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What's the point of putting OS on a small partition and your programs on another?

fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
This is something that I never really got. When you nuke your OS partition and reinstall, the programs on the program partition aren't going to work anymore... so you end up with a clean OS partition that's too small to install programs, and a bigger program partition but with all the programs broken... am I missing something?
 
For linux I keep /home and /usr/local/games on separate partitions. All user files and settings are retained, and I never have to reinstall games, just recreate symlinks or reinstall the latest patch to get them working again. I can even install different/multiple distros and not have any problems with those partitions.
 
This is something that I never really got. When you nuke your OS partition and reinstall, the programs on the program partition aren't going to work anymore... so you end up with a clean OS partition that's too small to install programs, and a bigger program partition but with all the programs broken... am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's largely pointless. For apps that don't need reinstalled, games, etc it makes some sense but isn't a big deal either way.

the real point is to keep your OS at the front of the drive for faster access. This also reduces fragmentation.
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If that's the real point, then you're missing the point because neither of those are valid reasons.
 
Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser
For linux I keep /home and /usr/local/games on separate partitions. All user files and settings are retained, and I never have to reinstall games, just recreate symlinks or reinstall the latest patch to get them working again. I can even install different/multiple distros and not have any problems with those partitions.
Click to expand...

yeah this is true, i do the same. Wish windows had something like packages and repos. Talk about easy reinstall.

MY windows is a bit of a hybrid. Large OS drive, with programs that A. will need to be reinstalled anyways. Or B. Are small enough that a quick download gets the latest version.

Really i only separate games. Would really suck having to redownload all the steam apps 30 something gigs...
 
Originally posted by: KeypoX
Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser
For linux I keep /home and /usr/local/games on separate partitions. All user files and settings are retained, and I never have to reinstall games, just recreate symlinks or reinstall the latest patch to get them working again. I can even install different/multiple distros and not have any problems with those partitions.
Click to expand...

yeah this is true, i do the same. Wish windows had something like packages and repos. Talk about easy reinstall.

MY windows is a bit of a hybrid. Large OS drive, with programs that A. will need to be reinstalled anyways. Or B. Are small enough that a quick download gets the latest version.

Really i only separate games. Would really suck having to redownload all the steam apps 30 something gigs...
Click to expand...

Does that actually work properly? Dont the games need to be registered in the registry or something. I tried this once with all my games on drive D: and everything else on C: but it never worked out, some of the games wouldnt run etc it was ages ago on XP.
 
The best reason for a smaller OS partition is to reserve space for data. I do this on some computers so if I ever need to reinstall, I can move the Documents, Photos and Music to the 2nd partition and be able to nuke the OS one no problem.

As for performance, its mostly only beneficial if you put the applications on another partition, on a SEPARATE PHYSICAL disk. I do this with my games to get a slight speed boost. The point being if you run out of memory when running a large game, your computer will start paging out, which hits the disk. If you're loading from a disk, and writing out to that same disk at the same time, you'll see a slowdown.
 
Dont the games need to be registered in the registry or something. I tried this once with all my games on drive D: and everything else on C: but it never worked out, some of the games wouldnt run etc it was ages ago on XP.
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Not usually. Most games keep all of their data below their install directory so there's really nothing to register.
 
I have WindowsXp on c:drive and several programs installed on d:drive(same disk) and have used image For Windows to make an image of my c:drive only.
I believe if i was to install my c:drive from the dvd image the programs on d:drive would still work. But I havn't done this yet so i don't know for sure.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Dont the games need to be registered in the registry or something. I tried this once with all my games on drive D: and everything else on C: but it never worked out, some of the games wouldnt run etc it was ages ago on XP.
Click to expand...

Not usually. Most games keep all of their data below their install directory so there's really nothing to register.
Click to expand...

A lot of games nowadays also store a lot of data in your user folders, which default to your OS drive anyway.

The only thing it makes sense to store on another partition is data, since that greatly simplifies reformatting. Basically, anything that needs to be installed should stay on the OS partition.
 
A lot of games nowadays also store a lot of data in your user folders, which default to your OS drive anyway.
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Which is pretty dumb on their part, if that's to be the default it should be at the very least be configurable.
 
Originally posted by: BD2003
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Dont the games need to be registered in the registry or something. I tried this once with all my games on drive D: and everything else on C: but it never worked out, some of the games wouldnt run etc it was ages ago on XP.
Click to expand...

Not usually. Most games keep all of their data below their install directory so there's really nothing to register.
Click to expand...

A lot of games nowadays also store a lot of data in your user folders, which default to your OS drive anyway.

The only thing it makes sense to store on another partition is data, since that greatly simplifies reformatting. Basically, anything that needs to be installed should stay on the OS partition.
Click to expand...

No reason not to put games on separate too. Its worth it if you dont have ot reinstall.

Also most games seem to save in documents, which i also have on separate partition.

Some games do need to be reinstalled, some do not.

I guess it s a matter of preference and how much you care about efficiency.
 
I always have 3 partitions max on all my systems:

1: OS and installed apps (office, adobe, etc.)
2: Games (due to save files), apps without installers, windows mail store file (lets me import mail quickly after reinstall)
3: Data

If I ever need to restore my C drive or do a full install I can do it and get back up and running without skipping a beat.
 
I have Windows on one partition, usually a decent size (50GB for Vista) and then use a 250GB partition where I install all my games. Some of the games put the save files in My Documents, but that isn't that big of a deal, since I just will back them up if I need to reformat.

My other partitions are for data storage, other OSes, Videos, that sort of thing.
 
I've never bothered with a separate OS and Apps drive/partition. Seems mostly pointless except perhaps for games. However, I don't tend to care about losing save games (and more and more I play games which are either saved on a server (MMO) or are mostly multilayer oriented (RTS) so even that's not much of an issue for me.

I prefer to do clean installs of OS and apps on a regular cycle.

Now, a separate OS/Apps and data partition (or better yet drive) is IMHO something that is entirely necessary.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Yes, it's largely pointless...
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Agreed!

For the most part, it's akin to installing your programs in separate folders - which is also pointless.

It makes more sense to ppl that think 'inside the box'... which is why they do it!

It's like being a machinist - and keeping all your nuts, bolts, and tools, etc. in different drawers. What difference does it make?!?!? None!

Weak minded ppl tend to compartmentalize things - that's all...
 
I have a 60GB partition for Vista and the rest for everything else. My only reason for doing it like that was that if Windows dies or I will upgrade to a newer OS, all I have to do it move the essential folders (Documents, Pictures, etc) to my big partition and format the small one. Fast and easy to reinstall/change your OS if needed.
 
It's not useless, but it actually hinders performance. Say you have one partition for your O/S, one for your Games, and one for your programs. If you were playing a game while running a few programs in the back, the hard drive constantly needs to seek between its set partitions and can't treat the entire drive as one entity.

People with the mindsets of "separating your nuts and bolts" aren't approaching this the correct way. You are not giving it another drawer, you are just dividing up the one drawer you have. Hard drive prices are basically through the floor, the best thing to do is have two physical hard drives if you want a sense of security without loss of performance. Plus then you can split your pagefile between the two drives for more fun.
 
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
This is something that I never really got. When you nuke your OS partition and reinstall, the programs on the program partition aren't going to work anymore... so you end up with a clean OS partition that's too small to install programs, and a bigger program partition but with all the programs broken... am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I keep them on separate partitions in case an unexpected issue takes down the OS partition, I can still recover save games and various setting and config files. My data files and media collection are stored on different hard drives as well.
 
I keep games on a separate partition because they're huge and I don't want to back up/image them along with my OS and regular apps.
 
In linux my / partition is 10GB with applications from repositories while my home partition uses the rest of a 500GB drive. I installed Enemy Territory Quake Wars and several other apps to /home/apps and it has run fine through the last 2 version of ubuntu, multiple installs of each. I think windows could be configured to run this way but its not as easy, you might be able to create a user folder after install on another partition somehow. I just make an image of the whole windows partition after getting it fully set up.
 
I separate stuff on servers. Basically anything that needs to get installed on top of my server image goes on D: because that drive can be resized on the fly while C: cant.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
A lot of games nowadays also store a lot of data in your user folders, which default to your OS drive anyway.
Click to expand...

Which is pretty dumb on their part, if that's to be the default it should be at the very least be configurable.
Click to expand...

Why is it dumb? It is storing your data in your user folder so the data is somewhat secure as only your or an administrator can access the data. I think it is a good idea because if I was back in college with a shit head room mate, I'd be deleting his game data and all kinds of things.
 
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