Partition Suggestions

[geokilla]

I'm using Windows XP, and I'd like to know how I should partition my WD 640GB hard drive. So far, I have a 60GB partition for C, but 60GB might not be enough, so I might format XP and change the partition size to something like 120GB.

I plan on having 3 partitions. C drive for programs, games, music, picture, homework files, etc. D drive for anime, manga, etc. E drive for programs (.iso, .exe, etc.) and that will be where I store my Norton Ghost image.

Also, do I partition it in Disk Management? If yes, do I use primary partition or extended partition? The logical drive option is grayed out.

 

[IamDavid]

I used to think there was a reason to do this but after years of doing so I have stopped it. Nothing is gained and you will become very frustrated when you find out one of your partitions aren't large enough. Save yourself a headache and let windows do its job..

Just my 2cents...

 

[Cutthroat]

You won't gain anything in performance by partitioning. But it can be handy for organization, and breaking a large drive into smaller bits makes disk management tasks faster.

If you are making images of your OS it is beneficial to keep the OS drive as empty as possible so that the images are smaller and quicker to make.

I keep my system like so...

C: 60GB - Windows & apps
D: 240GB - Users folders
E: 750GB External Drive for backups
F: 150GB - Games
G: 80GB - Junk

I make regular images of my OS with Acronis TI to my external drive, and I use Sync Toy 2.0 to back up my data from the other partitions to the external drive.

You can use Disk Management to partition, primary partitions are alright but I don't know why logical partitions would be greyed out.

 

[geokilla]

I read that C drive should be Primary, and the rest should be Extended. So I'm going to do that instead of Logical Drives. Would there be a problem if I went Extended Partition instead of Logical for D and E drive?

Also, if you keep games on F drive, if you format Windows, then everything would be lost unless you constantly back up your drives. Right?

 

[Cutthroat]

If I reinstalled Windows from scratch I would need to reinstall all the games and apps anyway.

I do regular images so I don't need to reinstall from scratch very often, only once since installing Vista almost two years ago. And that was done mostly for reorganization, and a weird codec problem.

For some reason all of my partitions are Primary right now, 2 are Active, I didn't even think that was possible, but partition systems are not my strong point. Somebody else will have to fill us in on the benefits and downfalls of each type.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Ok, studying for the A+ Cert finally comes in handy. 😛

Primary partitions are just normal partitions. There can be 4 on a drive.

An extended partition counts as one primary partition, but it does not actually contain data.
Instead, an extended partition can hold an unlimited amount of logical partitions, which is a way to get around the 4-partition limit.

I'm not sure logical partitions have any downfalls.



Anyway, how the hell did you get two active partitions on one drive?

 

[geokilla]

Ah I see what you mean now. So Logical Drive is part of an Extended Partition.

Side question. Is it worth it to run a slow and old IDE hard drive and use it just for page files? I read that if you set the page file on a secondary drive, the computer runs a bit faster.

 

[degibson]

Originally posted by: geokilla
Ah I see what you mean now. So Logical Drive is part of an Extended Partition.

Side question. Is it worth it to run a slow and old IDE hard drive and use it just for page files? I read that if you set the page file on a secondary drive, the computer runs a bit faster.

This depends on a lot of things, like how much memory you have an how much memory your applications demand.

 

[Cutthroat]

It's two different drives that are set active on my system. My C drive and my external. I didn`t think that was possible, but I guess it`s that you can`t have more than 1 per drive.