Partitioning

[Azndude51]

My friend told me that when I get a new hard drive and install windows, it is better to partition the hard drive and install windows on one of the partitions and use the other part for storage. Is this actually benificial? If so, how big should the partition be if I had a 160GB hard drive?

 

[Ender17]

10GB partition for windows should be plenty

checkout this guide for more info
http://partition.radified.com/

 

[Anubis]

the reason people do this is because if windows fusks up and you need to format and reinstall you can just format the partition and not loose data, you will still have to reinstall all your programs like office and such,
IMO its easier to just get another HDD to put your data on, partitioning just adds 1 more thing the can go wrong, if the partition table fails you are pretty much fvcked, cause that will hose windows and your data, you can get it back but its a pain in the ass

I used to do it till i had a partition table die on me damn that sucked

now i just give windows its own 40 gig HDD and I install all my programs and such to it
all other data is on one of teh 3 other HDDs in my sys, and the important stuff is mirrored on all 3

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Ender17
10GB partition for windows should be plenty

checkout this guide for more info
http://partition.radified.com/

no it wont
i gave myself a 12 gig partition last time i did this and even after installing half my programs to a different partition i still was left with mabye 800 megs free

 

[Ender17]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Ender17
10GB partition for windows should be plenty

checkout this guide for more info
http://partition.radified.com/

no it wont
i gave myself a 12 gig partition last time i did this and even after installing half my programs to a different partition i still was left with mabye 800 megs free

for most people 10GB is enough

if you install a lot of games or other big programs it won't be

I install all my games on a seperate partition though

 

[Anubis]

i guess im not MOST people, and that was without a single game installed

 

[Ender17]

Originally posted by: Anubis
i guess im not MOST people, and that was without a single game installed

Like I said, 10GB isn't for everyone. Some people will need more. Here is a quote from the article I linked to that explains partitioning quite well:

Here it is: Partitioning is a personal thing. There is no right or wrong way to partition a hard drive. Whether you prefer to bust up your disk into multiple, smaller partitions, or leave it as a single, monster-sized partition, that's entirely up to you. In either case, no one can claim that you did anything wrong. It all depends on what works best for you, my friend.

 

[Azndude51]

Thanks for the info, guys.

I have currently have a 5gb partition with only 700mb left, the hard drive is 20gb total. someone set that up for me 3 years ago when i didn't know squat about computers, but i never really knew the point of it.

 

[Anubis]

if you allready have that 20gig drive, and are adding a 160GB drive id just format that 20 gig for windows and then use the 160 for everything else

 

[Ender17]

Originally posted by: Anubis
if you allready have that 20gig drive, and are adding a 160GB drive id just format that 20 gig for windows and then use the 160 for everything else

That might work, but chances are that 3 year old drive is a lot slower then the new 160GB one he is getting and you want your OS to be on the fastest drive possible.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Ender17

Originally posted by: Anubis
if you allready have that 20gig drive, and are adding a 160GB drive id just format that 20 gig for windows and then use the 160 for everything else

That might work, but chances are that 3 year old drive is a lot slower then the new 160GB one he is getting and you want your OS to be on the fastest drive possible.

yea true, thats a good point
as long as its a 7200 RPM drive it shoudl be fine tho, the 2mb-8mb buffer doesnt make a big enough difference to worry about IMO

 

[Ender17]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Ender17

Originally posted by: Anubis
if you allready have that 20gig drive, and are adding a 160GB drive id just format that 20 gig for windows and then use the 160 for everything else

That might work, but chances are that 3 year old drive is a lot slower then the new 160GB one he is getting and you want your OS to be on the fastest drive possible.

the 2mb-8mb buffer doesnt make a big enough difference to worry about IMO

http://faq.storagereview.com/t...x.php?page=BufferSizes

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Ender17

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Ender17

Originally posted by: Anubis
if you allready have that 20gig drive, and are adding a 160GB drive id just format that 20 gig for windows and then use the 160 for everything else

That might work, but chances are that 3 year old drive is a lot slower then the new 160GB one he is getting and you want your OS to be on the fastest drive possible.

the 2mb-8mb buffer doesnt make a big enough difference to worry about IMO

http://faq.storagereview.com/t...x.php?page=BufferSizes

interesting 30% eh? you woudl think i woudl have noticed that but i didnt "shrug"

 

[Azndude51]

Originally posted by: Ender17

Originally posted by: Anubis
if you allready have that 20gig drive, and are adding a 160GB drive id just format that 20 gig for windows and then use the 160 for everything else

That might work, but chances are that 3 year old drive is a lot slower then the new 160GB one he is getting and you want your OS to be on the fastest drive possible.

actually, i'm planning on building a new computer soon, so i'm asking for that.