Partitioning Help/Suggestions...

[tophergannon]

Tomorrow I will be receiving my new system from newegg.com.

Included among other things is a WD 80GB HD (8MB cache version).

I have been having trouble deciding how to partition it, and so far, I have come up with this list:

xp - 5
programs - 15
video - 10
music - 20
games - 5
documents - 5
files - 10
linux - 5
longhorn - 5

Everything I need is covered (I think), and I did my best to put the things which will be accessed most first in the list (which will be the order I partition them in).

Am I correct in doing this? Will this create any hardware issues?

 

[hjo3]

I guess it's correct from a "will it work" point of view. There shouldn't be any issues (unless you find out down the road that you need 5.5 GB for games... then it'll be really annoying).

I wouldn't go with so many partitions.

Here's what I'd suggest:

XP/documents - 10
Programs/games - 20
Music/video/files - 40
Linux - 5
Longhorn - 5 (?)

Of course, this is with 1 gb as 1 billion bytes, not 1024^x or whatever. Can longhorn be dual-booted with XP? That'd make stuff a little easier.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and it doesn't matter what order the drive is partitioned in (except, generally, Windows seems to like being on C: ... but even that's not a must). If you expect to use NTFS for everything except the linux part, or you plan on defragmenting regularly, you could prolly just go with 3 partitions (Win, progs/other files, linux). My default setup has always been 15 gb: OS, major programs/utils, docs, work stuff; rest of drive: games, other progs, media.

 

[TheCorm]

I 2nd that...I used to have like 10 partitions but some would have tonnes of space and others would have none...it's very difficult to guage how much space you will need in the long run.

I now have a 5gb partition for Windows XP, a 32GB Partition 1 and 55gb Partition 2...with folders for various bits like MP3's, Videos etc.

Jamie

 

[nickaskew]

Hi

If you are really wanting to optimize your system then I would recommend you place the most used partition last in the list - I believe this would equate to being on the outside of the disk platter (how it copes with multiple platters is beyond me..) - do a disk speed test when you have finished, one in the first partition and one in the second to be sure.

Regards

Nick

PS. The best solutions is to buy a cheap hard disk and place your OS on it.. put everything else on your new 8MB cache drive :: Drools ::

 

[tophergannon]

after reading these helpful replies, i think this way will work best:

xp/programs: 20 (i like reinstalling the os often and when i do that, i also like to reinstall the few programs i use. so, i think it would be best if these two were together.)

video/music: 30 (i have a very large mp3 collection and also download lots of lossless audio (SHN format). i would also like to start downloading some movies or at least capture TV programs with my AIW. so, 30 gigs should be more than enough for awhile, right?

games: 5 (i really don't play any games at all. i'll probably put motocross madness 2 and the sims on there just to futz around with once and awhile.)

documents/files: 15 (documents won't take up much space as most of them are Word files. the files section will be quite large as I have become quite a packrat lately.)

longhorn: 5

linux: 5

does that sound better? it definitely seems manageable. what do you think?

(thanks again for the help.)