XPS partition

Im getting a laptop with 320GB HDD. So Im thinking about making at least one (if not two) partitions out of it to make it easier for me to work with all that space. I would like to make one partition for all the installations and program files plus Vista x64. 100GB should be enough. I still want to ask though, is there any difference in speed of the system, since it will be working with "smaller" parts of the system or does it make no difference at all... plus what is going to happen if that 100GB will be running out of space (e.g.only 1GB free left). is it going to slow down my system the same way full HDD does? thank you

 

can anybody help please?

 

Partitioning's affect on performance is minimal I would say. I like to partition to keep my personal files (documents, music, photos etc..) separate from my OS and apps. If Windows goes kablooey all your personal files are safe from disaster, pending it's not a HDD issue. You just reformat your C: drive and everything on D: (or whatever letter your data partition is) is untouched. I think it also helps with fragmentation. But I still suggest defragging once a week or so if you do a lot of installing/uninstalling or get updates.

100GB is what I have for Vista on my laptop and it seems to be a good size. I have a few games installed, some Adobe apps, Office 2003, Kaspersky and other utilities of varying sizes. Right now I have a little over 50% free space on C:

Hope that helps.

 

Og forgot, you may want to move the paths to your Personal Folders (Music, Pictures, Documents...) in Vista to your data partition. You can find a guide to do that here:

http://www.tweakhound.com/vista/tweakguide/page_4.htm

 

* One partition is the absolute minimum, no partitions = no files

* No, working with partitions will not slow down.

* I always have 2 partitions:
C for windows and other programs (60GB is more than enough, 200GB disk)
D for data like documents, images, music, movies, ...
(With Powertoys for XP you can change default location of documents and images)

EDIT: damn Thund3rball was too fast

EDIT 2:

From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning)

 

Heh heh

Good point about the MFT though. I think Windows reserves something like 15% of its partition for the MFT. So a 250GB partition will have ~30GB MFT reserved space. This function is obviously left over from when HDDs were much smaller than they are now. An MFT will never need 30GB. On a 100GB partition this will be about 15GB. As the partition fills up the MFT reserved space will get used just like normal drive space. Looking at your partition using something like JK Defrag you will likely see a big gap or pink area where there is no files. That's the reserved space.

 

I always set up partitions. Currently on my M1730 I have......

C: (35GB) - Vista and all programs - stil lhave over 20GB spare so this is more then enough for me!
E: (10GB) - For my documents (Office stuff etc).
F: (100GB) - Multimedia - for all my photos and video clips. Also work in progress area for any home movie DVDs Im making
G: (100GB) - Game installations

Still have over 120GB unallocated for future partitions as and when needed.

I have created a backup image of the C: - so should that ever fail I can whack the image back on and be up and running in around 20 mins.

I backup E and F partitions onto a 500GB external HDD.

Dont bother backing up G since I have all original game discs should they ever need re-installation.


This setup has never let me down