What size is your OS/main drive?

[duragezic]

I want to partition my new 2 TB drive right now so when I build a new computer with Win 7, it will be ready for the OS/main drive and I won't have to resize partitions with data on them.

My current OS/apps/games partition is 85 GB. I know that's definitely too small since it was filled due to games before I recently formatted. I was thinking somewhere around 160 GB, but also I should account for a larger Windows install (win 7 in the future vs XP now) and enough room for my apps/games for the next 2-3 years.

So I wanted to hear what size some of you use for your OS/apps/games as again, I'd rather not resize partitions that have data on them. Ideally I'd keep the 2 TB as one data partition and get a SSD with my new rig, but looking at prices now of roughly the size I'd want (say 256 MB) they are at least $400 still!

edit: Doh! Thanks to mod for moving to right forum. When I was gonna post it, I was like "well it's not (general) hardware, it's not really OS or software, hmm...". Duh there is a Memory & Storage forum!

 

[Alone]

5GB set aside for OS. 10GB if it's Windows (for shits and giggles).

 

[SirStev0]

my laptop has 300gb most of which is empty but I have about 4 TB of Hard Drives laying around with various things stored.

Best investment I ever made was a Hard Drive docking port. And by investment I mean I got it for free from New Egg with the purchase of a TB.

 

[HAL9000]

64GB 2xSSD's RAID 0caps

 

[rudder]

9.5"

 

[Obsy]

been using a non-partitioned 500GB HDD for everything since 2008. tend to delete stuff i don't use/play anymore, and have ~250GB of free space on it

200GB of 250GB free on my nearly-one-year-old MBP because i don't really screw around on it

will consider 120GB SSDs when they're $1/GB

 

[Aikouka]

i5-2500k: 80GB SSD
i7-860: 80GB SSD
i3-2100t: 40GB SSD
i3-540: 40GB SSD
Dell M1530: 120GB SSD

SSDs are usually good around 80GB, but anything less tends to really hamper your speeds due to less physical NAND chips... albeit, a 160GB would probably be a bit faster than my 80GB drives too.

 

[Acanthus]

240GB SSDs in R-0 for OS and my most often used apps.

Everything else is on the 2TB.

 

[Cerb]

If there's only one OS, there's only one partition. Partitioning was handy back when OS reinstalls needed to be a common thing, and when the FS was not too reliable. Neither of those should be an issue, today.

 

[JBT]

120gb ssd.

 

[allthatisman]

I have a 128gb SSD and a 1.5th media drive. I have win 7, office, iTunes, L4D2, SC2, TF2, BFBC2, and stalker COC I have 56gb free. Obviously more space would be welcome, but for me, 160-180 would be pretty good...
Even though I'm doing just fine right now.

 

[n7]

240 GB via three 80 GB SSDs.

 

[ElFenix]

60gb agility 1, think it's about to die (have bluescreened to chkdsk twice in the last week, now chrome doesn't work )

 

[duragezic]

If there's only one OS, there's only one partition. Partitioning was handy back when OS reinstalls needed to be a common thing, and when the FS was not too reliable. Neither of those should be an issue, today.

I agree. Back in the day I was all about partitions but then in the past 5 or so years I've tried to go for less partitions. And less reinstalls for sure. My last XP install was in June 2007 and it functioned fine until I hosed it screwing around with the VC++ redists.

But the thing with a 2 TB drive is I only need ~200 GB for the OS/apps/games and the rest for data. In the event of a reinstall, whether planned or unplanned, I have to have it partitioned so that my data partition stays intact. So idea would be:

2 tb drive partition 0: 200gb for OS/apps/games
2 tb drive partition 1: 1600gb (rest) for data
current 500gb drive's OS and data partitions combined to just store data. Probably set up some sort of sync between 2tb partition 1 and this drive so that I have a backup of my data.

 

[duragezic]

I guess for the people using 80gb or less partitions/drives, do you install your games and/or apps on other drives? I've never done that unless out of space. I've always treated all apps and games as going with the OS partition in that they get wiped with the OS. Is that not really needed? I thought there would be registry settings and such that would prevent them from working with a new OS install.

 

[Pardus]

2 Western Digital Black 1TB Hard Drives Redundancy Raid :biggrin:

 

[ElFenix]

My last XP install was in June 2007 and it functioned fine until I hosed it screwing around with the VC++ redists.

Original Install Date:

7/12/2006, 5:00:58 PM​

and since then it has gone from:
a64 single core
e2140
q8200 (new board)
q8400 (new board)
a2 630

and only the last one has given me any trouble, due to intel processor drivers (don't like finding an amd processor i guess). changed video from red team to green team as well.

I guess for the people using 80gb or less partitions/drives, do you install your games and/or apps on other drives? I've never done that unless out of space. I've always treated all apps and games as going with the OS partition in that they get wiped with the OS. Is that not really needed? I thought there would be registry settings and such that would prevent them from working with a new OS install.

usually the only thing an installer does is copy all the files to specific directories and add start menu/desktop shortcuts.

 

[vshah]

80gb ssd, 1tb general shits, 6tb in the home server

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

My desktop has a 60GB SSD. My laptop has a 320GB hard drive in a single partition. To be honest, I think 60GB is plenty, though once in a while I find myself wishing for more (e.g. when working with large audacity files).

 

[Aikouka]

I guess for the people using 80gb or less partitions/drives, do you install your games and/or apps on other drives? I've never done that unless out of space. I've always treated all apps and games as going with the OS partition in that they get wiped with the OS. Is that not really needed? I thought there would be registry settings and such that would prevent them from working with a new OS install.

Yes, I only install apps on my OS's 80GB SSD. I install WoW and SC2 to another 80GB SSD, and I put all of my other games and iTunes on a separate 1.5TB WD Caviar Black. I use another 1.5TB drive as a "scratch drive." Whenever I do FRAPS captures, rip (my) blu-ray discs or download files... it goes to that drive.

 

[paperfist]

I guess for the people using 80gb or less partitions/drives, do you install your games and/or apps on other drives? I've never done that unless out of space. I've always treated all apps and games as going with the OS partition in that they get wiped with the OS. Is that not really needed? I thought there would be registry settings and such that would prevent them from working with a new OS install.

I use 50GB for Windows. Then I have 1 partition each for games, data (aps), media and page file.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I guess for the people using 80gb or less partitions/drives, do you install your games and/or apps on other drives? I've never done that unless out of space. I've always treated all apps and games as going with the OS partition in that they get wiped with the OS. Is that not really needed? I thought there would be registry settings and such that would prevent them from working with a new OS install.

If I had money to burn buying a 256GB SSD, then I would install all the games I play on my OS partition as well. But given that most games don't get that much benefit from going to an SSD, and given that SSDs are so expensive, it's just not worth it. As it is, I put all my apps on my OS drive, and I still have about 22GB left over in my 60GB drive.

 

[zerocool84]

I use 50GB for Windows. Then I have 1 partition each for games, data (aps), media and page file.

Same for me.

 

[Joseph F]

I'm still using a 160GB off-brand PATA drive for my primary/OS drive and a Seagate 160GB PATA for my secondary.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

500GB unpartitioned for OS, Games, Programs etc. Everything else goes on three other drives labeled Small/Medium/Large (500GB/1TB/2TB)