Partition or not

usually in the past when i setup my pcs I just have 1 big drive C:

is it more efficient / faster if you partition it into like 2 drives ex. C: and E:? or is it simply a matter of organizing neater?

 

I like it neater in 1 big drive but it is actually easier if you have 2 drives. If you catch a virus, you can simply put all your system files in C so when you re-install, Only C would get destroyed. And you want to put all your own precious files in D or something.

 

I believe it is a little faster. However it was too much of a hassle for me so I decided to only have on drive.
Tim

 

It is extremely beneficial if you ever need to reformat and reinstall windows. That way you wouldn't need to recopy all of your music or other huge groups of files. I find it very handy...if you have the spare time.

 

if you only have one drive but want to partition, there is a live cd that runs linux off a disk called gparted live and you can try it out. i used it to resize my partitions.

 

external drive

 

Partitioning one drive with more than one partition is extremely useful if you do not have access to more than one drive for data storage. This way, as mentioned above, you can re-install your operating system without having to backup your data which would be stored on a separate partition on your drive. I see no benefits of multiple partitions on one drive if you have access to multiple drives. I would consider your options being either partitioning your main drive with multiple partitions if you don’t have access to an external drive or partitioning it to one partition if you can store your data on another (external) drive. Backing up any data and OS is a good idea if you can afford time and money into extra drives.

 

2 partitions is better. You can save all your data in a 2nd partition. The 1st partition is used only for Windows and application file. You can also create an image to 2nd partition by Ghost or Acronis. If your windows is crash, you can retrieve the image file to recovery your windows, then you don't need to format the hd and spend much time to reinstall everything.

 

I prefer having no partitions. I just dump all my files in there and dont have to worry about cleaning up( I think a no partition seup can be kept as organised as a partitioned setup). I also have an external drive, so I backup all my stuff in there and not bother about it when I reinstall Windows. So it depends on your situation and preference. Either way any advantage is pretty minimal and is more of individual preference.

 

I will put my vote in for partitioning also. Like all these guys said if you need to reformat, all your data is safe. Data should always be kept seperate from the OS. You can also 'move' your MyDocuments, My Pictures, etc so they point to the second partition. In the end you won't notice that it is on another partition, but will have that piece of mind.

 

I've got my system set up with one smallish partition for Windows, and then a big partition for programs, games and data. If I need to reinstall Windows, I basically don't need to manually move of backup a single file. Everything is already safe on my data partition.

 

You certainly have to make sure your small partition is large enough to fit Windows and future space Windows may take up, regardless if your programs are installed on a separate partition. The problem with this setup (IMO) is if you want to clone your Windows install to a new hard drive it will be messy because you installed all of your programs on a separate partition.

 

wouldnt it just be the program files that are on the other partition? If you imaged drive C: you'd still get all the registry and windows stuff. it would just take up less space and you'd have program files still safe on d:

Btw, is there a way to change the My Documents, My Music, My Videos, etc shortcuts so that when you click them it takes you to a folder on drive D:?

 

Yeah, right click your documents folder and change the target path.

 

lmao i shouldve figuredthat out by now. thanks

 

Aaah, that's where I'm ahead of the game...

I used NTFS's junction points (symlinks for you linuxheads) to redirect D:\Program Files (D is my OS partition) so it points to F:\Win32\Program Files (F is my huge data partition)
Done the same with Docs & Settings and my games folder

So I install everything to D:, but it ends up on F, and so D: just has to be big enough for installers to pass the "free disk space" check, otherwise they refuse to install.

Actually, this setup saved my butt a few months ago. The harddrive with my OS partitions died without a warning. I didn't lose *anything* other than the core OS. Still had all programs, games, even the stuff on my desktop, or in documents & settings. Literally, the only files I lost were the ones under D:\Windows

And once it's configured, it's so nice and easy because I don't have to change the drive letter when I install programs. I just let it use D: like it suggests, and it's automatically redirected.

 

I've never heard of NTFS junction points. This will give me something to learn about!

 

Look for hardlinks and junction points. Can't remember, one is for files, the other is for directories. They're just a slightly inferior version of Linux symbolic links, but eh, better than nothing.

In any case, you can grab a little command line tool called linkd.exe from Microsoft's website somewhere, and use that to create them
Or download Ntfs Link, a free 3rd party app that's a bit easier to use

It's a bit awkward to get everything set up though. First, I had to boot into a different OS to do it, because otherwise I couldn't move program files and docs & settings. So I moved them from within my secondary OS, created the links (which gets a lot harder if the drive letters are different in the other OS), and then it worked when I booted back into my main OS. Then I just had to make sure my OS partition was big enough. I think I made it 15-20GB, just to ensure enough free space to fool all installers into letting me install.