Partition a Harddrive??

[hondaf17]

I'll be installing Vista Ultimate on a newly-built computer this evening. I have a 250 GB WD harddrive. Does it make any sense to partition the drive into two parts - one part for OS and essential programs that will never be deleted (anti-virus, MS office, etc), and one part for all files, games, music, movies, etc.? I've done it in the past because I thought it created additional security, i.e. virus only infects OS partition, can just re-install without losing all files on other partition. Is this true? Is there any reason to partition, or any reason not to partition?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

 

[thirtythree]

I don't use Vista, but I have two partitions with XP because it makes reformatting easier--everything I'd need to back up is already on the second partition. I don't know about the security benefits though.

 

[hondaf17]

Anyone know if security benefits are real, or am I making that up from somewhere? Anyone have any other thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Indolent]

I've always done it for the easier backing up/reformatting also. Never heard of any security benefits of doing it.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

No point really now. I just makes it a mess later. Vista takes 15% of the free hard drive space and uses it for backup so it will eat a lot of hard drive space to begin with.