Separating OS and programs on different partitions

[Penoir]

I decided to set up my new system with three partitions on my main drive, 25gb for the OS (windows xp pro SP2), about 45gb for installed programs and the rest (about 80gb) for data. Is this really going to help me? I'd like to have at least two partitions so I have one I can put data on when I want to format, but I'm wondering if I should get rid of the partition for programs etc.

Also, does it make any difference whether the HD is set as the primary master or slave? I'm unable to reach the motherboard's ide connector if I connect it to the HD first and the CD-Rom second, so I have to use two cables to have the HD as the master. Does it make any difference at all (I haven't noticed any problems yet)?

Thank you

 

[compusaguy]

three partitions will make little difference, if any. The only difference is that you will not have to defragment the OS partition more than once or twice.

 

[cubby1223]

Not really seeing much difference. Anyways, if you want to dedicate one partition to just the OS (which a lot of people do in case they ever have to format & reinstall Windows), you don't need 25gig, ten is far more than you'll use.

 

[oog]

merge OS and programs. you can't really clean them up independently anyway without a bit of hassle. data can be separate.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Agree with oog. If you do a clean install of the os, you will have to reload all of the apps anyway. If you have only 2 ide drives, by all means use 2 data cables and put each on its own channel. This keeps them from competing for the same resources (to some extent) if they are both operating at the same time.

 

[mhillary]

I think dedicating a partition for an OS is good as it helps you if the OS crashes none of your programs are gone

 

[eklass]

i use this setup on linux and it works really well

os/programs/etc on a partition
data files on another

the setup on my laptop is like this:

/dev/hda5 /
/dev/hda6 /home

i can reinstall ubuntu as many times as i want and my home directory is never touched. is there some way to do this with documents and settings in winxp ?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: mhillary
I think dedicating a partition for an OS is good as it helps you if the OS crashes none of your programs are gone

OK, so you can't recover the OS, so you reformat and reinstall the OS's partition. You then 2x click on a program you'd like to run, and you're told it isn't registered, DLLs are missing, or there are other problems, and to please reinstall the application.

Just put everything on one drive (OS, programs) and put your data on another physical drive. I'm assuming we're talking about massive, massive quantities of data - hundreds of RAR and PAR2 and other such files that must be worked on and that aggressively and constantly hit the hard drive. If it's just a few Word/Excel/Powerpoint files, it doesn't matter where you put them - it won't impact anything anyway.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: mhillary
I think dedicating a partition for an OS is good as it helps you if the OS crashes none of your programs are gone

OK, so you can't recover the OS, so you reformat and reinstall the OS's partition. You then 2x click on a program you'd like to run, and you're told it isn't registered, DLLs are missing, or there are other problems, and to please reinstall the application.

Just put everything on one drive (OS, programs) and put your data on another physical drive. I'm assuming we're talking about massive, massive quantities of data - hundreds of RAR and PAR2 and other such files that must be worked on and that aggressively and constantly hit the hard drive. If it's just a few Word/Excel/Powerpoint files, it doesn't matter where you put them - it won't impact anything anyway.

i agree becasue all of the programs put REG files DLL files etc that go into the Registry and also the systems32 folder ... so therefore if you were to re-insatll the OS none of you apps would work (some might but most wont).. so like dclive said if it is big data files that need to be backed up put them on a diffferent partition

 

[Link19]

What about putting your games on a separate physical HDD? Will ity help with performance any?

 

[shortylickens]

I put my OS on a slower, parallel drive because my BIOS wont let me boot properly from a serial drive.

My games go on a faster SATA drive. They boot up a little faster and I like keeping them seperate from my OS. If something bad happens I just move my save games to 'My Documents' and reformat the Game drive.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Link19
What about putting your games on a separate physical HDD? Will ity help with performance any?

Marginally. It's such a small change, though, that I really don't think it's worth the bother. Plus if you lose either drive, you've got to do a lot of reinstalling.

Better just to have good backups and one drive. NTBACKUP and (in XP Pro) ASR are both wonderful backup tools.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: mhillary
I think dedicating a partition for an OS is good as it helps you if the OS crashes none of your programs are gone

OK, so you can't recover the OS, so you reformat and reinstall the OS's partition. You then 2x click on a program you'd like to run, and you're told it isn't registered, DLLs are missing, or there are other problems, and to please reinstall the application.

Just put everything on one drive (OS, programs) and put your data on another physical drive. I'm assuming we're talking about massive, massive quantities of data - hundreds of RAR and PAR2 and other such files that must be worked on and that aggressively and constantly hit the hard drive. If it's just a few Word/Excel/Powerpoint files, it doesn't matter where you put them - it won't impact anything anyway.

I still do this, because there's a handful of files contained within the program folders I like to save. (config files and the like) They of course have to be reinstalled, but if I need something I can snag it out of the folders after I reinstall the OS and then just delete the programs folder.

If I put all that stuff on the same partition as the OS, its gone with the reinstall. For backups though, it might be better to go that way so you don't end up backing up a bunch of stupid programs you have disks for.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: mhillary
I think dedicating a partition for an OS is good as it helps you if the OS crashes none of your programs are gone

OK, so you can't recover the OS, so you reformat and reinstall the OS's partition. You then 2x click on a program you'd like to run, and you're told it isn't registered, DLLs are missing, or there are other problems, and to please reinstall the application.

Just put everything on one drive (OS, programs) and put your data on another physical drive. I'm assuming we're talking about massive, massive quantities of data - hundreds of RAR and PAR2 and other such files that must be worked on and that aggressively and constantly hit the hard drive. If it's just a few Word/Excel/Powerpoint files, it doesn't matter where you put them - it won't impact anything anyway.

I still do this, because there's a handful of files contained within the program folders I like to save. (config files and the like) They of course have to be reinstalled, but if I need something I can snag it out of the folders after I reinstall the OS and then just delete the programs folder.

If I put all that stuff on the same partition as the OS, its gone with the reinstall. For backups though, it might be better to go that way so you don't end up backing up a bunch of stupid programs you have disks for.

I backup my OS + Program Files (meaning the entire C: drive plus system state) to another hard drive attached via USB. I do a full backup weekly, using NTBACKUP, and a seperate differential backup daily. That lets me go back to the last full backup, anywhere from 0 days to 7 days old, plus I can look at differential backups from up to 7 days ago.

Hard drives are so cheap nowadays that it's an easy thing to do. I run it at 4AM when I am not using the computer, and I never even notice it.

 

[mather]

I recommend you do not partition the drive. Bit the bullet and just buy another drive. Partition the drive and in the future when you switch/add/remove drives, end up being a nightmare.

Originally posted by: Penoir
I decided to set up my new system with three partitions on my main drive, 25gb for the OS (windows xp pro SP2), about 45gb for installed programs and the rest (about 80gb) for data. Is this really going to help me? I'd like to have at least two partitions so I have one I can put data on when I want to format, but I'm wondering if I should get rid of the partition for programs etc.

Also, does it make any difference whether the HD is set as the primary master or slave? I'm unable to reach the motherboard's ide connector if I connect it to the HD first and the CD-Rom second, so I have to use two cables to have the HD as the master. Does it make any difference at all (I haven't noticed any problems yet)?

Thank you

 

[thegorx]

I setup computers for people and find it's best to have a OS partition of 30 to 40GB
because people just love to save things on the same drive as windows in the desktop, my documents etc.

then it makes it a little easier to defrag and back up the whole windows partition
when it's smaller than the total drive space

I personally like having program on another partition
some programs don't have to be reinstalled to work if you redo the os partition
as programs say data with the programs so if you redo the OS partition and still have the program on another partition when you reinstall that data sometimes remains
as an example some game score will remain
also if you're know a little about the registry you can use the software hive file sometimes to get those programs running without reinstalling

I could go on and on

but I do like the idea of have another drive
that speeds of backing up the os partition
since if will be reading from one drive and writting to the other
provided that you put the hard drives on different ide channels

if you keep your system backed up there it will be less likely you need to reinstall
only for major upgrades.