How Should I Partition My Harddrive For Best Performance With Vista Ultimate

Hello,

I have got a laptop that has been given to me by a friend. It is the Dell 640m.

It has 1.60 Dual core processor, and 1.5gb of ram. although it only has a 60gb harddrive.

I want to install vista on it. how would you suggest partitioning it for best performance?

 

1st of all, udgrade your hdd. 60gb isn't "enough" for vista. go for 320gb 5400rp hdd. 40% os and 60% for files

 

Not necessarily if you don't have a need for a lot of data. I am running my Vista OS on a 40gb partition with ~30 apps and I always have 15-20gb free (based on how much I allow System Restore to build up). I only have 27gb of data.

I would highly suggest that you do upgrade to 2 or 3gb of memory - you WILL need that!

 

You say that you have apps on the partition with vista? wouldnt this slow it down?

i want my computer to run as fast as possible so i thought i would have 15-20gb for os and os only.. and install aps onto the second partition.. aswell as data?

let me know what you think

 

I don't think that placing apps on a second partition will speed you system up.
It is a good idea, though, since in that way in case of an OS crash you could restore a previous image of the OS only and with a few minor hacks you could recover all your applications (provided your last snapshot was done after installing all the applications).
A smaller os partition can be backed up more often, since it would take less time.

I keep OS, OS data, Apps, Apps Data, Downloaded data and Personal Data on separate partitions. I can backup only what needs to be backed up as often as I need, in nearly no time at all.

 

Yeah, partitioning won't have any significant effect on performance. And if disk space is tight, it may make it more difficult to use the space as effectively.

The advantages are pretty much as described in the above post. Also, if you want to use more than one OS, you'll need to partition.

I think your system specs should be alright. Just install Vista and SP1 and see how it performs. If you're not happy with it, you can make some tweaks later.

 

Easiest was I found is using a external hard drive. They come with a copious amount of space, relatively inexpensive, and are easy to use. If you want to get really fancy, you could even install another OS on it like Ubuntu.

Check it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822242002

 

Putting something that reads a lot from the disk on another partition only noticeably improves system performance if it's a different physical hard drive, too. Even then, it's a mixed bag.

 

JR got it.

sometimes you can improve performance *a bit* by installing the OS on its own dedicated hard drive. installing it on its own partition is not going to improve performance.

obviously, this is sort of a moot point because you are dealing with a laptop system that accepts one hard drive.

another thing to note is that a faster, high density, more modern hard drive will offer better disc performance. vista also needs at least 2 GB of ram to run fluently. so add more ram at a minimum. then maybe consider replacing the hdd.

 

i agree. add more ram, vista needs it to run....and the HDD, i doubt u need to go to 320gigs if ur managing with 60, but i'd advise a 160gig HDD, at 7200rpm if u want the best performance. having a separate partition for the OS will help only if u want to restore ur OS when u have trouble, but wont improve performance, as has been mentioned above.

 

Vista likes SP1 , I can tell you that much
It'll drastically improve performance.

 

And this is exactly why I did it - as I have just purchased a new laptop and I was also rather new to Vista, I wanted to have the capability to go back to a clean install quickly w/o having to reload my whole disk. I have reinstalled various versions of my OS numerous times over the past 6 weeks as I have experimented with apps and various registry/services adjustments. Should probably make a fresh clean install a little more simple too in the future (right?). But I agree there is no performance gain...

 

I'm getting a 250GB 5400 rpm w/ my notebook. I want two partitions. One for OS/programs, and the other for files. How should I divide that up? I don't really think I'll have a whole bunch of files, but just to be safe what do you think I should go for?

Vista Home Premium 32 bit by the way ...

 

30(40 to be absolutely safe)Gb for Vista, the rest for stuff.

 

^what eleron911 said.^

 

+1 for the Porsche