How to partition a 120GB Western Digital 1200JB

[sean2002]

I just ordered one of these bad boys and I'm wondering on how to partition it. Should I use multi. smaller partitions or just 1 big one ? I will only be using Win XP.

 

[CocaCola5]

here's what I would do, make c: XP 5Gb d: backup 2GB e: the rest. Install Partition Magic and part the rest later if need to. If you want to make c: the swap(about 1.5Gb) and d: XP.

 

[Crimson]

I just got one myself.. I formatted it as one big happy 120gig NTFS partition.. probably a stupid thing to do but I hate multiple drives.

 

[Strafe]

AFAIK, with NTFS there's nothing wrong with creating one big partition.

 

[nortexoid]

this topic is so beaten...anyway,

best thing to do is make a small but adequate OS partition - say, 3GB - as C:....Only put your OS on this partition (and other things that necessarily install to C🙂
next, make as many other partitions as you need...I'd suggest two more - one for applications and one for everything else...make the apps one D:, and the rest E:.

the benefit of doing this is, if you have to nuke your OS to reinstall it or whatever, you don't have to nuke everything else...meaning, you don't have to back up 100gb of data like an idiot...

reason for making a separate, say, 20gb application partition is that it's easy to defragment without having to defrag - uselessly - your media drive (that contains mp3s, etc. that don't need to be defragmented).

i definitely wouldn't go less than two partitions...one for the OS, the other for everything else.

 

[microAmp]

<< the benefit of doing this is, if you have to nuke your OS to reinstall it or whatever, you don't have to nuke everything else...

i definitely wouldn't go less than two partitions...one for the OS, the other for everything else. >>



I totally agree with nortexoid, about having one partition for the OS and another for everything else, or two or three depending on what you need. It's happened to me before where the C:\ drive got nuked but my other data on D: was ok, yeah you have to reinstall all the programs, etc again but your saved games, and mp3's are gone.

 

[Dreadogg]

I always make one partition for OS plus all programs that I install, anything that can be used over after a reinstall I put on the second! More that two in my opinion is a waste it just adds another click, unless you have multiple OS's then they get there own and you mount your backup drive to all of those!

 

[flexy]

<< I just got one myself.. I formatted it as one big happy 120gig NTFS partition.. probably a stupid thing to do but I hate multiple drives. >>



multiple drives rock !!!!!

ONE 120 gig partition...ehrm....i think i hold back with my comment 🙂

I always have at least ONE "system only" partition (XP 4 or 5 gig).....another one "main programs" for all data and programs, another one "storage" for all zip files and archived stuff and another for a alternative OS (eg. 98SE)

I see MANY, MANY advantages having multiple partitions...ever used ghost ? I dump/backup my whole system partition on my E: in a matter of a few minutes....and come the tim my system is screwed i easily can restore the whole system partition again in a matter of minutes....i dont know how often this already lterally saved my insanity 🙂 )

More partitions also make it easier to keep eg. the system in front (front partition==fastest)....and divide partitions up so the archive stuff can go in the back of the HD (SLOW)......if you have ONE partition you never know where your stuff (physically) is on the HD......just for the sake of performance in general i'd recommend more partitions..not to speak of tasks like defragging/error check etc. etc... happy defragging of a 120gig partition btw 🙂)))

 

[mchammer187]

i do one for 8 gig for OS, hardware related apps

15 gig for apps

about 38 gigs for mp3s, movies, mostly pr0n 🙂

mine is only a 60 GB

i guess if i had a 120 i'd do

8 OS + hardware stuff (intel app accelerator, ati dvd, creative play center etc)

20 GIGs (proggies)

split the rest into 2-3 equal sized partitions for mp3s, video clips, pron etc

 

[Tol]

With my 40GB drive, I always had winXP, apps, and games on the first 15GB and then had a second 25GB partition that held a ghost image, my documents folder, outlook folder, mp3s, etc.

Has anyone tried it this way, with OS and apps together, and then with just an OS partition? Would there really be a noticable performance gain if I went with 3 partitions instead(OS/apps/backup)?

BTW, as soon as my cpu arrives, I'll be switching to an 80GB harddrive...my original thought was 20/60, but since so many of you like just a bare OS partition, I might move to 5/20/55 instead.

 

[JohnnyPC]

<< happy defragging of a 120gig partition btw 🙂))) >>



Just curious but why would defragging the same amount of stuff on a 120 gig partition take any longer than when it's on a smaller partition? Isn't it the data that's getting defragged and not the free space?

 

[CocaCola5]

<< With my 40GB drive, I always had winXP, apps, and games on the first 15GB and then had a second 25GB partition that held a ghost image, my documents folder, outlook folder, mp3s, etc.

Has anyone tried it this way, with OS and apps together, and then with just an OS partition? Would there really be a noticable performance gain if I went with 3 partitions instead(OS/apps/backup)?

BTW, as soon as my cpu arrives, I'll be switching to an 80GB harddrive...my original thought was 20/60, but since so many of you like just a bare OS partition, I might move to 5/20/55 instead. >>




A seperate part for OS and apps is not worth it imo, unless you have multiple physical drives. If I have one drive I would go with a c: 1-2Gb swap, d: 5-10GB OS/apps, e: 1GB-3GB ghost image[ED: I mainly do a fresh install ghost, maybe 5-10GB if you want to back up apps too], the rest I use partition magic if I want to make more partitions. If a multi drive system, I put the swap and ghost partition to hdd2, 3....

 

[Tol]

With at least one person saying that a separate OS partition doesn't matter too much, I'll probably stick to the 20/60 plan. With 512MB of ram, my swapfile doesn't get much use, and I try to get is as near the front of the disk as possible. I'll probably continue my practice of installing XP and creating an image after first boot, then make a second image after I've installed all the drivers, apps, and tweaks. The only thing I don't install are games, since I'm usually tired of them by the time I want to restore my image.

sean2002: I hope you don't mind me asking questions in your thread. It seemed like a good place to find people that would help, and I figure you might gain something from their answers as well.