Partitions...

I'm curious about the use and need for partitions. I just did a clean install of XP and have been reading several discussions about partitioning the hard drive. I don't have much experience in this area, so I have some questions.

~ What is the significant purpose/advantage of partitioning?
~ How large should the partitions be?
~ How many partitions would a normal home use computer need?

My system has a 60gb drive, P4, 2.39ghz, 512 ram. After the OS install, system updates, and driver installations I have 2.61gb used and 53.2gb free (where'd the other 4.2 gb go?). Should I consider partitioning before reinstalling my other software, especially my childrens games, etc.?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help!

Shannon

 

A little info on where the rest of you harddrive space went.

 

thanks....

I had a hunch it was related to something along those lines and wasn't really too concerned about a few gigs. I'm really more curious and interested in the partitioning issue and whether this is something I should consider before proceeding with the rest of my software re-installations.

I appreciate the link very much. I always enjoy learning a bit more!

~Shannon

 

You are going to get a lot of opinions on this one, so I'll start with one.

I have partitions because I want storage of files and documents to be separate from the operating system. Making backups of the OS partition is easier and requires less space on CD's or my second hard drive.

Some will say that only the basic OS should be in one partition and programs installed to another partition. I disagree with this idea since all the registry entries for these installed programs will point to the other partition. If the OS partition needs to be reformatted and the OS reinstalled, all the programs will need to be reinstalled anyway.

So, I have the OS and all installed programs on one partition, and My Documents and all stored files on another partition.

NTFS allows for hard linking. There are a number of apps that will assist you in doing these (NT Toolkit from www.netikus.com or Junction from www.sysinternals.com ), but in a nutshell, if your Program Files folder were to become too large for the partition, you could move it to another partition, make a hard link, and XP would never know the folder had been moved. All the registry entries would still be correct. In this case, it might make sense to put your applications on a different partition so that the amount of space used on the OS partition would remain stable.

In addition to these partitions, I have a 2 gig FAT16 partition at the beginning of my second hard drive for a pagefile. FAT16 allows faster disk access than either NTFS or FAT32 and that is simply a system tweak. Imaging the OS partition does not create an image of the pagefile this way.

My only regret at this point is that I didn't set up my first hard drive as containing the OS and the storage partitions, and rerserve the second hard drive for images of those partitions and more storage.

Recently, I created a FAT32 partition on the first HD in order to have a dual boot with XP and ME for some games that just won't work in XP. Yes, I said, "ME ". I like ME better than 98, have had few problems with it, and am not in need of medical or psychiatric supervision (I think).

Generally speaking, create partitions when you have a good reason for doing so. Having 17 partitions doesn't really accomplish anything except to multiply the possibilities for problems.

And think in terms of what would happen if the worst came to pass. For example, I image my first hard drive onto the second. If the first failed, I'd still have the image and vice versa. Of course, the occasional backup to an external device is good, too, in case the whole system went south.

 

I like partioning.

ALL of my downloaded stuff is on another partiton. I sure would hate to have to re-download a few hundred meg of Golf files again.

All of my backups are on another partition.

My E-mail is entirely on another partition. ( I do not use OE )

Now do yourself a very big favor if you do partiton. When installing stuff get out the good old fashioned pencil and paper and make a list of what is where.

GREAT time saver

I did not do this but I sure wish to HELLO I had. When I had to redo an older machine a while back.

Computers are nice. But the pencil and paper are still very usefull.

And if you do make a list on the PC. Store it in a TEXT file on a partiton other than C:. Or even on a floppy.

BillyBob

 

Partitions are way useful....

I've used partitions since my first 286 allowed it.

All the stated reasons are valid. Separate partitions for System/Applications and Data (easier to backup). Separate partition for special appications, if you have a dig camera and store a lot of images, setup its own partition. Make it big.

But not mentioned is one partition I am surprised is not obvious. You NEED a separate partition for your CD/DVD WRITER, because you can keep all the working files in one place and not have them mix in with other stuff, especially if you are copying files from your hard drive to CD/DVD. It is way easier to load the files into that partion first, then setup the image. You also want to keep that partition clear after the CD/DVD is burned (don't need the files anymore). Make the size about 2 gb for CD's, and 12 gb for DVD's.

All told I have 4 partitions on my PC, C: System & Apps, D: Data files, E: CD/DVD Copy, and F: Graphics.

Why Microsoft doesn't make partioning easier to setup and change, as Partion Magic did, I'll never understand.