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Partition recommendation

post #1 of 25
12/10/05 at 10:23pm
Thread Starter 
I just got my Inspiron 6000 with a 60 GB hard drive. I'm thinking about partitioning this to ease in future reformats to clean up the OS. What are some recommendation on sizes? Do I want one for the OS, and one for programs and files? Or do I want 3 with programs and files being seperate?

Just trying to think of how to easily clean the hard drive up in the future. Thanks.
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post #2 of 25
12/11/05 at 2:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancer1991
I just got my Inspiron 6000 with a 60 GB hard drive. I'm thinking about partitioning this to ease in future reformats to clean up the OS. What are some recommendation on sizes? Do I want one for the OS, and one for programs and files? Or do I want 3 with programs and files being seperate?

Just trying to think of how to easily clean the hard drive up in the future. Thanks.
proggies and os on same hd, files on separate. better thing to do is to forget the partition and have external hd for files
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post #3 of 25
12/11/05 at 2:26am
i went 10 first...too small.
I think 25/15/15 best.
i have 30/25 now after repartitioning.
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post #4 of 25
12/11/05 at 3:14am
Quote:
better thing to do is to forget the partition and have external hd for files
I have to agree with this one. I used to repartition about 1/3 system and 2/3 archive in the old days of Win98. I could boot from a floppy, reformat then install Windows from the partition and be back on my feet in a matter of hours.

Since NTFS and Win2k I've relied on external drives to hold my goodies and just let Windows pollute the system drive as it will. I still keep a system partition and an archive partition to hold downloads and stuff. But anymore I just boot off CD to reinstall. It's not as much fun and it's not as fast, but I like to think my external drive is a little more reliable than the partition method, for important stuff.

Just my $0.02.
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post #5 of 25
12/11/05 at 4:37pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies. I don't think the external HD is a viable option for me. First off it takes away the mobility of a laptop (I have a huge HD in my PC for this) and secondly the purchase of a new laptop has strapped the funds.

Watchtower,

So you eventually opted to go with Programs and OS together and another partition for files?
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post #6 of 25
12/11/05 at 5:23pm
Where can you get a HD enclosure for a 2.5 inch HD? I have an extra 40GB drive sitting around that would be nice for files and such.
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post #7 of 25
12/11/05 at 5:33pm
Quote:
Where can you get a HD enclosure for a 2.5 inch HD?
I got mine off ebay for about $9. Best money I ever spent there. The seller's name was superdeal-01 and I see he still sells them. I'd post a link to one, but ebay links seem to be taboo in this forum ...

You can get them for 3.5" drives too. There are also firewire enclosures, but I haven't used one of those. I think they require an AC line (which would be included), and that seems to defeat the purpose to me. I just want one cable that will power the drive and transfer the data, all at once.
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post #8 of 25
12/11/05 at 11:13pm
Thanks for the info, I found them from that seller for $10 plus $2 shipping.
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post #9 of 25
12/12/05 at 12:38am
Here's an excellent partitioning guide:
http://partition.radified.com/

I've got 15 gigs partitioned off for Windows + Apps, 10 gigs as a scratch disc for Photoshop, and the remaider for media/docs/storage.

And I've got 4 external HDDs (2 Firewire & 2 USB 2) as well....

It's much more efficient and quicker for defrag, backup, imaging and reformatting with this type of setup, IMO.
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post #10 of 25
12/12/05 at 2:16pm
My desktop's HD is partitioned. I keep Windows on C: by itself, but remember to give it ~20GB or so so that you don't run into problems with patches and updates. Then I install all my programs to D: and that's where I used TweakUI to point all My Document folders there.

This way, when I reinstall Windows and then reinstall programs, nothing really gets lost. The other tricks I recommend is to keep anything you DL from Dell on the D: partition so that your drivers are always there w/out having to redownload a lot. And finally, if you use Outlook, move the Outlook PST file to the D: partition. This way you won't loose your e-mail and contacts when you reformat C:.
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post #11 of 25
12/12/05 at 10:10pm
I have a 100 gb hdd, 93 gb usable and I have a partition of 20/20/53 (more or less). 20 gb for xp + prog, 20 gb for games, rest for "my documents"
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post #12 of 25
12/13/05 at 12:42am
I don't see any reason to keep Windows and Apps on seperate partitions. But to each his own.
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post #13 of 25
12/13/05 at 3:39am
ok....i'v been trying to keep up on posts about partitioning. So for the average user, I should take my 100gig hard drive, and make a 30gig for windows, programs and games, and then a 60gig for music, videos and MS office (since you said to do that so your outlook dosnt get earased) does that sound good?
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post #14 of 25
12/13/05 at 1:41pm
^ That sounds fine. Just take a look at what your current space needs are for Windows + Apps + Games and then go 150% of that.

I put Outlook on the Windows part with the other apps and do regular backups with....

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

And I'd suggest an external HDD for backup as well.....
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post #15 of 25
12/13/05 at 1:52pm
I'm due to get my 9300 today and plan to partition the 60GB disk into two partitions;

20GB for OS and applications (and 1 GB fixed size Page File, but with 2GB RAM, this should rarely be needed)
40GB for data.

Under Windows, there is no real benefit in keeping the OS and Applications seperate since most apps would need to be reinstalled if Windows was reinstalled anyway.

The fixed size page file should simply allocate a chunk of space and thus will not fragment anything, especially since I doubt that it will ever get more than token use.
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post #16 of 25
12/13/05 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by odious_m
I don't see any reason to keep Windows and Apps on seperate partitions. But to each his own.
Not all programs keep their data and files in a seperate directory. This way they don't all have to be lost when you reformat.
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post #17 of 25
12/13/05 at 2:26pm
@Siggy: 2 gigs RAM here as well. I've been using this pagefile monitor...

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

...for 2 months now. It keeps a log or you can view it at shutdown.

The biggest my pagefile has ever been was under 500 megs, but usually it is under 50 megs. Anyway, I set it for 1024--jusrt to be safe.
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post #18 of 25
12/13/05 at 2:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by airic82
Not all programs keep their data and files in a seperate directory. This way they don't all have to be lost when you reformat.
I never reformat (only format...) as I use Norton ghost.
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post #19 of 25
12/13/05 at 3:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by airic82
Not all programs keep their data and files in a seperate directory. This way they don't all have to be lost when you reformat.
Yeah, that's a pain.

I love the old Unix link command that allows multiple pointers to a single folder. I think some versions even worked across disks. That way you could move the data to the D drive and yet the application could access it via the C drive.

Still, because of the Registry entries etc, most applications need to be reinstalled after a Windows reinstallation and having them on a seperate partition won't change this. I'm planning on a decent size OS and App partition so some data can easily fit there. Most of the stuff in my data partition will be 'pure' data such as documents and mp3 files.
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post #20 of 25
12/13/05 at 4:16pm
I'm a little shocked at some of the advice being given here.

I've been a die-hard computer user (heh) since I was 4 years old and the best combination is this:

My 60GB drive:
C:\ (boot) = 20 GB
D:\ (storage for important iles) = 38GB {approx}

I use a small external HD to backup my files from both periodically.
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