HDD partitioning questions

Hi everyone,

I wasn't entirely sure where to put this thread, since I will be discussing Windows Vista and XP, but primarily hard drive partitions, so I figured it would be safe here.

Here's the deal. I'm getting XP Home soon to dual-boot alongside my Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I've got a 250GB hard drive in my notebook (see sig). At the suggestion of a friend, I'm wanting to try creating multiple partitions on my single hard drive to house various types of data, sized according to my need. The reasons include (A) faster defragmenting on each of the partitions, (B) reduce fragmentation on lesser-used partitions, (C) create a setup, if possible, so that all my data can be read and written to by both XP and Vista 64 (excepting, of course, 64-bit apps, which only Vista 64 will handle). Here is what I'm thinking:

- Vista Ultimate 64 OS partition

- XP Home OS partition

- Programs (x64 and x86) partition

- Documents partition

- Audio partition

- Video partition

- Pictures partition

If I attempt this project, will it work like I am hoping (and he says) it will? Will it help reduce fragmentation, speed up defragmenting, and allow Vista and XP to "share" the data (programs, documents, etc.) partitions? Would I be better off just doing only XP and Vista OS partitions and copying the necessary data to them?

Thanks in advance; this is my first attempt at such a complex project, so I am glad for any advice that can be offered!

 

I have a few thoughts.

1. I would lump all your "media" partitions you listed (documents, audio, video) into one partition. I don't see any point in separating them out into three separate partitions, when you can have one partition and three separate folder structures. I think this will end up causing more of a headache because with three partitions you are going to have to always be aware of the space utilization and may have to be constantly re-sizing your partitions accordingly.

2. I don't know if you'll be able to get your programs to work under both OSs on the same partition. I could be wrong, but for example if you install a program and XP, how is Vista supposed to know its there? The only way I could think that could happen is if you installed it over the top of it in Vista. I'm not sure if this would be an ideal situation. In addition, managing user settings between the two OSs may be troublesome using one programs partition.

I say follow the KISS policy as much as possible. I would say go for this:

1. XP Partition, including programs.
2. Vista Partition, including programs.
3. Media partition, including documents, audio and video data.

Hope this helps!

 

I suppose I was going for a "shared" programs partition because of some wild idea I got while using Vista 64. I noticed that it creates a separate x68 directory for 32-bit apps, so I guess I was thinking that, if Vista can do that, maybe it could read a separate partition of programs that are shared with XP. I have heard (possibly misunderstood) that a Mac and Windows-BootCamp can share a partition to hold common data, so I'm assuming that, if the Windows OS's use the same File System structure (NTFS), they should be able to, as well... unless the way programs install differently from plain multimedia and documents is the key issue... Of course, the Mac thing may only be similar to what you suggested about the single Media partition...

That might not be a problem, since I am the only one who uses this notebook, and plan to be for the forseeable future. I actually just shut off whatever user controls I can and just let myself be the "all-powerful Administrator."

So, basically, it looks like the deciding factor is whether Vista and XP can share a partition for programs, which is separate from their OS partitions. Anyone else care to weigh in on this? I know many people would say "Use separate hard drives," and that would eliminate all the trouble, but that option is not really available to me with this single-drive notebook (I guess).

 

What benefit do you think you'll get if you share a programs partition?

When I mentioned the user settings issue I think it still applies for the single user. Say you have two users with the same name in Vista and XP. If you store the programs on the same partition, and there are OS level or user level permissions stored in this directory structure one OS my always overwrite the others.

In addition, how would you expect one OS to know a program is available in this partition if the other OS installs it? Are you going to install it over the top so both OSs are aware? What about in the case where you want to uninstall a program and you uninstall it from one OS, which removes files, but the other OS cannot uninstall it because the proper files are missing?

I really think it would be less of a headache to put your programs in each respective OS partition.

Just my two cents though.....

 

Centinul,

You have some good points, there. As it turns out, your questions to me are the same ones I'm actually trying to ask, except you worded them better than I could think to.

Are there, in fact, any reasonable benefits to creating these multiple partitions? My friend says that there are, which I mentioned in my first post, and I can imagine that they might be true, but as you have been pointing out, the biggest problem in trying to share programs between OS's is whether they will be discovered or not, and whether the what one OS does will be consistent with the other.

Before my friend mentioned to me that he always makes multiple partitions for various things, I had never considered multiple partitions, thinking it was best to keep things all in one place (not counting folders, of course; I'm a folder junkie). His suggestion is very new to me, and I'm just trying to find out if it is worth all the hassle. I'm beginning to doubt it, especially since Auslogics Disk Defragmenter seems to be able to work through even my 250GB drive in a very short time compared to Windows' Disk Defragmenter.

 

Yes there are benefits; for example, say you have one partition will all of your data organized through folders. Say something happens and you need to do a clean install, there goes all your data. With partitions, you can simply just restore the partition rather than the whole drive. Now yes youll have to reinstall everything, but all that means is you have to rerun all your .exes, rather go and find them all again and run them.

I agree with Centinuls' suggestion about 3 partitions; each OS gets in own partition, EVERYTHING else goes onto one partition and is sorted through folders. As Centinul pointed out, you may have to resize a few times if you have too many partitions.

Another thing to think about is how big will each partition be? This will depend on what your are doing; if you game, you will need bigger OS partitions for games that need to be installed and make registry edits, while games like WOW ( at least the private servers ) can run from one directory no matter the partition.

Also for sharing programs, I dont think that will work; best thing to do is make sure you have version of said program thats compatible with the selected OS ( whether it be Vista, XP, or both ) and install it to each OS partition you plan to use it on.

Also, XP Pro >> XP Home IMHO

 

NAS Ghost and Centinul, thank you both for your input. I just got my XP disc today, so I plan to do some heavy-duty computer reorganizing tomorrow. I'll make sure to give XP and Vista their own abundant partitions, and put everything else on a separate one. Thanks for talking me through this and helping me better understand about the way partitions work with OS's. +1 Rep for each of you!

Oh, and NAS Ghost, while I might generally agree with you about XP Pro VS Home, my particular need does not require XP Pro; everything that Pro would give me, I have on Vista Ultimate 64. XP Home will simply be an offline gaming boot.

 

Wait wait wait...your using XP just so you can game offline?

 

Yep. I'm a Web Designer, so I need features like MS IIS, which comes with XP Pro and Vista. I ordered my Sager notebook with Vista Ultimate 64-bit, so I could have everything I need for my Web Design stuff, school, and what gaming I'll do with Vista. However, I don't have many recent PC games, the most recent being Phantasy Star Universe, and the one before that being Myst 5: End of Ages. Most of my favorites will work on Vista 64-bit fine, but many of my games are much older, and do not work right in Vista 64. I want to keep 64-bit Vista, so I'm going with a simple XP Home dual-boot to handle my games, and keep Vista 64 for work, school, and whatever else I feel like doing with it.