Should I partition?

I would recommend a partition especially if you don't have a network to back up stuff (or like to burn data). It will come with an 8MB partition most likely and the rest unpartitioned. Just break up the non partitioned space into 2 drives to put saved info on. If the OS screws up you can most likely reformat the one partition without causing any problems with the other partition. Putting files on another partition of the same drive I don't believe will help performance.

Pctorque is right in everything (heh, strange huh?) but lacking of another physical backup is baaaaaaaad, partitioning does not save the data from a disk crash,or other physical damage, only software wise things...oh well, a tradeoff, as everything else in our little computer world...

Re: Should I partition?

I split mine 20/40 (C: and D - I put games and My Documents on D: and most everything else on C:

(of course, I have lots of ways to backup, so this is just a simple split). Besides, defragging and what-not take less time on a 20GB / 40GB than a 60GB (of course, if you do both C and D after one another, that will be longer, but usually I only do one here, one there).

Depends how organized of a person you are. Some just like one big C: drive and everything goes there. I like to keep data and games (which are more temporary) on a seperate drive.

-myrkat

Mine is close to the same C: 15 gig D: 45. C: is OS, drivers ect. D: is games, work, you get the idea.

Partition queries

I have a 57GB HDD and I partitioned it like this :-

C = 7 GB = System files/OS
D = 10GB = Programs/Office XP/Norton Utilities/WinDVD
E = 10GB = Media Files/Music/Video/Images
F = 10GB = Programming/Visual Studio/Java
G = 10GB = Games
H = 10GB = General Data

I found this article about partitioning which sort of justifies my elaborate partitioning efforts :-

1] http://www.synecology.net/tips/hd-tips.htm
2] http://www.pcbazar.com.pk/tips/tips0009.asp

there are more if you run a search but these should suffice...

Beebz and I seem to disagree on this point but I am willing to learn if what I am doing is wrong.

C -> Windows & Programs.
D -> Data.
H - > Network Drive.

Any more seems superfluous and somewhat confusing. It might hinder performance even.

I take it gs likes it though, so he might be onto something.

Cheers.

Re: Partition queries

OK, you definately win the ANAL-RETENTIVE prize...

Tha's a bit TOO partitioned. Besides, after all my network drives, external drives (when I connect them) and the card readers, I use up about that many drive letters (A, C, D, J, K, M, Q, X and Z)

But my laptop HD is only C & D.

-myrkat

The largest benefit is definately not having to wipe your whole drive when you screw up your windows installation.It is also good practice to have a seperate partition for your high traffic disc use.(eg. lots of media coming and going)This helps avoid fragmentation of your system and program files.You may also want to keep your swap file on the second partition for the same reason.
I would suggest 15GB for Windows and program files.Install all your games,music and movies on the 45GB partion.You will be able to find the partition setup options during windows setup.

Explanation

I know why I did that stuff to my HDD

gsferrari's Benchmark results :-

Disorder Rating Information
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Obsessive-Compulsive: High


Hee hee

Does it really make a difference to have swap files in its own seperate partition? How big should this partition be?

Thanks.

The ruling is out on this i think especially with ntfs and high amounts of memory now but IMHO it is best to have the paging file on it's own 1gig partition so it doesnt get fragmentation. although i have pretty much stopped doing that and just setting the paging file to a fixed size so it doesnt keep changing in size.

That and setting the pagefile to be a fixed size (that is, say 1024-1024MB in the size boxes).

I don't usually give it its own partition (like Linux does), but I try not to keep it on the System partition...

I agree that the ruling is still out on this, so look around Google/Googlegroups and see what the buzz is.

-myrkat

I don't believe that it makes a difference to have the swap file on a different partition... unless the partition is on a seperate drive....

My tactic for optimising the swap file, is to first of all, give your computer the biggest load you are possibly going to ever give it... then check the swap file size... add around 100-200mb to it.

Ok, now take that value, goto your swap file properties and set the max and min sizes of the file to that value.

Get a good defragger, (o&o for example) and defrag the drive so that your new swap file is at the beginning of the drive.... now, never again will you have to defrag your swap file, as it is always the same size

Hope this helps...

O, as for the partitioning... this is my set-up

40gb drive:
WinXP + Program files: 8GB
Games: 10gb
Development: 1gb
Music: 5GB
Movies: 6GB
Temporary (where I download and write cd images and stuff): 8GB

Thats the type of set up I usually have... granted all the drives are a lot smaller than I would normally have them due to the HDD size (my desktop has 100gb)
My opinion on partitioning... keep all windowsxp and programfiles along with mydocs on the same drive... games on another and so on....
Reasoning behind it? well, it makes it well organised, a lot better for defragging and basically means I do some work... cause you cant install more than 6 games on a 10gb drive.

Just my opinion

Paul

-----------------------------------------

myrkat: got there while I was posting.. my thoughts as well

Yeah thats really what i meant by set.. thanks for clarifying it and making it easier to understand

Location, location, location

If one was to give a seperate partition to swap, and you estimate it will be used somewhat regularly (at least), then that partition should reside as close to the MIDDLE of the drive as one can estimate.

This allows less physical travel for the drive heads when accessing the swap space.

A general rule of thumb for hard drives is, even though the center (smaller diameter) is read slower, and the outter edges (larger diameter) are read faster, the middle is optimal for performance, as the drive heads usually are there (averaged) on a near-full disk.

Of course, this is getting into the minutia (sp?) of hard drives, but I think we get the idea.

-myrkat

I think you should just go full blast and partition it into 19 partitions, or at least make sure you have a drive letter from a-z LOL...although i think b is still pretty much off limits. as i dont think you can assign that to anything but a floppy drive even now correct me if im wrong....wonder what windows would do if you tryed to plug in a usb drive and all 26 letters were used? have they actually put something in so it will make a z1: or something or will it just give you a bsod(what i would expect possibly..) since microsoft probaly hasnt thought about that idea...

You're right, cannot assign A: or B: to hard drive partitions (or anything else).

That is an interesting scenario... what would happen if all the letters were used and you added something?

Hrmm.... any takers? Let us know!

-myrkat

Yes, you can. You can map B: to a network drive if you want. I bet you can put anything else too.

As for the letter thing, that's one of the greatest mysteries of Computer Science. What the hell happens after you reach Z:\.

Cheers.