What is the best way to portition my hard drive ?

[Sforsyth]

I'm getting a 250 GB hard drive on Wensday how would you portition it ?

I burn and keep alot of movies on my hd as image files and I play alot of games.

I have been reading up on this subject and getting different stories, some say 2 portitions one for the OS apps and games and the other for data, while others say 3, 1 for the OS 1 for Apps and Games and one for Data

would do you think ?

Thanks for your help !

 

[Chosonman]

I would do 2.

40-80 for os and installed programs and the rest for storage.

I hear partitioning speeds your response times but I do it so I don't have to reformat my whole drive if I need to reinstall my OS.

 

[Sforsyth]

What about this configeration ?

30 GB <- Just for the OS and nothing elses

50 GB <- GB for Apps and Games

and the rest for storage ?

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: Sforsyth
What about this configeration ?

30 GB <- Just for the OS and nothing elses

50 GB <- GB for Apps and Games

and the rest for storage ?

why separate the apps from the OS?

 

[aidanjm]

How about getting an another small (40 Gb) drive for your OS and programs? Dedicate the 250Gb to documents, multimedia, etc.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Sforsyth
What about this configeration ?

30 GB <- Just for the OS and nothing elses

50 GB <- GB for Apps and Games

and the rest for storage ?

Holy shyt... what the hell kinda OS are you using that needs 30 GB? :shocked:

 

[Coolin]

That's the biggest waste of space to stick 30GB for the OS.

I'd say use two partitions. One for OS/apps, and one for storage. When you reformat, you'll have to re-install your apps anyways, so you might as well keep them on the same partition. It probably decreases the amount the heads have to move when switching between the swap file, windows files, and games files when you're playing too.

 

[Washoe]

If most of the apps are games though, aren't these for the most part loaded into memory upon game initialization, then the hdd isn't used much once the game has begun?

 

[Sforsyth]

OK I play alot of games so maybe something like this would be better ?

50 GB for OS/APPS/GAMES

and the rest for Data files and movies

 

[Jeff7181]

To be honest, I'd just make it one big partition. Or divide it into two equal parts. I used to like partitioning large drives... I even had my Raptor partitioned. But I find myself estimating the wrong sizes and end up with a partition for applications that's too big... or a partition for the OS, applications, and swap file that's too small... or a partition for data that's too small... etc. I don't think it makes much difference performance wise anymore... just reduces the time it takes to defragment your boot partition if it's smaller.

 

[Sforsyth]

OK Thanks for the help !

 

[Washoe]

I have 2 hdd, one 40GB the other 120. My partitions are like this:

C: Windows 13GB
E: Files 35GB (Docs, Pics, Downloads)
F: Swap 2GB
X: Programs 105GB

Windows at beginning of 1st drive, Swap is at the beginning of the 2nd drive.

Keep in mind, Program Files if you have lots of games will eat up a lot of space. I've used up over half the 105GB space just for games alone and I haven't installed all mine yet.

 

[Coolin]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
To be honest, I'd just make it one big partition. Or divide it into two equal parts. I used to like partitioning large drives... I even had my Raptor partitioned. But I find myself estimating the wrong sizes and end up with a partition for applications that's too big... or a partition for the OS, applications, and swap file that's too small... or a partition for data that's too small... etc. I don't think it makes much difference performance wise anymore... just reduces the time it takes to defragment your boot partition if it's smaller.

The problem with this method is that if you reformat, you lose all your MP3s/videos etc... Or you'll have to burn them all or something problematic like that.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Umm.. this might sound like a stupid question, but how do you partition a drive?

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
Umm.. this might sound like a stupid question, but how do you partition a drive?

Partition Magic, Disk Management, or when installing an operating system you can do it from there too.

 

[cptCuervo]

I've been told to put the page file on a separate drive with a FAT32 file system for faster swap file access... is this a myth/partial myth? Does the File system have that much to do with the use of a page file?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

I urge my clients to use multiple partitions for a variety of reasons that I spell out in my Blog here: http://soldcentralfl.com/flyingpenguin/penguin_blog.shtml
Scroll down to "Why You Should Partition A Large Hard Drive Into Several Smaller Partitions"

 

[Sforsyth]

FlyingPenguin, so what do you think about this ?

10 GB - OS
50 GB Game and apps
and the rest for Data Images and stuff I want to keep ?

 

[imported_Kensai]

Hell. I just leave it in one big clunk.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

25 GB for OS, apps, games
Everything else on 1 other partition

 

[RobCur]

Originally posted by: Sforsyth
I'm getting a 250 GB hard drive on Wensday, how would you partition it ?

I burn and keep lots of movies on my hd as image files and play lots of games.

I have been reading up on this subject, getting different stories, some say 2 portitions one for the OS apps, games and the other for data, while others say 3, 1 for the OS 1 for Apps and Games and one for Data

would do you think?

Thanks for your help!

fixed

 

[Lysawy]

Speed up acces times with partitions well i had a 120gb maxtor divided into 2 20 and about a 100 and it was kinda slow specially when working with divx large files over 2 gigs, so i got a raptor 74gb to fix that and now it feels better no more waiting to acces or preview a large files ..... speedy as hell ......

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Coolin

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
To be honest, I'd just make it one big partition. Or divide it into two equal parts. I used to like partitioning large drives... I even had my Raptor partitioned. But I find myself estimating the wrong sizes and end up with a partition for applications that's too big... or a partition for the OS, applications, and swap file that's too small... or a partition for data that's too small... etc. I don't think it makes much difference performance wise anymore... just reduces the time it takes to defragment your boot partition if it's smaller.

The problem with this method is that if you reformat, you lose all your MP3s/videos etc... Or you'll have to burn them all or something problematic like that.

That's true... I have two separate hard drives so that's not a big problem for me.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: Chosonman
I would do 2.

40-80 for os and installed programs and the rest for storage.

I hear partitioning speeds your response times but I do it so I don't have to reformat my whole drive if I need to reinstall my OS.

This is what I do... the idea being if I need to re-install windows, I can just delete/format the first partition and re-install. All data is on the other partition and kept (mostly) out of harms way.

I think three partitions is confusing and uneccessary - but to each his own

 

[FlyingPenguin]

FlyingPenguin, so what do you think about this ?

10 GB - OS
50 GB Game and apps
and the rest for Data Images and stuff I want to keep ?

Fine if it works for you. 10Gb is all I use for my OS partition as well, but I install NOTHING in the OS partition. All my apps get installed in the apps partition. Also all temp files and program cache folders are located in a seperate Temp partition - I don't allow any temp files in the OS partition.

My preference is to have a seperate partition for apps and another for games (actually I have 3 games partitions). I do this so I can easily backup the OS and apps to a Norton Ghost image that comfortably fits on a single DVD. I also prefer to disable System Restore on all partitions except the OS and Apps partitions.

But that's me.