Harddisk Partitions

MartMax

Hullooo people

Just wondering if you have ONE big hard drive (say 100GB above) and use MS-Windows XP, would you prefer one partition or more? Is there any good if the primary partition is setup for 20GB for Windows and the rests go to second partition (programs, games, docs, etc). Any improvement to file transfer, page file, DVD burning, etc?

What I believe is that it's easier to do clean Windows installation without doing much backup, etc. If my assumption is correct, please share with me the best configuration to Windows, if there is any.

Mart Max

kaimera

I'd go with 2 or more partitions. like you said, about 20 odd for windows and the rest then for well...entertainment

jessy

I don’t think there are any huge benefits to be gained if the entire disk is used for windows.

Although you might want to create a small 5-10GB partition for Linux.

tribble

mart_max wrote:

What I believe is that it's easier to do clean Windows installation without doing much backup, etc. If my assumption is correct, please share with me the best configuration to Windows, if there is any.

Mart Max

Yeah - one Windows partition and a seperate PRIMARY partition for all your "stuff".

Makes restoring your drive image easier and keeps your stuff more secure.

stevenmu

If you're going to install everything else on to your second partition then 20gb is probably alot more than you'll need. I have a 10gb partition for windows xp and have most of my utilities and a few pretty big programs on it and I'm only using about 5gb.

tuco

Any suggestions on what software to use to create the partitions? Is partition magic the way to go, or is there a freeware version?

ViperVenoM

partitions are very useful...no longer do i have to wipe 200gb just coz of god damn windows

i have my 200gb drive in a partition for windows/program, one for songs, one for games and one for downloads..then my 120 is full of tv/films

my windows/program partition is 20gb..i was going to have a 5gb for windows and 15 for apps but it wouldnt let me have any more partition on 1 drive...but its still good as it is, like people say its probably not much faster or anything ..its just handy when windows ....feels like being annoying :rolleyes:

oh and i use partition magic...although u can use your windows disc if you start off with a nice empty drive set up a 20gb partition...start it, restart...set up a 40gb drive..start the files copying again..restart..then do the proper installation of windows and get into windows and delete the windows folders off all the other drives..only about 5kb each..works for me if i cant find a program to hand

Praetorian

Partitioning is the work of the devil. Ye are all cursed to hell!

1 x 250 gig western digital special edition - 1 partition - Used for storing films / tv etc
1 x 250 gig western digital special edition - 1 partition - Used for storing Music etc etc
1 x 75 gig western digital raptor - 1 partition - Used for OS's, Applications, Games etc

stevenmu

Windows setup should let you create as many partitions as you want (given normal limitations of course). Once you create your partition you should just be able to create another and another and so on before you actually select which one you want to install windows on. You can also just create the one you want windows on, install windows and then you Disk Administrator in windows to create the rest of your partitions.

tuco wrote:

Any suggestions on what software to use to create the partitions? Is partition magic the way to go, or is there a freeware version?

If you just want to be able to create and delete partitions either windows setup or disk administrator in windows work fine. It's only for advanced stuff like dynamically resizing partitions that things like partition magic are usefull for. So unless you know you're going to need that it's probably not worth getting, it may have other benefits too that appeal to you, their website should tell you all about it, but basic partition management with just windows is fine for most people.

Capt'n Midnight

If it's windows then setup a System partiton and a Data partition. This way you can backup / restore the system partition to / from the data one. EVERYTHING gets installed in the data partition, you really only want the boot file and registry on the first partition to make recovery quick and easy..