Why partion your hard drive?

Hi guys,


Just a quick questions to all you experts out there.....at work i use a dell D800 latitude....for processing data...3d stuff....mind u this is not the best processing laptop.....but i have to deal with what they give me...it has 64 mb deticated video card and one gig of ram.....still lags a lot, application like outlook take forever to open. My question is this...i read in a few places that partioning your hard drive would help improve the performance of the computer....i.e one partion for your OS, one for your applications and one for data. I actually have read quite a few articles on this and have done similar to my own laptop at home....runs real smooth.....however the IT guys at my work tell me that partioning is just for organization. Now i'm not allowed to mess with the laptop myself......IT has to do any modifications. Now my question is...is that really true...or are they just BSing me to get out of doing it. I thought I come verify the answer before I make a scene at work. Any input form you guys would be greatly appriceated. Thanks in advance.

 

I've ran it both ways, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference to me. The nice thing about having your data on a second parition is that if you re-install windows you won't loose your data on the second partition. Provided of course that the reason you are re-installing is not that your hard drive failed.

 

Yeah i find it heaps easier to find data when its partioned into parts.

 

I dont think there will be any performance boost due to a partitioned HDD. Its more for ease of use rather and file organization.

 

its easier to maintain, but you lose alot of storage space if you do, its better to have 1 partition per HDD, i know alot of companies make a recovery partition on the HDD with the OS and they DONT give you a recovery CD/DVD which is absolutly retarted since if you lose your HDD you lose all your data, your recovery data, your copy of the OS you purchased and pretty much everything else.

 

What about file cluster size? I heard that that changes as the partitions get bigger. Is that true?

 

Partitioning one hard drive gives you no performance boost. Its still the same data on the same drive just separated. Its bascily useful only for multiboot systems. I tried using it to separat my files, but that became really annoying. Three drives for one OS is really annoying when your installing stuff, and besides what do you do when you run out of space on one partition and have plenty left on another? yea, partition magic will work but I hate that pieces of crap.

 

hi guys,

thanks for all your input.....when wanting to have my hard drive partioned...i wasnt expectiong my comp to have some miracles performance boost.......what i thought...i don't know if this makes sense....but when i process my data...i'm constantly linking...back and forth to certain files....i thought maybe if the hard drive had a smaller search radius...then maybe my computer would not lag so much......it was a thought....the reason i wanted to confirm this was the IT guys at my work are not the most energetic bunch......always on a break when i need something to be looked at........

 

I think partitioning might help when your HD starts getting fragmented. I'm not sure if it works for one HD or you have to have a second HD, but keeping a partition for files which are often changing like a downloads folder will keep the rest of your HD or your other HD from becoming fragmented and thus slowing you down. when accessing stuff on it. Of course the partitioned off area will still become fragmented, but it will be easier to defragment just one partition than the whole drive.

 

Partitioning provides no performance boost.

There really is no reason to partition a notebook drive these days with the advent of vmware and virtual pc.

It is easier to keep one defragmented.

It also does not help with backup/restore to have windows on one partition and the data on another. If you use Ghost or similar program, it's easier to setup just once routine to backup and restore. More piece of mind.

 

Sorry i have to disagree with this one....Partitioning a notebook HDD is much easier than keeping one big clump of HDD space. If importaint files needed to be kept then its kept on a different Partition than the one Windows is installed on. With Ghosting its much much easier to just ghost the Windows partition with out having to move all your importaint data to either CD or DVD.

 

Xplodin,

To each their own, but I have never seen a case where having multiple partitions leads to faster restroration/recovery. In fact, it always takes longer.

If you could provide scenarios to the contrary, I'd being interested in hearing them.

 

Well one possible use for a partition is dual booting for a backup. I usually keep one partition fat 32 and install windows ME on it so that older programs incompatible with 2000 can still be run. Also if there happense to be a problem with 2000 I have a backup operating system I can use to download drivers, search forums for info, etc...
Finally the benefit of having a partition is you can reformat just the partition that is acting up, so you can reinstall the OS without having to backup all your data to cds.

 

Mike,

I would have to agree with Xplodin on this one. If you were to take into account all the time needed to backup/transfer out all your data before the re-image and then transfer the data back when done, it would be longer. If seperated into 2 partitions, and the data is kept on the 2nd partition, you can perform a restore of the 1st partition and have your data immediately available after the restore is complete. You can even keep a copy of the image on your 2nd partition for an even faster restore.

But, with that said, the overall time to just perform the restore/re-imaging of the HDD in a partitioned HDD vs no partition HDD would have no speed difference. It would not take any longer to restore since the image is still the same size in both cases. It will restore the data and then auto increase/expand the partition to the required size. It is easier to maintain a drive with only one huge partiton. You will never come across a case where one partition will run out of space while the other is 80% free. Having the drive with 100% of the space is better if you download or create a lot of data (video capture, etc...) as you never really have to worry about a partition running out of space (unless your drive is full).

I personally don't like to partition my drives. I find it easier to locate my files when I only have to search in 1 drive letter.

-Vb-

 

Hello everyone, I am new here to the forums

Well, I am a computer technician, I work in the IT Department.

Partitioning you hard drive is for organization, and does not improve system performance. It is useful for having two operating systems on the same computer.

I have my laptop's hard drive partitioned, one partition with Windows XP X64 Professional Edition, the other with XP Home. It works very well.

 

I agree with the dual-boot scenario, but with the advent of vmware and virtual pc, there is little need to do this, unless you really want to boot to the other OS natively for some reason. I just think the need for this has gone away for the most part.

If you reinstall the OS, your need to reinstall the applications as well. That is the real time consuming issue, the data is not, esp. if you keep files in a logical places (ex. all under My Docs, etc.)

 

VB,

While I understand what you are saying, I still disagree; it's not just the OS, but also the application you need to reinstall, and configure to point to the new partition, instead of just the default (ex. my docs). That takes most of the time; copying over your data files is not.

I agree you could store your image on the second partition, (ex. if you ghost it and keep it updated), but I see that as problematic if the drive dies; better to keep that on another physical disk for fault tolerance.

Again, to each their own; I used to partition, but now with the way applications install, along with the use of vmware/virtual pc, I see no need for it. Also, if the drive fails, it fails. Partitioning doesn't help that, which to me is a big issue. I also don't like to run out of space on a partition (which happens quite a bit / forces you to do extra disk management).

 

Is there any advantage of having your page file on a separate partition? alot of people say this makes the OS more efficient?

 

Hell Raiser,

No, it won't because the page file is still on the same HDD. If it was on a completely seperate HDD (not partition), then it would make things go faster.

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Mikec,

Having an image of your OS with apps already installed and saved on the second partition would greatly shorten restore times. Even having an image of your base OS and then manually installing all apps and drivers will still be faster than backing up your data, installing your OS, apps & drivers and then restoring all your data.

Changing the default location of your My Douments folder in XP only takes approx 30 seconds. You just need to change it for the OS, the apps will read the new location from the system, so there's no need to make any change to the apps itself.

Keeping a Ghost type image of your system is probably the best method to restore a system with all the data located on a different partition. A system could be restored and there would be no worries that any data would be lost. This image can then be backed up on a DVD and made bootable so you can restore at anytime. As I indicated above, a ghost image can be made of a base OS (no drivers, no software, etc...) as drivers & software may change. But if you have Ghost, you can also use the AI Builder to make an image of each software pack installed in the system. This will allow you to restore 1 or all of your software within minutes. No config of folder locations necessary as the AI Builder will record all changes made to the software/settings and will make the same change upon restore.

But as you indicated, to each their own, and your right, but I just wanted the other readers to understand both sides before making a decision. Both will work, but it also depends on your needs. I myself, like you, don't partition my hard drive, but the partition/ghost image method would make a restore process much shorter.

-Vb-

 

Everything you wanted to know about Hard Drive partitions-

partitioning strategies

 

Everything you wanted to know about Hard Drive partitions-

http://partition.radified.com/

 

Partitioning a harddrive WILL give passive performance boost and lower maintanence cost...
If you partion your HDD into say 2 partitions, C and D.
You install Windows into C, and everything else into D.
And you set all your working directory into D.

Then your C drive will not get defragment that often, and would be easier for Windows.
A messy partition with **** loads of defragmented files will dratiscally reduce program load time boot up time.

At home my setup is
C: Windows & MS Programs
D: 3rd Party Programs
E: Downloads and other stuff

I turned on Indexing Service for C:, Defrag it, and fixed the Paging file size. C: gets nearly no fragmentation after running it for half a year. Fragmentation was caused by temporary files from TEMP folder and Internet Explorer Temp Files...

And if you ever need to reinstall windows, then all your program settings are in D drive, so you won't forget to back up your settings eventho you format C. You can always retrive it later.

 

Having the applications in a seperate drive will not save all the required settings. Most settings are stored in the system registry like app location, app/driver files, etc... Wiping your HDD will still require you to re-install your apps as you will loose all the registry settings.

-Vb-

 

Well okay it could help speed up defragging, but thats assuming you rarely defrag. A seperate partiation would just allow you to defrag a smaller area. A better method would be to have a program defrag in the background everyday during idle.

Partitioning also does help when doing system restores but again there are similar but better methods. Partition the hard drive only protects the contents from a partion wipe, not a har drive crash. Having a larger second hard drive would be a better solution. That drive could be partitions to recieve daily backups (the kind where only new information is backed up) and organization. Plus unlike partioning the master drive, having selected tasks performed on a seperate drive will yield better performance.

Yon't don't even need anything real fancy. A basic internal desktop hard drive put inside a USB or Firewire inclosure box. Then get a thumb drive (you should already have one) so you can have that instant backup where ever you go; laptop or not.

Also you might want to create a custom XP recovery CD. Just like the big boys do. Or if you don't have an actual XP cd, make a bootable image of your hard drive. After all, you really should be making image backups anyway.

 

I always partition my drives for several reasons:

1) Primarily because if I have to reload Windows I do not want to lose files, downloads, documents, etc. Does this protect against a drive failure--of course not, that is what backing up is for. It is simply another layer of safety that is very easy to do and requires only that I remember to save everything in the D: drive. Since I have been doing this for at least 7 years it is second nature to me and is not inconvenient at all.

2) For my larger drives it is simply for organization. Internet apps here, multimedia apps there, newsgroup readers and associated downloads on another partition. Will I have to reinstall the app if C: get corrupted--of course. No big deal and many times my settings are still there. Not everything is slave to the registry, it seems.

3) Control: if I run out of space on a partition that tells me it is time to get rid of some garbage that, if left on its own, would eventually grow until it affects the operating system by maxing out the C:. In fact, my friend that has a single partition did exactly this just last week.

I will always partition my drives and it has save my data from an OS corruption several times.

--k