What is the best way to portition my hard drive ?

[imported_Kensai]

Creepy. I just have one big fat fricking partition. Works very nicely.

 

[apoppin]

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 an awful reason. ALWAYS back up your files [period] . . .

HDs fail

just one partition is not likely to fail

 

[kobymu]

BTW, if you where told that partitioning the hdd will bring a performance increase then that performance increase would be negligible AT BEST, the main reason to partition one large hdd is for convenience (keeping track of data, easy backups, etc...).

For performance, i would buy 2 hdd; one for os+apps, 2nd for data+swap file OR one for os, 2nd for everting else(which btw is my current setup, and i am very happy with it).

 

[jameswhite1979]

I would just have one partition much easier to manage. At most I might create a 2GB for the swap file.

 

[amol]

I have a 250GB drive

20GB for OS and apps and 213 GB for storage

I should have given more for OS and apps, but I still have 13.5GB left...

I don't have any games on this comp yet, that's why

My 213GB storage is down to 93GB

I'll be getting a new hard drive on Black Friday, so I'll just transfer files to that hard drive and repartition this drive ... probably 40GB for OS and apps

Reason I have 2 partitions is if Windows gets corrupted, I just have to reformat C:\, not the D:\

Of course, I keep backups and stuff ... it's just a pain to put them back onto the main hard drive.

 

[dunkster]

I would consider 3 partitions minimum, two of those partitions I consider critical.

My OS partition is 8GB in size, restricted to Windows and security apps only, restricting actual content to about 4 GB. This allows frequent imaging of the OS partition to removable single-DVD media (15 minutes to image, 20 minutes to restore).

The other critical partition is the DATA partition, including only data that I consider critical. All apps, such as Word and Excel, are configured to save files automatically to this partition - so it's always current. I also keep critical drivers archived in this partition. This partition is backed up weekly to removable single-DVD media.

Anything else is considered non-critical and allocated to a larger general partition.

For security and data-recovery purposes, I would consider a single-partition HD configuration suitable ONLY if I deployed another dedicated HD for storing backup images of the primary HD.

I'm not a believer in dedicating a partition for swap file use. A much more efficient solutiion would be a Raptor dedicated for OS use.

Hope this helps!

 

[Sforsyth]

Damn still semms confufing to me, ok I will have an extra 10 GB HD laying around do you think I should use this as well or no ? maybe make it for a swap file or something ?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Sforsyth
Damn still semms confufing to me, ok I will have an extra 10 GB HD laying around do you think I should use this as well or no ? maybe make it for a swap file or something ?

there is NO "best way"

what you have are suggestions of what worked well for individual users.

i prefer a single large partitions and frequent incremental backups

 

[dragonballgtz]

What ever floats your boat?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Ok, you definitely want an OS only partition. This is because if it's going to die (come on it's M$ anyways), you're going to want to lose as little as possible.

10 GB for XP. you can install office and some critical apps here.

And for what's left...
HALF for games/apps: some games/apps will run even after you reformat, so don't lose those game files. Plus, if you're lazy like me you don't have to reinstall some cheap apps
HALF for music/movies/files/whatever you need it for

That's how I organize: my laptop AND my desktop.

 

[SectorZero]

My suggestion:

- 30 gig for OS and Apps
- 1 gig for swap file
- The rest for Data

Note: I would also recommend pointing your My Documents folder to the Data Partition.

 

[dragonballgtz]

Originally posted by: SectorZero
My suggestion:

- 30 gig for OS and Apps
- 1 gig for swap file
- The rest for Data

Note: I would also recommend pointing your My Documents folder to the Data Partition.

Also the TEMP and TMP folders.

Originally posted by: DLeRium
10 GB for XP. you can install office and some critical apps here.

And for what's left...
HALF for games/apps: some games/apps will run even after you reformat, so don't lose those game files. Plus, if you're lazy like me you don't have to reinstall some cheap apps
HALF for music/movies/files/whatever you need it for

I thought you would have to reinstall all of your apps because they won't be in the Windows registry?

 

[dunkster]

"I thought you would have to reinstall all of your apps because they won't be in the Windows registry?"

TRUE - for Windows clean install.
NOT TRUE - for restored OS partition image.

Suppose you have:
- OS partition for Windows.
- GAMES partition for games.
- APPS partition for programs.

Restoring a saved image of your OS partition also restores the Windows Registry - so games and apps remain installed (exactly as of the date the OS partition image was created).

Hope this helps!

 

[airfoil]

Originally posted by: SectorZero
My suggestion:

- 30 gig for OS and Apps
- 1 gig for swap file
- The rest for Data

Note: I would also recommend pointing your My Documents folder to the Data Partition.

 

[Sqube]

Multiple drives > Multiple partitions
Get a little one for your OS and your swap(?), use the 250 to store everything else.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: Sqube
Multiple drives > Multiple partitions
Get a little one for your OS and your swap(?), use the 250 to store everything else.

:thumbsup:

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I'm interested in doing this myself....

If Windows is already installed, is Partition Magic (currently at version 9, and a Symantec product) the best application for this job?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: AnitaPeterson
I'm interested in doing this myself....

If Windows is already installed, is Partition Magic (currently at version 9, and a Symantec product) the best application for this job?

i used ver 6 to do a flawless dual-boot of 98se with Win2k this Sunday (only took a couple of hours . . . i did a DVD-R back-up first, just in case)
:thumbsup:

. . . there are some old games that WILL NOT cooperate with NTFS.

i am starting to play System Shock2 . . . finally (i missed it in '99; didn't get into RPGs until KotOR - this Spring!) . . . it actually looks pretty good using the original Dark Engine (original Thief) with the updated hi-res pack [10x7max/16bit colour/8xAA/16xAF/vsynch on].

i digress . . . yes, PM + Boot Magic (included) [+ Drive Image, if you like]
:thumbsup:

 

[Arcanedeath]

Personaly I have a 250GB Drive and I use 4, 1 5gb for the OS + security software, 1 5gb for Critical data / bank statements ect.., 1 32GB fat 32 part. for sharing between OS's and flashing the bios from dos and other utilities that require dos or a non NTFS filesystem. and the rest for Data storage. For me its not really about speed but mostly organization, I have another 250GB internal HDD in a 5.25" removable frame that I backup the whole drive to once a week and an external DVD burner that I backup the critical files and OS part. 's to 1 DVD each once a month.

 

[blackrain]

Like someone has already said, don't bother putting your apps on a different partition from your O/S. If you have to reformat, you'll have to reinstall your apps as well. I think the same goes for games. Anything that isn't "installed" like documents, media files, etc should go on at least one separate partition. Also consider that some games don't play on windows xp and some games don't play on windows 98. I setup a dual boot to solve that problem. Each O/S with its own apps and games on separate partitions and a third large partition for media, docs and temp files.

 

[Nomada]

Keep in mind that even if you put your main apps on the secondary partition all you have to do is image the OS partition and registry to DVD and that should save the hassle of reinstalling big apps as well.

 

[MiiChan]

I have a 160GB HD, and this is how I partition mine:

10GB OS/Aps
60GB Games
90GB "Other" (saved documents, pictures, etc)

It works for me.

 

[kobymu]

Originally posted by: Sqube
Multiple drives > Multiple partitions
Get a little one for your OS and your swap(?), use the 250 to store everything else.

exactly !!!!!!

and btw, just in case you (OP) dont know what multiple partitions means..

Multiple drives > Multiple partitions > More overhead

 

[stuman74]

Originally posted by: kobymu

Originally posted by: Sqube
Multiple drives > Multiple partitions
Get a little one for your OS and your swap(?), use the 250 to store everything else.

exactly !!!!!!

and btw, just in case you (OP) dont know what multiple partitions means..

Multiple drives > Multiple partitions > More overhead

What is the smallest "fast" IDE hard drive out there? I have a 15 GB WD, but is a 153BA or something that's 5 years old with only 2MB cache. My main drive for files is a 160 GB Samsung w/8 MB, but I'd probably slave and partition it if I had a good "small and fast" hard drive for my OS.

 

[fstime]

If you have 2 or more drives, partioning is the stupidest thing ever imo.

If you have lets say, a 160 gb hard drive by it self, spliting it into 80 gb each. one for your OS, the other for backup.