Question

[emilyek]

I'll be putting together my Core2 system today.

Itll have a single HDD. Should I partition it? Does it matter?

My current HDD is partitioned Windows + Apps +drivers / Games + Music + Junk

I haven't noticed any difference except that I have to defrag 2 drives.

Any thoughts?

 

[stogez]

If something happens and you have to format/reinstall windows, you can just format that partition and leave your data/music partition as it is. There is no performance difference from partitioning.

 

[Roguestar]

What he said. What I have is a 5Gb windows + core programs (drivers etc) partition, one for programs games and office, and others for music, videos etc etc.

 

[Seekermeister]

Roguestar,

I'm curious what the advantage of installing program on a nonOS partition is? Because if you have to reformat the OS partition, it would wipe out the registry, therefore most of the programs would not function until they were reinstalled. Or have you found a solution for this factor?

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
What he said. What I have is a 5Gb windows + core programs (drivers etc) partition, one for programs games and office, and others for music, videos etc etc.

FTW.

Other than being able to backup and restore a seperate system volume quickly (and thus frequently to other volumes and optical), other advantages are less fragmentation and quicker defragmentation by optimized methods for highest performance.

For instance, sorting the system volume by name for quicker boot and loading of programs comprised of similarly named files (or alternately by access for most used) and conversely sorting a bulk media storage volume by modification date so that the order generally equates to when they were added.

If the drive will only be partially utilized but expected to fill over time then have most of the free space on the volume expected to need the extra capacity (obviously) but place it in sequence with thought to any future resizing -that is, so the free space can most easily be reassigned to the volume preceding or succeeding it.

Other than minimizing fragmentation, partitioning can increase performance by determing position on the platters.

Not sure what is meant by y'all having "drivers" on a partition. Installed drivers are naturally on the OS volume. I don't see any advantage, and indeed the contrary, to storing uninstalled driver packages on that volume in case it is desired to format it and install an OS in which case the drivers may be needed but would only exist on backups.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Seekermeister
Roguestar,

I'm curious what the advantage of installing program on a nonOS partition is? Because if you have to reformat the OS partition, it would wipe out the registry, therefore most of the programs would not function until they were reinstalled. Or have you found a solution for this factor?

Indeed, it seems counter intuitive at first thought but as with games (which are largely self-contained except for registry entries and, sadly, config files foolishly installed to My Documents in recent years), there is no point to installing behemoth programs to the system volume only to require larger and more time consuming (and thus less frequent) image backups, especially when those few such programs are easily re-installed from the storage volume or original disc.

 

[Auric]

'nutha advantage wot came to mind is cluster size for maximum performance: system volume can be left at default 4K if desired while game, media, scratch volume(s) can be 64K.

 

[Roguestar]

I install larger programs on a nonOS partition because often all that's required to get them working again is to run a repair install via their installer. And if I were really efficient I could back up the registry every week or so then if I had to reformat I'd re-import it. Or I could make a hard drive image of the OS partition once everything's perfectly installed and just the way I like it, then reapply only that image instead of having to reformat and reinstall everything.

 

[Seekermeister]

Two questions about importing, exporting the registry...Since the XP registry is a hive, instead of just one file, which would need to be saved...all of them? By import, do you mean simply copy/paste? One more question...would importing the old registry files cause any problems with extra registry keys, before the programs were reinstalled?

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
I install larger programs on a nonOS partition because often all that's required to get them working again is to run a repair install via their installer. And if I were really efficient I could back up the registry every week or so then if I had to reformat I'd re-import it. Or I could make a hard drive image of the OS partition once everything's perfectly installed and just the way I like it, then reapply only that image instead of having to reformat and reinstall everything.

If or could? You mean you don't?

A two minute system state backup copies the registry to \repair for simple restoration in case the system reg gets borked. Then consecutive images of the system volume naturally includes both copies so there are always a bunch to fall back on if necessary. Outside system editing be done via RegistryEditorPE.

Simple programs and games can easily have their few registry keys exported to a file and even more easily merged in as needed. That's great for those who have many games installed but want to wipe out their OS and start fresh. Just export the keys and copy the config files from My Docs.