To Partition or Not To Partition

[cpotter]

Just posted this topic on the hardware forum, but may be better suited for here. Sorry for the duplicate post.

Setting up my new system. I'm a newbie to building but have fairly good knowledge base. I've installed an AMD Athlon 64 2800+. Have bought a new Seagate IDE 160GB drive and I'm using an older Maxtor 20GB drive as a slave. I'm about to begin installing Windows XP on the 160GB drive. I was planning on using just one partition on this drive. Are there any pros/cons to using multiple partitions on this drive. The other 20GB HD will be used primarly for crucial data backup. Thanks for the help. Chad

 

[n0cmonkey]

I don't usually think it's worth the hassle. But having a partition for the OS can come in handy if you have to format.

 

[cartmanea]

I never partitioned before, but when I reformat over Christmas break this year I'm going to. I run 2- 80Gb drives in Raid 1. I'm going t set up a 15-20Gb partition for the Windows Install and programs and the rest will be for storage. That way when I want to reinstall Windows in the future I don't have to format the entire disk to do a clean install, just the smaller partition.

 

[cpotter]

Thanks for the help!!

 

[cpotter]

Are there any disadvantages to partitioning the HD?

 

[n0cmonkey]

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.aspx?i=43

 

[Laffctx]

I always partition............i use front partition for OS and back for dump file..........that way if i have to format the OS then i dont loose all the stuff i got on the back

Good luck,

Laffctx

 

[alm4rr]

thx for link

any plans on running linux?

 

[cpotter]

Thanks for all the help. I went ahead and partitioned the drive into a 20GB block for Windows XP and 140GB for my data. Thanks. Chad