Partition?

**eatnsleep** · 26th August 2002

i'm a newbie at this and need advise on if i should partition my hard drive first before installing an OS into the computer....i have the Western Digital 80 gig 7200 rpm..would everything run slower if i leave it at 80 gig?..or would it be better if i partition it into 2 drive?...any advise will be appreciatted =)

**p i m p** · 26th August 2002

i usually partition mine if its the only hdd because i use the main partition for the os and games etc, and another one for downloads so the main drive doesnt get all fragmented and etc. ive been doing this since win 95 but i am not sure if its relevant anymore.

**Zero-X23** · 26th August 2002

No, everything will not run slower if you leave it at 80 gigs. The only real advantage of partitioning it (assuming you are running one OS) would be for organization and also fragmentation (ie: storage partition would get more fragmented than the partition your games load from since you would be writing and moving a lot of stuff to/from it). Don't bother with it in this case.

**ooo yahh** · 26th August 2002

make partitions the way you store your files, like.. if you have 2 oses, 1 partition for each OS. if you have games movies apps and such to store, make a partition for them. and so on, depends on your needs.

**FSR** · 26th August 2002

I use these partitions:

1. OS only: no programs, nothing but the OS (2gig)
2. VM: only you're virtual memory (1gig)
3. Programs: everything you install after the OS (20gig)
4. Music: but thats just because i have lots of mp3's (22gig)
5. Downloads/Data: everything you d/l or just pictures, movies,... (30gig)
6. Temp: for temporary files (like unpacking iso's, storing vob-files) (5gig)

here are a couple of advantages:
- you're OS and VM will hardly ever get fragmented
- good organisation (easy to search & find files)
- never run out of space when you need to unpack big archives
- much more, but my memory is leaking

oh, and don't forget to change your default temporary folders, temp internet folder, VM location, etc..

**Phreaker47** · 26th August 2002

Well, I don't know about having 6 or 7 partitions, to each his own I guess...

I like the three partition strategy:

1 - OS (4 gig. put cache memory here too. have lots of ram so this won't be a performance factor)

2 - Application partition

3 - Data

- Partitions 1 and 2 will hardly ever get fragmented like FSR said.

- If your OS bombs out completely or if it's just time to do a reinstall, you won't lose the rest of your stuff reformatting

I just ordered one of those WD 120gig 8mb cache drives, which will be my data drive, now my 40 gig will just have two partitions, OS and APPS.

I used to be lazy and just have one large partition on one hard drive, but having one total crash and losing tons of stuff taught me never to do that again.

**ooo yahh** · 26th August 2002

i think u should put the virtual memory file at the same partition with the installed programs. i dont know if its increases performance but.........

**Phreaker47** · 27th August 2002

That really only helps your performance when it's on a different physical disk.

**�ogic** · 27th August 2002

Exactly. No matter how you setup your partitions, performance will not increase as long as you have less then 2 hard disks.

**eatnsleep** · 28th August 2002

thanx for all the advices you guys..now i have a wider idea on what i should and want to do ^_^

**honeydew** · 5th September 2002

If you have different partitions for the os and the programs. When you format and reinstall the os, how do you put the programs back into the add/remove section of the os? Will the programs still work if they don't show up in the add/remove?

**Phreaker47** · 5th September 2002

You will still have to reinstall your programs, but you might be able to save some work files, configuration files, etc.

**SupersunD** · 19th September 2002

i just built my computer, and when xp asked me for partitions, i made 3 partitions of 20 GB each.

dont ask me why i did it. i dont know. it seemed like a good idea...

now, which should i do with each? obviously windows is on one, along with office and all the drivers and stuff.

i already have my mp3's on another... should i use the mp3 partition for downloaded files as well? and wat about games? where should i put those?

i dont want to reformat now that im done, so any suggestions would help.

**blindside** · 19th September 2002

How do you make more than 2 partitions on a hard drive? If i used FDISK it only allows for a primary and extended partition (also the logical but that's contained in the extended). How do you created more than 2 partitions using FDISK? Or is it only possible w/ partition magic?