How should I partition my 100gb hard drive?

[1kayaker]

Hi, I'm building a system for my brother in law. He will be coming from a Pentium-166. My own system only has a 30gb hdd so I was wondering what is the best way to partition his new drive? He will be using the system to do a little of everything but not hardcore into any one particular area. Should I make one huge drive or something like a partition for the OS(WinXP Pro), one for the DVD burner, one for applications, one for data, one for pictures and music, etc. What will be the best performing? What are the pro's and con's. I'm open to suggestions.
The new system will be as follows:
ECS K7S5A
XP2100+
KINGSTON 512DDR
GEFORCE 3 TI200
SOUNDBLASTER LIVE 5.1
TRENDWARE V.92 MODEM
WESTERN DIGITAL 100GB 8MB 7200RPM
VERBATIM DVD+R/W
LITEON 40X DVDROM

Thanks in advance,
Phil

 

[LED]

My suggestion is to install something like Partition Magic then he can decide what to do...If not I would stick with 2 (OS30% Data70%)maybe 3 partitions. 5 or so gig for the OS, then put the proggies behind on the next, and finally the MP3's, Vids, and other stuffs on the last

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: LED
My suggestion is to install something like Partition Magic then he can decide what to do...If not I would stick with 2 (OS30% Data70%)maybe 3 partitions. 5 or so gig for the OS, then put the proggies behind on the next, and finally the MP3's, Vids, and other stuffs on the last

I put my OS and apps on C: and my data on D:. That makes formatting easy - blow away the C drive. The apps don't matter, because when you blow away windows, the apps that depend on the registry break so you have to reinstall them anyway. Still, some people say 3 partitions (2-3 gig OS, 10? gig apps, the rest data).

On my 60, I have 15 gigs for OS + Apps and the rest for data.

edit: pros and cons:
1 partition: everything is on C:. Thats easy. Cons: formatting withotu losing data is a pain. If a rogue app blows up one partition, everything is gone.
>1 partitions: separation. the major con is that if you size them wrong (too big OS, too small apps), you waste space and resizing takes forever.

 

[John]

One big c: drive is fine. If you have data to back up you can burn to a cdr, dvdr, zip, or drop to another pc on the network.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: John
One big c: drive is fine. If you have data to back up you can burn to a cdr, dvdr, zip, or drop to another pc on the network.

I don't recommend this as when you try and run a check/scan disk or defrag, it will take FOREVER!

 

[John]

I run a 120GB (111GB) single partition.

chkdsk and defrag only take a couple of minutes in XP Pro.

 

[CaptnKirk]

I find that with either WinXP Home or Pro, the Op/Sys works fine on a C/: partition of between 15GB to 20GB,
depending on how many Apps you want to keep associated with the Op/Sys (Office XP, Norton, Etc,)

If you use the 15GB - that will leave you approx. 85GB. (Don't forget - the Partition Function itself will consume drive space)
Of the remaining 85GB, consider cutting a 35GB MP3 partition = D/:, and a 45GB Picture Partition = E/:, that will leave about a 4.4GB file space
left over which you can make the F/: partition - and use it as an Internet Download File Target.
It gives you a chance to isolate any rogue or malicious script into an Isolation Chamber and Kill it before it can get into your Op/Sys.

You can move any files you want freely between any partition with a simple "Send To" command and a mouse click.

 

[John]

Why partitioning is not necessarily worth it

 

[LED]

Why partitioning is not necessarily worth it

...but is IMO because

About the ONLY thing partitions are good for is booting to multiple operating systems.

Yep...Win 98SE (for Dos) and XP plus Linux

Defragging/scan disk on small partitions is faster...esp if done every so often
If the Apps and OS is put on the same Partition, Coping/Backing up by Partition on Ghost is Faster leaving the Backup Data (ie.MP3's and Data) Partiton alone.
When tranfering files to another smaller HD or Media it's easier by Partition IMO
No Need to Burn Back-up on external Media the minute it's there (May crash in a few no one really knows)
Virus Isolation on downloads if niot scan before received...hehe I do
Easier Orginazation IMO
Seperate Partitons can be hidden from others
Different Formats can be used on seperate Partions (i.e Fat16, 32, NFTS)

Finally TO EACH THEIR OWN

 

[goog]

I'll just add an opinion, I prefer 2 partitions one for the OS + Apps, and a second for data. Course I have have 3 harddrives and 7 total partitions currently so ...

 

[hdeck]

I have 5 partitions over 2 harddrives

 

[Dreadogg]

Originally posted by: CTho9305

Originally posted by: LED
My suggestion is to install something like Partition Magic then he can decide what to do...If not I would stick with 2 (OS30% Data70%)maybe 3 partitions. 5 or so gig for the OS, then put the proggies behind on the next, and finally the MP3's, Vids, and other stuffs on the last

I put my OS and apps on C: and my data on D:. That makes formatting easy - blow away the C drive. The apps don't matter, because when you blow away windows, the apps that depend on the registry break so you have to reinstall them anyway. Still, some people say 3 partitions (2-3 gig OS, 10? gig apps, the rest data).

On my 60, I have 15 gigs for OS + Apps and the rest for data.

edit: pros and cons:
1 partition: everything is on C:. Thats easy. Cons: formatting withotu losing data is a pain. If a rogue app blows up one partition, everything is gone.
>1 partitions: separation. the major con is that if you size them wrong (too big OS, too small apps), you waste space and resizing takes forever.

Agree same way here!

 

[ShowdOWN]

i have 7 partitions on my 80GB hard drive. no way in the world i would run my computer with one partition.
do you know how many mp3s, videos and programs i have on this hard drive. backing them all up to cds would be ludicrous.
even if i were able to back them all up to cds, i would just go crazy looking thru all the cds to find what i want. even if they are labeled.

 

[overclock]

Originally posted by: ShowdOWN
i have 7 partitions on my 80GB hard drive. no way in the world i would run my computer with one partition.
do you know how many mp3s, videos and programs i have on this hard drive. backing them all up to cds would be ludicrous.
even if i were able to back them all up to cds, i would just go crazy looking thru all the cds to find what i want. even if they are labeled.

Time to get a DVD burner!

 

[Viper96720]

I thought XP works best as one partition. Since it does stuff in the background.
I just do the Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks. Once a month

 

[1kayaker]

Thanks everyone for all the input but what is Viper talking about right above me? I've been on XP Pro for a long time and never heard any of whatever he is talking about. Is there something I'm missing? Please send me a link.

Thanks in advance,
Phil