New Hard Drive - Partition, or not

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Just built a new computer with a 500GB (cache is 16) hard drive. Should I partition the drive, or just use it as is?

I've heard it is not necessary with the new drives to do this, is this correct?

Running XP home

[Sandmannd]

You shouldn't have to. But what I like to do is say make a 10 or 20 gig or whatever you want partition for your OS and programs. Then use the rest for your storage or whatnot. That way if your OS goes bad and you need to reimage, you don't have to worry about all your junk. Just reimage and load the programs and you're set.

[dudewheresmyboat]

agreed with sandmannd, i usually partition a single drive to two or even three separate partitions. It runs quicker and if it ever goes bad you don't lose all your info. 500gb takes a long time to format.

[IFallsRon]

My experience is that there's no advantage to partition but I'll qualify that by saying that advice is for Mac.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

You shouldn't have to. But what I like to do is say make a 10 or 20 gig or whatever you want partition for your OS and programs. Then use the rest for your storage or whatnot. That way if your OS goes bad and you need to reimage, you don't have to worry about all your junk. Just reimage and load the programs and you're set.

So is this your C drive then? What about the My Documents folder? Isn't that also on the C drive?

[wakeguy]

I like to partition for the reasons mentioned above but with the low cost on drives these days, I would be inclined to purchase as second drive (either internal or external) and mirror my important data across both drives. This way you are protected against hardware failure as well.

[upnorth]

Originally Posted By: Sandmannd

You shouldn't have to. But what I like to do is say make a 10 or 20 gig or whatever you want partition for your OS and programs. Then use the rest for your storage or whatnot. That way if your OS goes bad and you need to reimage, you don't have to worry about all your junk. Just reimage and load the programs and you're set.

So is this your C drive then? What about the My Documents folder? Isn't that also on the C drive?

You can create a folder/s and store data where ever you like. If you are brave enough you can fire up regedit and default the storage of personal data to a new folder any where you would like. You can find that info on Microsoft's site.

[Surface Tension]

I'd partition it. Its a place to save stuff that'll be there if you need to format and reinstall windows. When your not worried about losing stuff you'll be more apt to do a clean install.

IMO the time it takes to get rid of spyware or whatever off a system, you could have a clean install.

[loosegoose]

There isn't any performance or other reasons to partition a home computer hard drive. If the hard drive is going to fail you won't be able to access any of the partitions on the drive, unless is is a bad sector on the drive. Also if you partition the drive you are limited to the space you specify on each partition, and yes you will fill up your c: drive some time. If you're talking server then partitioning takes on a new meaning.

[upnorth]

If you have a complete disk failure, the partition will not save your files.

But the one thing that partitioning the hard drive does is keep your data separate for the Operating system and program files. If you get a virus you can format the OS partition and leave your data intact.

[Sandmannd]

Exactly the point Upnorth.

[BobT]

Wouldn't that depend on where the virus has taken up residence? If it has infected one of the data partitions, formatting the root may not remove it, right?

Bob

[PierBridge]

In rare occurrences yes, Bob.

I always partition the HD.... why would you want your OS and Files on the same partition?

Like stated above it makes it is easier to Re-install OS.

[BobT]

Admittedly I don't know much about partitioining but this thread has intrigued me.

How does partitioning work with user accounts? In my home PC I created a user account that we use. The only time I use the administrative account is for installing/uninstalling software along with other maintenance I do.

Bob

[upnorth]

The best way to setup partitioning is to do when you first install the disk. There is another way but I don't really recommend it.

[Sandmannd]

Partition magic is a good way to partition an already used HDD, but it is best to do before you load it up.

[BobT]

Thanks for the info.

Maybe I'll just leave things well enough alone.

Bob

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

So should my OS and all my programs be on the one partition? If so, how much space do I allow?

What about 3 partitions: one for the OS, one for the programs and the third for the data, or do the programs need to be where the os is?

[upnorth]

I would allow at least 10 gig for the OS and applications. Just virus definitions now days add up pretty fast.

And yes partition magic works.

[Sandmannd]

If you have a 500 gig drive and you give 50 gigs for your c: drive, that should be far bigger than you should need unless you plan on some heavy dudy apps. (I say that now, but twelve years ago I thought a 2 gig was huge and would never fill it) I usually don't go over ten for my OS and apps. I usually don't do a seperate partition for apps. Reason being is that then when you install them you have to point them to your second partition or D: drive. In theory this is good because if you do wipe your OS you will have all the data in your apps. You still have to reinstall them and point them back to the D drive, but you'll have your data. One think I know some do is give a partition to your OS, one for data and one for music. All depends on what you want to do. You can partition them as 500 - 1 gig drives if you want to.

[Whoaru99]

I leave mine all as one.

But, if you are going to do it, personally I wouldn't go more than two. I'd probably do 50GB for the OS and programs, the rest for data...if you're going to do it. 50GB is a lot for programs but, OTOH, it's only 10% of the drive.

There is no need to mess with the registry to change the location of My Documents. You can do it simply after the install. Go to the properties for My Documents by doing a right click and change/muve the target location to the second partition.

NOTE: If this is a Seagate or Maxtor 500GB (or larger) drive, read this. There is a firmware issue with some models that could result in not being able to read the data. You would want to update the firmware of the drive if you have one of the affected models....preferably before you put all your stuff on it.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I decided to leave it as one BIG drive.

Man is this thing fast! (for now)