Partitioning Penality

[Nehemoth]

Hello people.

I would like to know if there are any disadvantages, penalty or something else when you partition your Hard Disk.

In essence Does partitioning put more wear on your disk drive?

Why?

Hows That?

In my case I usually create 3 partitions for my Systems.

The First one for Windows
The Second One for the Data (I always Redirect My Documents)
And
The Thirds one for my Swap (virtual memory), which also I usually set it up to 1.5 my memory and also I always fix the size in windows so the Initial Size should be the same as the Maximum size so in this way the Paging File is not fragmented to much or to fast.

 

[corkyg]

I have been partitioning my drives now for going on 27 years, and have never had a problem caused by partitioning. One can make a good argument that it causes less wear and tear in some cases because the seek mechanism doesn't have to cover the entire drive all the time.

But, I believe it is insignificant one way or the other. In my case it helps me manage my system the way I want it.

 

[Nehemoth]

Nice.

More thoughts

 

[Billb2]

Putting the swap file on another partition really doesn't help. Putting it on another drive would.

Partitioning, for all practical purposes, is just a way of keeping things neat.

 

[Nehemoth]

Originally posted by: Billb2
Putting the swap file on another partition really doesn't help. Putting it on another drive would.

Partitioning, for all practical purposes, is just a way of keeping things neat.

Humm Interesting.

Another different from the one where the OS is, Right?

 

[cpemma]

One reason I've always partitioned has been to reduce defrag and virus check times (the Programs and Data partitions rarely needed defragging). Now these will run in the background so it's not so useful, but having your data on a separate partition to the OS certainly is, it allows for easy clean re-installs. Any files you want to keep from C:\Win, like from \fonts or \media, can be quickly copied to safety before format c:

With Paging file, best to put one on each physical drive, Win should use the most convenient at the time. Having one on its own partition is unnecessary extra head movement, site it closer to the action. I avoid PF fragmentation with a large minimum size.