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Is there a *best* way to partition your HD? Share your comments here

B

Bacchus

Member
I really hadn't put a great deal of thought into how I partitioned my HD. Granted, I keep in mind my proclivity to reinstall my OS every 6 - 9 months...and to partition for virtual memory. But for different OS, is there a *best* or *recommended* way to partition?

On my other PC (running W98), I partitioned my WD 20G HD as follows:

C: OS (5 GB)
D: Program Files (5 GB)
E: ..all other 'stuff' (10 GB)
F: virtual memory (256 MB - double my RAM)

Granted, any partition will be dependent on OS and number of HDs.

I seem to recall having read an article somewhere -- where a user had partitioned his HD (for W2K) similar to this:

C: temp files & virtual memory (I didn't think you needed to account for virtual memory with W2K?)
D: OS
E: program files
F: utilities
G: extra crap

I'd be interested in hearing how other users have divided and assigned their partitions. If you would, please list your OS, # of drives, categories for each partition, and size. My thanks in advance.
 
Interesting read, entropy. I'm embarrassed that I missed that article...! Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
 


<< Unless you are running dual OSes there is really no point in partitioning. Look at his FAQ article from AnanadTech: >>



I haven't looked at the FAQ, but I'll give you one reason to at least have 2 partitions. Say you have 5 gigs of music, 10 gigs of movies you took a long time to download. With only one partition, if your OS install craps out and you want to reformat, you lose everything. (all that hard work goes to the garbage...😉)

Having 2 partitions lets you put the OS and programs on one, and the files you want to keep in case of a reinstall. (and we all know the best way to reinstall is by reformating to make sure everything's gone) If you use Ghost or another backup program, you can back up your primary partition to the second. (you can't write an image to the same partition)
 
taken from the FAQ:


<< 4) Partitioning your hard drive will not save you time if you need to reinstall your OS. Why?

Even under a full-drive partition, Windows can be reinstalled on top of itself to fix minor problems, as can your programs if they become corrupted. This will take the same time regardless of your partition arrangement.

A common argument for partitions is that, with a small (600M or so) operating system partition and some kind of disk imaging software (Norton Ghost, for instance), you can restore a corrupted Windows installation in minutes. In reality, it just doesn't work this way. As soon as Windows is restored, the registry reverts to its default state and anything pertaining to your applications is lost, rendering them unstable or inoperable. This forces you to manually reinstall your applications to restore the lost registry keys. Of course, you don't have to restore your data, but any prudent individual would already have a safe external backup system, so all data could be retrieved easily from there. >>



First, do you know how many people have problems reinstalling an OS over itself? Do this with win98 or ME and I guarantee you at least a few apps won't work properly. Win2k is better at this, but it's still nowhere near as good as doing a clean install.

Second, if you know how to use Ghost or Drive Image like it's supposed to be, you know that you have to backup the apps as well as the OS. (isn't that the point of using Ghost?) If all your apps are installed on the same partition as the OS, then it DOES take 5 or 10 minutes to restore, and you don't have one thing to reinstall.
 


<< .. placing a .. partition .. on the outer edge of the disk .. does nothing to improve seek times across the entire drive. >>


This is incorrect.

If you install your OS &amp; apps to a partition at the outer/leading edge of the drive, and use the inner/slower parts of the disk for files that don't require access during normal system usage (i.e. downloads, drivers, back-ups, Ghost images, etc.), you'll limit the drive's seeks to the fastest part of the drive. The read/write heads won't have to travel (seek) all the way across the drive to the far/slower end (during normal system uasge).

This will provide a more responsive system by decreasing the drive's (system's) effective access time.

You can verify this with HD Tach. This HDD benchmarking utility has a setting for Advanced Size Check. If you put a check in the box, it will check the entire drive. But if you remove the check, it'll truncate the test at the first 8GB.

Notice how much better Access times are when the read/write heads don't have to seek/travel all the way across the whole drive. The bigger the drive, the more dramatic the difference. 8 gigs is 40% of a 20-gig drive. But it's only 13% of an 60-gig drive.

It's common knowledge that a system with the same amount of data will seem more responsive on a larger drive (with identical specs), cuz the data will be limited to a smaller area of the (larger) drive. This is why larger drives often feel faster, even tho they have the same specs as the smaller one (lower effective seek time).

If you install your OS to a single, large partition, there's nothing to prevent both system &amp; program files from winding up at the far end of the drive (Windows updates, program updates).

Saunter on over to the Storagereview and ask there if you want confirmation.

There are other inaccuracies in that so called guide.
 
I complete agree with sugadaddy about having 2 partitions- one for the OS and programs and the other for downloads,data,drivers, etc. It makes things much easier. After a fresh install of Windows, all the necessary drivers can be found on the second partition. When making an image of the OS, you dont have to back up all those mp3s and movies so you have a smaller image.
 
Am I missing something here? Have two partitions...1 for OS AND Apps, and another for Data...seems to work fine for me. That way, I don't lose documents, mp3s, email, and movies when I reinstall. Word doesn't care where your data files are if you reinstall, you know.
 
kids, huh?
the one-partition folks are just like the flat-earth society.

when you grow up and have important data and even multiple OSes, you will see that having data, applications and backups separate from your OS partition is very wise. granted, I backup data to another drive also, but the point is that I've never lost data from a &quot;user&quot; bodge the way I've described. but I have hosed (or someTHING hosed) my actual operating systems completely. it would take a complete crash of my HD or very new virus to make me need my backup data.

I recommend you keep your OS partition free of as many programs as possible, and do a compressed backup of that partition. it takes me <15 minutes from boot to finish, and I end up with <0.75Gb copy that can be rebooted in <15 mins.

OS partition
games/ apps... (logical partitions)
apps/ data
data/ backup

other details depend on what OSes you are running specifically.
 
I have a single partition on most of my computers, but then I use network storage. 😉

For a standalone workstation, however, I have to agree that one partition for the OS and applications (~ 8-12 gigs) and another for data (the rest of the drive) works out best without too much wasted space.

~bex0rs
 
I used to be a multi partitioner until I got tired of finding out which drive letter I placed my documents. So I went to a single partition. Now all I have to do is locate the directory which is a lot easier than going thru all the drives first. Crashing an OS doesn't necessarily require formatting as mentioned before. You can always install over the existing one and not lose a single data. As for using a second partition for back up, what's the point. If the HDD fails all partitions go out the window anyway. The point is if you want back up then use an additional medium, like 2nd HDD, Tape or CD's. As for reformatting a dedicated partition to re-install an OS, it will also require re-installation of other programs since all the system dll's used by other programs will be gone.😎
 
Heh, I use my storage HDD without any partitions... I think it's better to back-up your valuable data than hope than many partitions would protect it...
 


<< kids, huh?
the one-partition folks are just like the flat-earth society.

when you grow up and have important data and even multiple OSes, you will see that having data, applications and backups separate from your OS partition is very wise. granted, I backup data to another drive also, but the point is that I've never lost data from a &quot;user&quot; bodge the way I've described. but I have hosed (or someTHING hosed) my actual operating systems completely. it would take a complete crash of my HD or very new virus to make me need my backup data.

I recommend you keep your OS partition free of as many programs as possible, and do a compressed backup of that partition. it takes me <15 minutes from boot to finish, and I end up with <0.75Gb copy that can be rebooted in <15 mins.

OS partition
games/ apps... (logical partitions)
apps/ data
data/ backup

other details depend on what OSes you are running specifically. >>



******Travis.... you took the words right out of my mouth !*******
 
any idiot is free to write what he likes on the net, and I'm referring to the Anandtech forum FAQ.
CAQ.
so you're telling me that I've got a partition ghosted a couple of times here and can't use my apps?
well really. I'd better pinch myself and wake up out of my dream huh?
I don't think the writer even used ghost. the vague language suggests he doesn't: &quot;some kind of disk imaging software (Norton Ghost, for instance)&quot; wow, it just looks soooo much like you used what you're writing about

what you do is: ghost your partition to another place. when you come across an OS problem you can't solve, you get your recent ghost image, write it to the OS partition which wipes the previous installation off without trace in the process. voila, everything is there. no FUD, superstition or Voodoo involved. guess how I know this. 😀
p.s. backup your MBR as well because a Linux installation or a virus can trash it. it'll fit on a floppy.

with reference to what to do with a HD already with a single OS on, that's trickier. it depends on what size drive and backup you have. I'd begin with all new apps and data on another partition, but wouldn't reinstall apps unless the partition crashed. too much time.
 
I keep my data files on a seperate partition. It makes it so much easier to format &amp; reinstall.

I don't see the point in having 1 partition for OS, 1 for apps, 1 for utilities, blah blah blah... that's just to the point of silliness. Like anand says, all your apps will become defunct when you install a new OS anyways.
 


ummm, &quot;anand&quot; didn't say anything, Modus wrote the FAQ on partitioning..

i think there doesn't need to be so much bitterness here, critiqueing an article can be done &quot;diplomatically&quot;
 
What do you guys think of this partitioning arrangement for a 2x 60 GB RAID 0 setup?

70 GB Video Editing
15 GB OS and Apps
35 GB Data
 
Well I have my 2 30gig maxtors in raid 0 with like 8 or 9 partitions.

C:Win ME
D:Win 2K
E:MP3's
F:Games
G😀ownloads
H:ME Progrmas
I:2K Programs
J:Extra stuff

I am aslo looking for a cleaner way to partition, since i know what i have is not great. Also I have an extra 30.7gig WD that i would like to use as backup, what would be an easy way to do this.
 
When partitioning drives, the first partitions (i.e. C: for Windows) are likely on the outermost cylinders of the HD's platters, and are thus on the fastest part of the disk.

Although I have written on partitioning methodologies numerous times in this forum (OS area, mostly), I must say that there is no perfect way to partition. However, there may be a way to partition that better suits how you use your computer.

Wanna read my story? Click the link below.

-SUO
 
Boot partition: If I won't need anything close to 8G, I tell FDISK to make it 8189M (max for 4K clusters); otherwise I make it 16379M (max for 8K clusters). I keep Windows and the programs on a separate partition because then my HD is less likely to be completely erased.
 
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