Why should I partition my drives?

[AncientPC]

Does partitioning offer any type of speed advantage at all? What advantages are there?

Don't get me wrong, I have 4 harddrives in my system split into 8 partitions. But my main reasons for partitioning a drive is:

1) Organized from my perspective / i.e. how I think. Sometimes I actually share a folder and map it as a network drive. Just helps me keep organized I suppose / preferences.

2) Backup. I keep a backup image / applications on another physical hard drive in case my OS hard drive fails on me. Habit.

 

[AncientPC]

I looked in the FAQ and searched the forum but didn't come up with anything. Maybe I'm blind. *shrugs*

 

[mchammer187]

i have 5 partitions among my 2 120 GB HD's

20 GB (OS & Programs), 50 ( mp3s, pics), 50 GB (AVIs, MPEGS), 60 GB (DVD RIP) & Swap file for OS, 60GB File Share

its good to have partitions because its a lot easier to defrag 1 partion vs a whole 120 GB drive

and after I install all my proggies the 20 GB Never really gets fragmented, same thing with the mp3s

along with organization

if i ever need to reinstall the os i dont have to touch anything but the 20 gigger to do a complete system restore

 

[teddymines]

There are 2 major benefits to partitioning:
1. Multiple OS boot off a single drive
2. Separating OS from data

The latter is valuable when you need to reinstall the OS or ghost an OS image back, because you will not touch the data partition. Also your ghost images will be smaller because they just contain the OS.

There are plenty of threads on this subject. Do a search.

 

[DanFungus]

it's also good, because if you have data on a partition other than the OS, if hte OS goes weird on you, you can format JUST that partition, reinstall teh OS< and your data is COMPLETELY safe 🙂