Partitioning and installation

Hi guys,

I just ordered a Sager np8130 and I'm kinda worried about what to do once I get the laptop. I bought the laptop through AET solutions since I'm in Canada. So once I get the laptop should I be installing drivers or whatever is required (After windows 7 is installed i mean)? I've only used those mainstream laptops before, and the stuff was all installed so I don't have any idea what to do with my new laptop (fyi, I don't have it yet, I'm just asking to prepare myself for when I receive it). Also, my laptop has a 500gb hybrid 4gb SSD HD--does it being a SSD affect the way I should partition? Basically I just want to make 2 partitions 1 for windows (and programs) and 1 for my data.

I'm also not sure by what people mean by "programs"--so I should install microsoft word/games/adobe/firefox/etc on same partition as my OS, then my movies/documents on the other???? Or can my games/firefox/other apps go on the second partition?

Thanks

 

If you didn't get an operating system preinstalled, then,
1.)Install Win 7 and Service Pack 1 First
2.)Next Intel INF UPDATE Utility(Chipset software) from Intel, Latest for 6 Series Laptop.
3.)Then Graphics Driver,Wifi ,Lan , ect Drivers till device manager has no unknown hardware left.
4.) Can make another partition from unallocated free space now.
5.) Backups and data on second partition, win 7 and programs on first partition.
6.) As too the hybrid,,win 7 has default drivers for sata drives.

Cheers
3Fees

 

People keep saying that my OS and programs should be on one partition and my data on the other....but what is considered a program? Are games "programs"? How about Microsoft Office? How about Firefox?

Thanks

 

It doesn't really matter where you put stuff on partitions, the fact is that you are using the same disk. I have mine configured with the 1) the OS + programs 2) games and data 3) (second hdd) data

Games are games imo, they deserve their own partition simply because today's games are quite large. My steam folder uses up 70% of the 2nd partition by itself, you don't really want that on your OS part.

 

i install everything on it's default location. by that, yes, games and office and firefox are all on c:

why? because if you reinstall, you have to reinstall the apps anyways.

personally, i don't even have a partition for my data. i just format the whole drive and use it, use all default locations for everything, and i'm happy. the rare case of having to reinstall and thus having to manually move out the data is mostly unimportant as i do daily backups of my systems to my winhomeserver, and i can get the data back there. the chance that i have to get a new harddrive/ssd because of a physical failure is much higher than the one of a software failure, anyways.


but yes, games, office, firefox, chrome, everything else is considered a program => considered to be installed on c:\ in your question.

but, to each it's own. what ever you think is nice.

 

My data separation isn't for the sake of installation, but for keeping things snappier - small partition, maybe 10GB or so, for downloading files to, so that large downloads don't frag everything to hell, OS on its own, media on its own, programs can end up either on the OS or its own, depending on how much I want to annoy myself with partitioning. Certain programs won't play nice if they're installed outside of the Program Files (x86) folder, so I end up leaving that alone most of the time to default install.

 

"keeping things snappier" and "multiple partitions on the same physical disk" really don't go together.

 

It does as far as fragmentation and file coherency goes. Beyond that, it's not any faster. Music/media is separate just because that particular partition is a perfect mirror of the external hdd that is the master for the collection sitting on my phone, laptop, netbook, and server.

 

Actually, bigger the partition/ disk size, lesser the fragmentation. So multiple smaller partitions can increase the fragments.

 

shall i say it? got an ssd. don't care about partitions and fragments since years now

 

well since my laptop does have the hybrid ssd, I guess partitioning isn't as important for my laptop anymore right?

 

I wasn't making a broad generic statement that partitioning somehow stops fragmentation as a matter of fact. In my particular setup, the small partition is just essentially a data dump/holding area. The files I copy out after the pull are mostly coherent and don't interfere with my other data. It's a compromise compared to desktop systems I used to have where I would designate a physical drive as a trash drive.

It's also due to learned habit from past linux and multi-boot setups, where an explicit partitioning schemes make experimentation with distribution and recovery from failure a breeze.

 

for performance reasons, no, shouldn't matter at all. other than that, it's mostly an old-habit thing (as woofer00 shows. he got used to it one day, so he continues doing it the same way no matter if it's still important in anyway.)

the only important thing is to have a good backup solution (outside the laptop). on the system, nothing special is needed.

 

What if I am unable to start up my OS, and I happened to forget to back up or the incident happened right before I was about to back up the week's stuff. Then wouldn't having a separate partition for the OS better, since I can just re-install windows on that partition with some hope that my data on the other partition (with my documents/movies/etc) will be unaffected.

Also: If I have a registered microsoft office to my laptop, if I reinstall windows, do I have to use a new product key for re-installing office? Or can I reuse the old key since it is the same laptop?

 

That's kind of the point of partitioning your OS off, it's easier to reinstall, though these days if you can't boot into your OS you are looking at rebuilding the MBR or a total disk failure or something like that. Haven't heard of many cases where win7 is missing a random .dll like xp used to.

Also, on a smaller OS partition it takes less time to defrag it, which with windows leads to slightly better boot times. Office and pretty much all other software you just re-use the key - I can't recall if it is tied to the computers' MAC table or what, but if it is the same computer you can install it over and over without consequence.

 

Having a separate partition for your data isn't a necessity if you simply can't boot because the OS is damaged. It's possible to hook up the drive to an external enclosure or SATA adapter, hook up to a functional machine, and take ownership of the files to copy them off IF you have a spare machine. There's almost always a "Plan B" that takes a little bit more work.

Partitioning should have no bearing on how much a hybrid HDD/SSD outperforms a standard HDD.