500GB HDDs, what size partitions did you make, if any ?

I'm thinking either:

250+250 (OS and programs + games setups)

or

100+150+250 (OS and programs + games installed + games setups)

 

I would go for the latter.

 

I would put whatever you want installed to onto one partition, and then another one for data that you want kept separate in case of reinstall.

Games sometimes still put stuff onto the main (C:\) partition even though you specify for it to be on the other. That is more work for the HDD as it needs to move farther into the disk (which is slower) than if it was all installed onto the same partition and potentially kept closer together.

 

^ yes, the last partition will be only for setup-ing stuff. The choice for 3 partitions came because I wanted to leave the first (fastest) partition for software only, and move the games to a slower place

but as far as I can see, up to the first 250GB the speed drops with 10 to 15% only. The drop after the 250GB mark becomes more significant

 

60+90+350 would be my choice.

Vista Business to 60GB
Windows 7 to 90GB
movies + mp3 to 350GB..


--

 

call me new fashioned, but I put it all in one.

Look at the throughput graphs of any drive and you see the stuff at the begining goes a lot faster... pushing your data further along that curve will only make your machine slower.

 

60~100GB for the OS partition, rest of it split anyway you like.
Therefore , your second option is better.

 

one thing is that some games must be installed on same partition as the OS

 

Yes and a lot of Adobe programs must have SOME of the program installed on the OS partition.

 

250 GB for game setup? What kind of garguantun setup files do the games you play have? Or is this copying the entire DVD's to the hard drive so you don't have to swap physical discs? Otherwise I don't even know why you'd want a drive for game setup. Movies taking 250 GB perhaps if you have a lot of DVDs, or programs if you have a ton of programs, but otherwise that's a ton!

I also think the OS partition estimates are way too high. Even for Vista, 25 GB should be plenty to be safe forever on an OS partition. Keep it at the front since you need the OS to be fast, and put your most-used programs on it - web browser, Office, any programs you use all the time. Maybe 30 GB depending on how much space those programs would take up. Then a program partition, and probably a data one. But the proportions of those really depend on how much of each you have. For me a 5:3 Programs ata ratio is about right, but that would change a lot if I had all my movies on my hard drive, and 6:2 would be right if I had none.

What it comes down to is you are the best judge of what you'll need. Estimate it with your current My Documents/Program Files/etc. usage, and add a bit of extra padding where you think you're most likely to underestimate.

I've yet to run into any games that require OS partition installation myself, and I've got a good 1.5 dozen or so installed. Some require files on the OS drive, but it's usually fairly light (the exceptions being .NET frameworks, which you'll only need once per .NET version). AIM is the only program I've encountered yet that didn't have the courtesty to ask. Which games in particular are we talking about?

 

I did 400gb for vista and 100gb for ubuntu but I think I'm gonna reduce the ubuntu partition size to 50gb as I need 79gb to install X-plane and all the scenery files...

 

I have decided to go with 250+250.

reason is that the setup stuff that I have will be most likely accessable one time for the installation only, while the installed stuff has to work as fast as possible I guess. And then, I could eventually clone the first partition to a 256GB SSD when those become cheaper and perform fine.

just a small problem arose when I realized that I have ~370GB worth of games and ~40GB worth of programs, both as setups Dang, I have lots of stuff ... I may have to buy another 500GB HDD. I'm having now 3 external HDDs (100, 160, 250 GB) + the 500GB that will be my system HDD.

 

Hi.

I always use 1/3 C: - 2/3 D: , and have for years.

John.

 

30 OS, 30 Appls, Rest Data (I have my documents point at Data drive)

 

1 partition OS+all rest

 

I too stick everything on one for simplicity's sake.

 

I have tried 2, but always go back to 1 with some good Acronis Image backups