Partitioning one HDD - what is best organization?

[wjgollatz]

I want to partition a new 500 gb SATA hard drive. Its seems a hard drive can get very cluttered is it is not partitioned.

I am currently partitioning my hard drive like this, using Acronis software.

Operating System
Program Files
Storage
Swap File (not sure if effective, so I moved the swap to the OS directory)

I have a gigabyte motherboard and now their XpressRecovery2. So that will be a quick way to restore system settings, and I will require a partition for that. XpressRecovery2 automatically puts it at the end of the hard drive.

Any suggestions, or any particular order for the partitions? I know not all programs will allow me to install their data into a separate partition. Will a SATA hard drive make the use of a partition for the swap file effective (at least until I get a 2nd hard drive for the swap file)

 

[DoubleHelix747]

My thought (and only that):

Why wouldn't you put your OS and program files in the same partition. Once done, make an image of that partition before you are do anything else. This would give you a fast way to do fresh OS install whenever you want. On the other hand, if you have program files located on a different partition, you will need to install them again separately when you reinstall your OS.

BTW, I just finished installing Windows 7 on my new build. I have a single 640GB HDD partitioned into 3 parts - (1) 30GB for Windows 7 + applications (2) 15GB for Ubuntu + applications and (3) 550GB for data. I also posted the question you posted regarding the swap file - does it make a difference to have the swap file on a different partition, and if it does, what is the optimal size of that partition for an 8GB RAM machine.

 

[wjgollatz]

well - I though it was more efficient to keep the OS completely separate, or that was my understanding if that is true or not. Also - I thought it would be better if a viral program got into the os partition, it would limit itself to that partition, usually.

swap file is 1.5x the size of your ram. But I would give it 3x the size of your ram. I think the PageDefrag needs to have some scheme of continuous space to defrag the pagefile. The swap file itself can become defragmented and needs the appropriate amount of room to defrag. There is some ms-dos system defragger that also degrags your swap file, "PageDeFrag" that can be run on system startup created by Sysinternals. They can be downloaded somewhere on the MS website. http://technet.microsoft.com/e...nternals/bb897426.aspx From that I know your pagefile will need extra space to defrag. When I used PageFrag to degrag it, I still was unable to completely defrag it with double the size of my ram. Soemtimes you need a few restarts to reduce the fragments, but it will message ont he screen if it needed more space.

 

[nineball9]

If you place your apps (Program Files folder mostly) in a separate partition, you won't "keep the OS completely separate" as the apps will have entries in the Registry. As DoubleHelix747 noted, it will be much easier to back up and restore your system if you keep your apps in OS's partition.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Leave it as one partition. Less headaches.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

The only reason to partition a drive is for dual-booting. Anything else is pointless. Windows has this organization thing built into it, they're called folders.

If you want to separate the swap file, put it on a different physical drive.

 

[0roo0roo]

os/apps partition ~20-30gb.
drive image partition ~10gb
data partition the rest.
lets you make a clean os partition and all apps installed image using acronis or whatever you like. and then to easily restore that image without screwing up your data and stuff.

so no, its not pointless.
and of course if you want..separate swap keeps its own little chunk of space from being ever fragmented.

 

[Slugbait]

With a single-drive machine, do NOT relocate the page file (aka swap file) to a different partition. You will see a reduction in performance. Leave it on the OS partition.

Page file at 3x is highly not recommended. Make it 2x at most.

Optimum page file config is to equal the size of the RAM on the OS drive, then equal the size of the RAM again on your second hard drive (but you don't have a second hard drive, so...)

If you place your apps (Program Files folder mostly) in a separate partition, you won't "keep the OS completely separate" as the apps will have entries in the Registry.

It's not just the registry. Many apps require that certain files are on the OS partition, regardless of the install location. And yes, some apps completely refuse custom install location (such as most Windows Live stuff). That's why it's disk-space-suicide to make the C:\ partition of XP smaller than 5 gigs, even tho' a clean install + SP takes up less than 4 gigs. But essentially, you still *do* keep the OS completely separate...if you drop an image that was created before certain apps were installed, you simply need to re-install those certain apps, that's all.

For a single-drive machine, I'd go two partitions. Primary partition is the OS, core system components and page file (about 15G for XP, 30G for Vista). The rest is for everything else, including Acronis images.

If you're going to make the C:\ partition as small as possible, regularly delete $NTUninstallxxxx files from the C:\Windows folder, and also the files located in the c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder. For example, I just did a clean install of XPSP3 a few days ago, then downloaded the latest criticals and optionals...and freed up well over a gig of drive space after deleting these files.