Pros and Cons of Partitioning a HDD

Hi all,

Was sitting here wondering what the pros and cons are of partitioning a HDD as I dont have much experiance with it.
I have experiance with fdisk and format useing FAT32 but am unsure about trying to partition. As well I have only a 20 gig maxtor HDD and do not know if it is really worth a partition at that size. I was thinking maybe 10gig, 5gig, and 5gig, the 5's would be used for storage. Can I run programs form one of the 5's? Or do they have to run from the partition with the OS on it? Any help/comments would be greatly appreciated.


Regards,
FireDancer

 

Christer,

The thought popped into my mind, like with the set up you have just made mention of in your post, I wanted a my OS and applications on the C: and storage for my pics and personal files on D: and then I wanted to have a E: for my backups only. I am currently useing ATI (Acronis True Image).

I have only a 20 gig HDD though and right now as it stands I havent even used 2 gigs of it and thats with all my apps and the OS.. so I belive I have more then enough room to do what I want I am just not sure how to go about it. I will give it some more thought and see if I can find some material on partitioning. I am not sure about how to enter the numbers in for the partitions when actually doing it. Thanks you so much for your post though it has given me a little insight

What I need to do now is find out how to section the HDD up
so that I am not wasting space as you suggested or leaving my self short.


Regards,
FireDancer

 

I would partition your drive something like this;

The C partition would be about 12 gigs.
The "New" D partition would be the remaining 8 gigs.

I would do this with only one thing in mind.

BACKUP.

Probably the most important thing to do.

Using Powerquest's Drive Image you can create an "Image File" on your D drive as a backup of your entire OS, programs ect. Done quick in one shot. Restores easily from floppy discs if Windows will not boot.

Also, if you create new things or download new apps ect.....Back them up to the D drive as well by just dragging and dropping them over to the D drive.

This is so if the Windows goes down you can restore the Image and you also have your recent backups that you can tranfer back over to your C drive (from the D drive) if you have a catostrophic Windows crash.

Try using Powerquest's Partition Magic to chop up (Partition) the drive.
Remember, the three most important parts of computing........

Backup, Backup, Backup.

Dale

 

As far as I am personaly concerned there are no cons to partitioning.

The main idea of partitioning is to get the OS on its own partition and EVERYTHING else on another. Not only does it seem to make thing work better but keeps all programs and their data ( or most of it ) in a safer place.

I will repeat what I wrote ( or close to ) in another thread.

Any and all forms of backups and downloaded things should be stored on other than the partition with the OS. Preferably on an other device altogether if possible.

I can not think of any better reasons for partitioning.

With a 20gig I would make it 4 to 6gig ( 4gig for 98. 6gig for XP )and either leave the rest in one chunk or divide it.

 

I use four partitions with this strategy easily understood by the volume labels on each drive:
C: System
D: Programs
E: Backup
F: Temp
My C: drive contains my 98SE OS, IE and OE installations. While other programs will work fine installed on different partitions, IE and OE puts most of their files onto C:, even if you choose to install them on another partition, so I have them installed onto C: into their default locations.
Installing programs onto another partition usually just involves changing the C: to D: [C:\Program Files\Install Folder to D:\Program Files\Install Folder].
The real advantage of installing programs onto a drive other than C: is that in case you need to format C:, any data on another partition is not affected by the format. But then they would have to be installed onto the newly installed OS to get the info into the registry, usually not losing anything in the process.

 

I should have added why only 2 partitions earlier;

For the ease of using the computer.

Not all of us have total and sole use of the computer. My wife, and 2 daughters also use my machine. "IF" they download or install something, it's easy to know where it has to be installed.
On the C drive.

For me, all the backups and Drive Images go to my backup partition.

Quite simple to use.

Windows and everything else on the C drive........All backups to the D drive.

It's actually the E drive in my case as I dual boot WinMe and XP.
So three partitions for me. My E drive has root directory backups for both OS's and also Drive Image's of both.
Simple is nice.

Dale

 

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replys I have decided to go with 3 seperate partitions... C: for OS IE and IO, D: for applications/software and personal files,
and E for nothing but back ups and HDD Imaging... If I understand right I can install all my applications such as my fire wall and what not to D: and still have them run right correct?


I am not sure I follow MarkP62's instructions on changeing the C to D. Is that something I have to do my self like...
creating a folder in the D: (D:\programfiles\install folder)?
and then when I run the app to install it just direct it to that folder?

I was thinking about C: being 8 gig D: being 6 gig and E: 6 gig
and that would automaticly make the CD-RW F: correct? I appologize for lack of knowledge in this area if I am not understanding correctly. And I guess I gonna need to fdisk and re format to achieve this

When you partition do you need to actually put in a determined number for the partitions or a %.. how does that work (determining size) of the partition?

Again thanks for the help
regards,
FireDancer

 

When you install a program, most give you the option of which folder to install to. By default, it would be C:\Program Files\NameOfFolder. To install onto another partition, I found it easy just to change the drive letter, and leave the rest.

 

I have an 80-Gig drive in all four of my home-office computers. They are all partitioned as follows:

5-Gig C for OS
1-Gig D for user-created data that subject to frequent changes
Remainder is E for long-term storage of large programs and any user-created files not subject to frequent changes.

At two-hour intervals, all D drives are synchronized via a batch file run from the Windows task scheduler. Also in the same batch, all data on D is copied to a 750-Meg zip disk that is always in the machine. At 24-hour intervals, all E drives get the same treatment.

At two- to four-week intervals, drive C is imaged to E on all systems. This makes a complete restore of a system from a major OS crash doable in twenty minutes or less.

The goals here are all aimed at data security. The separate partitions make data storage and backup easy and simple and it keeps my data separate from the OS. Batch files run on the scheduler duplicates it on all four systems, making it more difficult to lose. Storing an image of C on E makes recovery from a major OS disaster a simple, quick and easy process.

 

I agree to that being the MAIN goal.

BB

 

Partitioning is very personal. Size depends upon what OS you're running, applications loaded, and backup progam (if any).

I'm running XP on an 80 GB hard drive. My partitions are:
C: 12 GB (NTFS), XP and Programs only
D: 50 GB (NTFS), DATA only
E: 15 GB (FAT32), Image files only

Data on D can be backed in any of several manners. No need to image. I only image C. E is of sufficient space to have several images.

There is no created data files on C that I need as such except my address book, favorites, and e-mail, which I back to D on a regular bais. My Documents has no documents or data files. It does have links to folders and files actually located on D. I send the shortcut of the folder to the desktop. I then drag that folder into My Documents.

My Data on D doesn't change radically. It's no big problem to back it up with a CD R or RW disc.

 

All items mentioned above are on other partitions than C: on my machine. In fact on this machine they are on another ( slave ) HD completely.

With MY Docs being over on another partition I do not need to be so concerned if some program does but stuff in there.

As to the Address Book it is rather tuff with OE. But by using Eudora ( or something other than OE ) it is VERY easy.

MY Web page files and all sofware used in working with it are on a partiton other than C: And they are backed up on the Slave drive.

BillyBob

 

To back the OE address book, I back it as OTHER ADDRESS BOOK > Text (Comma Separated Value). It essentially creates an Excel file. It uploads to Hotmail really easily and quickly.


As for keeping My Documents on another partition, I found it to be more trouble than it's worth. For me, it's easier to just keep shortcuts to a bunch of folders on D.

Some of those folders are located in directories and subdirectories for which others might make full partitions: Graphics, Movies, MP3s, etc. I just use a singe partition for all my data.

 

Transferring the My Documents and Favorites folders to another partition and making those locations the default is easy.

Open Windows Explorer to the drive where My Documents is located, but do not open My Documents. Now open another copy of Windows Explorer to the drive where you want the new default to be. Drag the My Documents folder from its current location to the new location and confirm you want to Move, as opposed to Create a Shortcut or Copy.

Windows will automatically reindex the default to the new location.

The same works for Favorites.

 

One reason that I moved My Dociments to the slave drive is so that I can use the same folder if I need to plug my Win98 SE HD back in.

Favorites for the same reason.

BB

 

Good reason, BB. Like I said, partitioning is very personal.