To partition or not to partition?

[gar598]

I just bought one of those WD 120gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm drives -

Should I partition it?

I will probably only use 1 os so it won't be dual boot or anything along those lines.

What are the benefits of partitioning? Faster access?

 

[Danman]

Partition that sh!t up! 😀

 

[Electric Amish]

Personally, 2 partitions.

1 really big one where your OS and all your files/programs reside.

The second is just a storage drive where you can keep downloads and drivers and such.


I like this because when I have to reinstall, all my drivers and stuff I want to keep is safe on the other partition and I can just nuke the main partition.

amish

 

[FoBoT]

how about sixty 2Gb partitions ?

ok maybe not

 

[ElFenix]

i think i'm gonna RAID 1 my drives... thats sorta like anti-partitioning...

i like partitioning, since you can nuke whatevers on one part and keep whats on the other... but i have sooo many hard drives that doesnt' matter to me much anymore...

 

[Stratum9]

One partition for my OS. One partition for my personal files which I direct the My Documents path to point to. One partiton for Games and all my MP3's. And one for backing up drivers and ghost images files.

Nuke the OS partion for a reinstall and all else gets left alone.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Stratum9
One partition for my OS. One partition for my personal files which I direct the My Documents path to point to. One partiton for Games and all my MP3's. And one for backing up drivers and ghost images files.

Nuke the OS partion for a reinstall and all else gets left alone.

That hoses all your programs still, tho, right? Unless you reinstall via Ghost?

Also, I hate doing it this way because I'm guaranteed to run out of space on one of the partitions...happened everytime I've tried it..

amish

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: Stratum9
One partition for my OS. One partition for my personal files which I direct the My Documents path to point to. One partiton for Games and all my MP3's. And one for backing up drivers and ghost images files.

Nuke the OS partion for a reinstall and all else gets left alone.

the right way ...though I also like to burn my image files to CD as well

 

[rgwalt]

You guys are forgetting the swap partition for Windows NT, 2000, etc... I like to keep my swap file on a separate partition. I have one partition for my OS and programs, and one for MP3s, files, data, backups, etc. Keeping a partition for "My Documents" is a great idea. I'll have to do that on my next computer.

Ryan

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: rgwalt
You guys are forgetting the swap partition for Windows NT, 2000, etc... I like to keep my swap file on a separate partition. I have one partition for my OS and programs, and one for MP3s, files, data, backups, etc. Keeping a partition for "My Documents" is a great idea. I'll have to do that on my next computer.

Ryan

if you use norton disk doctor it'lll optimize the placement of the swap file as well,if memory serves me correctly.

 

[LanEvoVI]

Like others have said, definately make a separate partition for OS and programs so that if you have to format and reinstall ur OS you won't lose everything.

 

[BigFatCow]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Personally, 2 partitions.

1 really big one where your OS and all your files/programs reside.

The second is just a storage drive where you can keep downloads and drivers and such.


I like this because when I have to reinstall, all my drivers and stuff I want to keep is safe on the other partition and I can just nuke the main partition.

amish

same...great minds think alike 🙂

 

[Stratum9]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: Stratum9
One partition for my OS. One partition for my personal files which I direct the My Documents path to point to. One partiton for Games and all my MP3's. And one for backing up drivers and ghost images files.

Nuke the OS partion for a reinstall and all else gets left alone.

That hoses all your programs still, tho, right? Unless you reinstall via Ghost?

Also, I hate doing it this way because I'm guaranteed to run out of space on one of the partitions...happened everytime I've tried it..

amish

I usually reinstall via Ghost, but yes, if I start all over from sqaure one with a fresh install from the Win2k CD I will have to reinstall all my programs. But it's not that big a deal.

As for running out of space on one of those partitions - that's why I bought Partition Magic. Just resize by taking some space from one partition and giving it to the one that needs more.

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: Stratum9

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: Stratum9
One partition for my OS. One partition for my personal files which I direct the My Documents path to point to. One partiton for Games and all my MP3's. And one for backing up drivers and ghost images files.

Nuke the OS partion for a reinstall and all else gets left alone.

That hoses all your programs still, tho, right? Unless you reinstall via Ghost?

Also, I hate doing it this way because I'm guaranteed to run out of space on one of the partitions...happened everytime I've tried it..

amish

I usually reinstall via Ghost, but yes, if I start all over from sqaure one with a fresh install from the Win2k CD I will have to reinstall all my programs. But it's not that big a deal.

As for running out of space on one of those partitions - that's why I bought Partition Magic. Just resize by taking some space from one partition and giving it to the one that needs more.

reinstalling app's takes a helluva lot less time than trying to reconstruct data that's been lost,also your backup time is greatly decreased (and thus more likely to actually get done) when all you're backing up is data files.

 

[matsuhisa]

you should partition... don't wanna have to backup your hard drive if you ever want to format. i have 3 partitions on my 80gb hard drive.

1: for os
2: for all my programs
3: for everything else... (mostly media)

this way, if i want to start fresh, i have to install my os and programs w/o erasing all my media.