Partitioning 60GB HDD

[justinoh]

How do you guys suggest I partition this drive? FYI, I will be playing alot of games, mp3's, video and sound editing, downloaded stuff, Linux maybe and ofcourse WinXP.

Thanks!

 

[Mitzi]

If its a primary drive I'd partition it into 2 - a 20Gb drive for XP/applications/games and 40Gb for all the other stuff. If its a secondary drive I'd leave it as one big partition.

I don't really think it matter that much though - it comes down to personal preference only. You could always read this FAQ for another opinion, but I don't really agree with every point raised in this article.

 

[DaveK]

I would go for 3 partitions in your case.

1st Partition - Windows System Disk
2nd Partition - Linux System Disk
3rd Partition - Data Partition

This way, you can leave things on your 3rd Data partition and share between both OSes. Also, if you ever need to reinstall windows, you won't lose data.

DaveK

 

[Magicthyse]

Having the space that we do these days, you can partition things as you like, but if you want to optimize the space, make sure that your primary partition is about 8Gb.
Your Internet temporary items, etc and a lot of small files are held on your C: drive and giving a 1K HTML file an 18K+ FAT space seems wasteful, desn't it?

 

[justinoh]

I too don't really agree with the points raised in that article. I think its so much more easier organizing your files.

I think I'll combine all the suggestions in partitioning my drive. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[thermite88]

<< You could always read this FAQ for another opinion, but I don't really agree with every point raised in this article. >>

The FAQ article is one of those mis-information on the net and unfortunately from Anandtech this time. People who works in IS support will advise you to take the recommedation from Mitzi as a mininum.

The OS, applications and games are easily recoverable from the original CD. Your personal data, no matter how meticulate you backup, is not. Things that can potentially damage the setup includes new program install, OS changes, virus attack, or hardware update. It is prudent to put the data folders in a non-OS partition. In case of emergency, you can always delete the OS partition, re-install the OS and recover without damaging your personal data.

I have a 24GB 4mm tape drive for backup and does regularly. I use 5 partitions. One for OS and utility programs, one for office application, two for data and documents. The 5th partition is for copying CD to HD to eliminate the need to grab the CD for some applications or games. It may not make a big difference in organization, but it sure makes it a lot easier for recovery in time of disk corruption. (Don't tell me you never had one. I use only Ultra160 SCSI drives.)

Another advantage of multiple partition is efficiency. The content of the OS and applications/games does not change rapidly. These partitions do not need frequent defragmentation. The data and documents change everyday, with old data deleted and new ones added. These partitions need frequent defragmentation. It is much more effective to defragment a smaller partition and keep the disk performance at tip top condition. We often schedule defragmentation to be done overnight unattended. The smaller partition facilitate different schedule for each according to its need. It also minimize the danger of damage if power interruption occurs due to sudden thunderstorm in a hot summer night.

The user should determine how many partitions does he need. Generally, 2 to 5 will be the right range for most users.

 

[Duvie]

I like the 3 partition idea...sizes depend on you...

1) the video editing should have its own partition as often you should reformat the drive to be able to take data with little chance of corruption. Also makes it easier for defraging and such...

2)mp3s and other completed files need to be on their own to stay off of the root drive...A clean defragged root drive can really accelerate performance...

 

[LukFilm]

Blah, I don't agree with the FAQ either, but that's why we are in this thread I have a 60GB myself and I divided it into three partitions:
1) 5GB - Windows XP and applications
2) 45GB - mp3s and videos
3) 10GB - miscellaneous for downloads from the Internet and what not. I constantly delete and move around this partition, so it's fragmented a lot, but I don't care because that's what its purpose is. My 2. partition is almost never fragmented, my 1. partition gets fragmented about once a week or so.

Now I also got a 60GB HD from BB for backup purposes, so I backed up my 2. partition on it just in case my primary drive (60GXP) fails so I don't lose my most precious data. Thanks BB!!!

 

[TheWart]

i don't know if this is right, but i was told (by WD and MS CSReps) that partitions shouldn't really be bigger than 8GB or they start to get wasteful with clusters and stuff. so my 80GB raid setup has 8 partitions. dont know if this is really necessary, but it is workin nice for me, and lessens the amount of times i have to defrag, since one of my partitons is for downloads, and that is the only partiton i ever have to defrag, scandisk usually.

don't know, works for moi.

 

[Duvie]

I am pretty sure that is a bunch of crap....Does the size of the platters have anything to do with optimization of partitions???

I know a lot of ppl who have 40gigs or less with no partitions...or just one...many bought from oem pc makers...So I think that is probably not right but if it was the wastefullness must be a very small percentage.