partition or not to partition thats is the question

i am thinking of getting a ipod+itunes and if i download lots of music i am worried that it will slow my lappy,plus would it be a good idea to transfer my games to the partition so that start up and shut down is quicker?.
thx for any help.

 

I partition because I want to get rid of the Operating System I can do it without touching my data.

 

If you partition and put the o/s on the first partition,you will keep the system running fast as the first part of the hard drive can access data faster than traveling all through the drive


Alex

 

i think it's always a good idea to partition your drive just incase something goes wrong with your primary partition. generally i have my primary partition just for the operating system and programs and i have all my important data stored on the secondary partition. that way if anything goes wrong with windows i can easily do a system restore and have not lost anything important.

{+_666_+}

 

Think of it this way, would you rather have one huge drawer or a few smaller drawers for all your belongings?

 

I have just noticed that there is a small 10gig partition just for recovery,should i just extend the partition to 50/50.Thx for the posts so far.

 

I suppose what i am now asking is how much of the hard drive should i partition,it as a 250gig hard drive but only says 220gig in c.I think the op and recovery partition is taking the rest.Is a 50/50 the best way to go on c drive.

 

50/50 wouldn't be ideal, unless you have many large programs that would need +100 GB.

Normally for Vista, you should make a 40-50 GB partition for the OS, it can be smaller if you don't have much software to install, so it depends on what programs you will be installing. Then for the rest, you can create a single partition for all your data, or create multiple partitions for different types of data. If you're using XP, the OS partition can be much smaller, XP takes about 1 GB, and Vista takes about 10 GB just for the OS.

 

With restore points i am left with about 169gig so would a 69gig c and 100gig partition split be the way to go or can you think of a better split.

 

You should have about 232GiB from a 250GB harddrive.
So 69GB C and 100G partition, does that mean you have restore points totalling about 63GiB!?!?! Or where did that space go? Cause 63GiB restore points seems HUGE.

I'd suggest 50GiB for the C: drive and just let the rest be for data and other stuf.

 

Its funny you noticed that as i just realized and was going to edit and say the
rest of the data are games and apps.

 

Hehe, i see

 

So i am just being carefull now of the 220 gig i should have 50 gig in c and the rest for the partition and transfer the games and other apps to the new sector.would backing up to dvd 1st be needed.

 

I just partitioned my 200GB hard drive into 2 partitions - one 45GB for the OS, and the rest for my data. I didn't do a clean install either, it was a piece of a cake using gparted. I'd highly recommend not doing what I did though, and just doing a clean install...Vista creates certain unmovable files as you use it so if you try to partition your hard drive without doing a clean install, you'll get an error message upon rebooting. It was easily fixed in my case, I just had to pop in a Vista disc but again, this is not recommended.

 

so are you saying that if i reinstall vista 1st there will be a option for partitioning there by not recieveing that problem or error.

 

I actually don't know how it works when you do a clean install as I've never done it before. I believe that there is an option to partition before you install Vista - I don't really see how it can be done any other way. Or I guess you could just partition your drive like I did, and then do a clean install immediately after. Someone here should know what the best way to do this is.

What I would personally do if I got a new drive is I would boot immediately into gparted (the partition utility) and then set up my partitions. Then I'd restart and boot from the Vista installation disc. But of course, if the Vista installation disc already provides a partitioning feature for you, then that would be a lot easier.

 

You do whatever you like to do, but 50GB is enough for vista + alot of windows updates + other systemfiles. So around 40-50GB is good.

And do whatever you like with the rest of the partitions.

I didn't understand your last question.

 

I am just about to try it,should i do a backup before starting.

 

ALWAYS do a backup.

 

thx everyone reps all around.
I will have to rep the rest of you later as it says i have reped people to much and have a 24 hour cooling off period.

 

What's the best way to partition a laptop had drive? XP's Partition Wizard won't work on mine, Partition Magic 8.0 goes through the motions but after the reboot there's still no partition. My terrific "bible," "XP Inside-Out" says that you cannot partition the drive on a portable computer. Any help here would be really appreciated!

 

Here's how I partition my 500GB HD:

Windows XP Clean Install (200GB Primary)
Windows Vista Clean Install (200GB Primary)
Original Manufacturer Partition with Bloatware (90GB Primary)
Data (10GB Logical)

Only one primary partition should be made visible and active at a time. Logical partition can be made visible at all time.

You can use 3rd party utility like Gparted (free) or System Commander (paid) to partition the harddrive and manage multiple OS in the same computer. One can always resize the partition but always backup first in case something goes wrong.

 

partiton or not partition is not a problem only if you don't install application and games into system drive, I think you won't.
Partition is easy with a partition manager software but not Windows disk management.
Partition Magic is great, but it can not support Vista, (you use Vista, right?)
Partition Master couls support Vista to resize/move your partition to to a satisfied scale, I'm pondering to install a professional edition later to server for my customers. It' enough for you now, the latest free home edition3.5,
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
just have a try