the best option.
But is this not advisable as the other drives are 7200 and will be slower than the raptor?

 

[furballi]

-5GB Primary Active Partition for WXP
-XXGB for data
-XXGB for Pagefile and Image files

The most important thing is to keep Windows isolated from other applications. The numbers of extended logical partitions AFTER the C primary active partition is user-defined.

 

[the Chase]

Do you still have the 36GB raptors? If you do-
Windows install on 1st 36GB raptor.
Page file on 4GB partition on 2nd raptor. Make the page file static in size. Can use the rest of this drive for general storage.
Put games/apps on their own seperate partitions as big as each app. needs on the new 150GB raptor.(be generous with the partition size for each.)
Also can leave a big "end" partition on the 150 raptor for general storage/other infrequently used apps.

 

[easyriders]

Originally posted by: the Chase
Do you still have the 36GB raptors? If you do-
Windows install on 1st 36GB raptor.
Page file on 4GB partition on 2nd raptor. Make the page file static in size. Can use the rest of this drive for general storage.
Put games/apps on their own seperate partitions as big as each app. needs on the new 150GB raptor.(be generous with the partition size for each.)
Also can leave a big "end" partition on the 150 raptor for general storage/other infrequently used apps.

No I sold the two 36 raptors to fund the 150 gig raptor.I was running out of space on the raid array.

so what about:



C: 33 gig windows (raptor)
D: 65 gig games (raptor)
E: 50 gig programs (raptor)
F: 2 gig pagefile (raptor)

or should I just stick the page file on one of the sperate 250gig drives on its own controller?

 

[secretanchitman]

i would stick the page file on one of the 250GB hard drives and i would leave the raptor for booting windows and games and installing stuff.

the rest of the hard drives is up to you.

how i partitioned my 2 hard drives?

the 120GB is a 75GB/40GB. the 75GB is for booting/windows/games/installed stuff, and the 40GB is for misc stuff, like all the downloads i have.

the 160GB is just for mp3s, game images, movies, and pictures. i also have another copy of windows xp installed on there, so in case either drive fails, i have another OS ready to boot.