Should I partition my hard-drive? Please advice

Here is the situation: New laptop with 160Gb HD (its a SATA, 7200rpm Seagate. OS: Vista).


Now I'm wondering if I should partition the hard-drive, and if so into how many partitions and of which sizes.

Basically I don't know what to do perhaps someone knowledgable could make some recommendations based on what I'll be using the machine for, which primarily is:

-Academic work
-Music (about 20 gig)
-A couple of games (say about 15gig total)



I do not at the moment need to dual boot XP with Vista, but as far as I understand I could for instance keep the OS on one partition and my data, music and games on another for safety in case I'll have to reinstall the OS.

Also, since I'll likely only use relatively small part of my 160GB, at least for now, will there be benefits from for instance less search times, less fragmentation etc from partitioning?

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance!

 

Partitioning is a good idea and you are on the right track. Seperate Data and programs.

When you say search time what do you use to search? Google desktop search would search all the drives anyway so no real benefit since the amount of data it is searching is the same.

Fragmentation is a little less but all drives fragment over time.

Many advantige is to be able to format and reinstall the OS without losing data on the other partitions.

 

Thanks. So should I then keep a relatively small partition for the OS and a larger one for data?

I actually had a thought just now: with all the teething issues of Vista perhaps I should dual-boot with Ubuntu or something?

Wrt search times I meant how long it will take for the HD to locate any particular file or info. Especially on a fragmented, big HD with lots of unused space I imagine this will be an issue? (not that I intend to let my HD become fragmented )

 

i run a few partitions on my hard drive and i really haven't seen a big change in fragmentation. i do think it is a good idea to separate anything that you don't want to risk getting formated over, an external hard drive is always useful or some sort of network attached storage is useful for music. search times are more driven by drive performance than partition layout you shouldn't see any real change.

as for dual booting, i don't think you'd get any real use out of the other OS, unless you have a very good reason and some specific need to go with Ubuntu (which is great BTW) i wouldn't waste the space because you'll find yourself booting into whatever is easiest/most comfortable with. remember if you do load up a linux partition that you'll need to have a FAT32 partition for the files you want to share with windows because linux can only read from an NTFS partition and not write to one.

 

Agreed. And I want to keep things simple, so Vista it is since it comes with the computer.

What I'd really appreciate though is some advice on how to best partition the HD: -What sizes and how many partitions?

 

Check out the thread below. I highly recommend partitioning.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=132951

Some folks like 3 partitions but with my 160gb, I personally prefer a two partition HDD 50/50 because I have a and external HD. Without the external HD probably 40 (OS)/60 (files).

 

Thanks for the linky redzapper, it answered some questions for me.

Not sure I see the point of a 50/50 partition: wouldn't it be better to have say a 30 or maybe 40GB one for the OS and leave the second partition with at least 120+ for data?

 

Depends on how many programs you plan on installing and how much data you plan on having

50/50 is just a start for me and I plan to periodically review the split and shrink/expand the partitions as necessary.

 

He, smart man Dang I'm tired of thinking, think I'll just go for 50-50 too as I should have plenty of space anyways and adjust later if needed. Thanks for the help tho!

 

I like the 50/50 partition unless i know i have a need for more storage space on the other. remember the OS doesn't take up alot of space, but programs do. i would leave all the programs installed on the same partition as the OS, reason being if the OS crashes and you have to reinstall you'll have to reinstall most of the programs anyway. with 160GB to play with you could add more to storage, but remember if you're keeping 80+GB of data you might want to look into an external solution to have a back up. partitioning wont save you from a drive crash.

 

This is how I have my 100gb HD partitioned (96gb)

C ~ 15.3gb ~ Windows XP installation and exe installers of programs (4.9gb free)
G ~ 31.3gb ~ Game installations
M ~ 34.1gb ~ Music & video files and documents
P ~ 11.8gb ~ Programs

 

Good point. I don't have that much data really so I suppose I should make the larger partition the one with the OS and all programs.

What I was thinking though was to keep my music on a partition other than the OS because it is such as hazzle if I have to reinstall that. Would you know if I must then install iTunes on that partition or is it possible to have the "My Music" folder stored on a partition different from iTunes itself?

 

Are they downloaded with DRM? Could have trouble if you have to reinstall and iTunes thinks the tracks don't belong to you. If they are copied from CD like my music, that is a lot less pain

To answer your question, music can be on a different partition to your music player See my setup. You don't even need to install programs on the same partition as windows. If you download a program that turns out to be dodgy, that way windows is OK. But then again, it depends on how you want to organise things

 

Ok, cool, thanks LFC. My music is mostly from CD's but also downloaded with #**%! DRM, but there are ways around that apparently. Bloody annoying since it is mine and I have paid for it. Anyways...

I looked at you solution and think it looks neat, was thinking maybe I'll do something like:

1) OS and all programs, 40GB
2) Data, music, 40GB
3) Games, 80GB

So just like recommended in the 50-50 OS and programs on one partition and all data on the other, only make a separate partition for games because they are messy and tend to be reinstalled/ deleted more frequently than anything else. (The sizes aren't set in stone but I don't have many programs or data and games tend to be big)

What do you think?

 

Looks good. That is the reason I gave games it own partition - I have had to do so many updates with mods due to new transfers (Pro Evo - its soccer). Oblivion is another huge game for mods - that folder is 1gb - but I have yet to start playing it lol

In fact mods alone can be huge and far too messy to get mixed up with Windows and program files (especially if you have the internet speed to handle it )

 

Haha it's all about the mods, and at the same time they are the devil

One more thing: Are there any problems with installing for instance games in a partition separate from the OS? Is that why you put your exe installers for programs in the same partition as the OS?

 

To clarify:

On the 'C' partition there are no programs installed. I am talking about the installers - what is unzipped to actually install the programs. Y'know; installation wizards. I point the installers to the 'P' partition

No problems with games being on a different partition. Again, I do it mainly for organisation purposes as its easier to keep track of

 

That's what I wanted to hear, thanks, I really appreciate the advice