Is partitioning needed?

[nerdgirl]

Hi all,

Do you need to partition your hard drive? Why couldn't you just have, say, one big 40gb drive, rather than a bunch of smaller ones? Is it better performance? What's the scoop?

Thanks in advance,
ng

[NDC]

Well, having your hard disk partitioned is especially nice when you need to format the hard drive. Having a dedicated partition for saved data will save you trouble of having to back it up elsewhere when this time comes. Since ecah partitioned is treated as a drive, you can easily control what will be kept and wiped...

[KenKun]

Hi ...
Yes .. it is better to partition for evrything to be organized thus you drive will operate faster and less fragmented ...
Usually i partition a 40GB drive into 15GB for OS, 10GB programs (i will try it soon), 5GB Backup and storage in general ...

What's the scoop

Don't hold all your eggs in one basket ..
Final word .. to get the best usage and performance out of your HD it is better to partition ...

Regards

[NDC]

15GB for OS, 10GB programs (i will try it soon), 5GB Backup and storage in general ...

Why 15GB for the OS when you have a 10GB dedicated to programs?

[amdkt7]

I personally do not like to partition. A lot of programs behave better when they are installed default to c drive. Also, it is very difficult to get all of your data on to a separate partition.

I prefer to use a second drive to make backups to, I also put drivers and software on the second drive for easy access when reinstalling.

It’s mostly a matter of preference though IMO.

[KenKun]

oops .. you're right NDC .. 5GB are enough for any OS then the others's sizes depends on how much files or programs you own...
(in my above post i stated my presend OS partition size with my future plans for a program partition.. :P)

Nerdgirl, if you don't want to partition, and are happy organising your data with folders within the OS, then do that.

I personally only use partitions for backing up stuff, like a ghost partition of a whole drive. I usually store ghost partitions on a different drive, though, as there is no use in backing up on the same drive if that drive goes down

So I use, for instance, a ghost partition on drive A's drive on drive B, and vice versa. Sometimes this is on different machines, so both drives may have an OS partition, and a ghost partition for another machines OS partition.

So as amdkt7 correctly says, it is a matter of personal preference.

[Ed_S]

Personal preference, definately. But personally, I partition the drive on every machine I set up.
At very minimum, I set up a small D: drive to copy the OS to prior to installing it on C:.
Then I install from there instead of from the CD. This way the OS always has it's driver library and optional applets available and "knows" where to find 'em.
Also, I copy any drivers, patches or updates to D: so that the installed OS can be replicated relatively easily.



Now, on my own system I partition it pretty radically...let's just say I need more letters than the alphabet has to offer!!

[amdkt7]

I think Ed's idea has a lot of merit, especially if you only have one drive. That makes it easy to simply format and reinstall.

One problem with making partitions is when your drive setup changes all your drive letters may get screwed up. This can cause havoc if Windows does not know where to look for stuff.

[eazye]

i have it set up like this
windows xp and programs c:/10gb
d:/emulators playstation images and ftp/web servers/backups(6 gb)
e:/4 gb mp3s
partitioning into several 5-10 gig drves also saves you incredibal amounts of space using fat32 due to the smaller cluster size of smaller drives