Partitioning a Hard Drive

[gmcinfo]

I just installed a rescue disc for my HP laptop so I am starting from scratch with the same OS and software that was installed when new. It is running Windows Vista and has a 107GB Hard Drive. After the rescue disc was run it set up a "C" drive and a "D" drive. The "D" drive looks like it is a copy of the rescue disc and is only 7 or 8 GB. I have only added "Firefox" and a Backgammon game and there is 80some GB of free space.

I have a few questions about how many partitions and what size partitions to have.

1. How many partitions should I make?
2. What size should they be?
3. Should I remove Firefox and the game before partitioning or should I run the rescue disc before partitioning just to start fresh?

My use is mostly internet based (surfing, downloading, shopping and some basic online games). I do also use it for business, which is mostly done online, and then I use the Microsoft Office products (mostly Word, Excel and Outlook for mail). Also, I would like to start Ripping disc's and I know that needs some hard drive space.

Any comments or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

[pjamme]

IMHO, unless you want to dual boot i would not partition. Partioning was pretty much for ancient windows like NT or W2K.

 

[Mamut0o1]

IMHO, unless you want to dual boot i would not partition. Partioning was pretty much for ancient windows like NT or W2K.

Partitioning a drive has many advantages; one advantage is to allocate data separate from OS, if you need to reisntall OS by any failure you will not have to reload all your data or lose it so in this case scenario it helps!

 

[LookinAround]

I think it comes down to: how do you want to manage your data and backups?

1) As Mamut0o1 points out, some people like to keep Windows and Programs in one partition but keep their data (e.g. stuff under My Documents and Desktop) in a different partition. Tho from my own point-of-view i like keeping them together in a single partition instead of splitting them. (i think there's pro and cons for both approaches. i just find it simpler to manage and backup keeping them in same partition, personally)

2) But also I create a partition to store my media files like movies, songs, etc. Stuff that i keep local copies of on disk but i know i don't need backed up. So is easy to then exclude my media partition whenever i do backups. Saves both backup time and backup space

fyi... When you partition, it may ask if you want a primary or logical partition.
> Windows can only boot from a primary partition
> If you' just want to save files/data it can be primary or logical