Is there an advantage to partitioning your hard drive? I have a 40gig HD with everything on 'C' drive leaving 38gig's(88%)of free space available. Should I partition that free space for different application's such as games,ect.? What application's have you separated into partition's and why? I'm running XP Home using the NTFS file system. Thanks
Partition hard drive?
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Phantasm66
Posts: 4,909 +8
I am a strong supporter of smart and clever use of partitioning. There are numerous reasons for this, but one of the chief ones is that, quite simply, putting all of your "eggs in one basket" is inviting disaster.
It makes much more sense to divide a HDD into a partition for the operating system, and a partition for user data (like documents, mp3s, etc...) Here is an example of why:
My machine has suddenly become unbootable, and I need to format the HDD and start again. But something is holding me back: I have user data files, which are important, scatter all over the place saved in the "Microsoft Office" directory, etc, and in folders called "Phantazmm", etc... Before I can format I have the tedious task of trying to recover this data.
Now if I had my data on a seperate partition, I don't need to worry about this and can just format and go. End of story.
It also simplifies the process of backups if all I have to do is simply backup the entire contents of my data drive, rather than pick out individual folders all over the place.
There are many, many other reasons why a dedicated data partition is a good idea, I will discuss more if you want. Certainly when I started at my current job they loved this idea so much that its become the standard now for machines across the faculty.
It makes much more sense to divide a HDD into a partition for the operating system, and a partition for user data (like documents, mp3s, etc...) Here is an example of why:
My machine has suddenly become unbootable, and I need to format the HDD and start again. But something is holding me back: I have user data files, which are important, scatter all over the place saved in the "Microsoft Office" directory, etc, and in folders called "Phantazmm", etc... Before I can format I have the tedious task of trying to recover this data.
Now if I had my data on a seperate partition, I don't need to worry about this and can just format and go. End of story.
It also simplifies the process of backups if all I have to do is simply backup the entire contents of my data drive, rather than pick out individual folders all over the place.
There are many, many other reasons why a dedicated data partition is a good idea, I will discuss more if you want. Certainly when I started at my current job they loved this idea so much that its become the standard now for machines across the faculty.
StormBringer
Posts: 2,218 +0
Ditto to what Phant said. Making smaller partitions makes for faster access as well as easier maintanence. It also reduces fragmentation because only the partitions that get a lot of activity get fragmented very fast. Moving the pagefile to its own partition will greatly reduce fragmentation, as well as having a dedicated partition for CD assemblies for burning CDs.
Here is how my main machine's drives are partitioned. I have two 60GB drives:
C: OS and Applications(this is stuff like Office that stays installed)
D: Games and Programs(stuff that I don't keep installed)
E: Movies and Music
F: User Data
G: Downloads
H: CD Assemblies and Photoshop scratch disk
S: Pagefile
Some people set theirs up a little differently but it will give you an idea.
Here is how my main machine's drives are partitioned. I have two 60GB drives:
C: OS and Applications(this is stuff like Office that stays installed)
D: Games and Programs(stuff that I don't keep installed)
E: Movies and Music
F: User Data
G: Downloads
H: CD Assemblies and Photoshop scratch disk
S: Pagefile
Some people set theirs up a little differently but it will give you an idea.
Phantasm66
Posts: 4,909 +8
Yeah, a seperate swap partition (located nearer the beginning of the drive, where data access is faster) is a very good idea. Since its a single file, it NEVER gets fragmented.
Yes, I am very much in favour of partitioning. Indeed, I'm strongly in favour of multiple hard drives in all machines as well. I never build a machine of my own with only one hard drive, work machines included.
You need to have a good think about a good plan for your hard drive space. There are always a great number of different ways to organise your partitions but in general I would say that the purely logical seperation of operating system/program files and user data files goes without saying.
If you want any help with a partitioning scheme please post here and we will discuss it....
Yes, I am very much in favour of partitioning. Indeed, I'm strongly in favour of multiple hard drives in all machines as well. I never build a machine of my own with only one hard drive, work machines included.
You need to have a good think about a good plan for your hard drive space. There are always a great number of different ways to organise your partitions but in general I would say that the purely logical seperation of operating system/program files and user data files goes without saying.
If you want any help with a partitioning scheme please post here and we will discuss it....
StormBringer
Posts: 2,218 +0
The Swapfile partition was actually my second partition, but I changed the drive letters for my own convenience after the fact.
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