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Reformatting: How to partition harddrive?
- Thread starter Pollux
- Start date
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Location
- Mexico
windoze xp ends up using 2-3 gigs including the page file (virtual memory).
Partitioning is more for Linux rigs than windows, unless you have a LAN and want to make certain files available to certain users only.
You might wanna put the OS on a partition by itself, then the virtual memory would be less fragmented during daily use. But beware when you add applications, because a lot of them default install to the windows drive.
In my case for example, I have 2 physical drives, were C is for windows and F (D & E are the Cd and CdR) is my RAID 0 array where I keep everything else. So everytime I install a program, I have to tell the installer wizard to put in G drive.
Where you want to pay attention is in the size of your sectors. If I remenber correctly, the larger the sector size when you reformat the faster the seek time but then you might get other problems.
Partitioning is more for Linux rigs than windows, unless you have a LAN and want to make certain files available to certain users only.
You might wanna put the OS on a partition by itself, then the virtual memory would be less fragmented during daily use. But beware when you add applications, because a lot of them default install to the windows drive.
In my case for example, I have 2 physical drives, were C is for windows and F (D & E are the Cd and CdR) is my RAID 0 array where I keep everything else. So everytime I install a program, I have to tell the installer wizard to put in G drive.
Where you want to pay attention is in the size of your sectors. If I remenber correctly, the larger the sector size when you reformat the faster the seek time but then you might get other problems.
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Location
- Mexico
Okey, how many letters do you want in the My Computer box? what kind of applications do you use? for example, for video and music editing you wanna have BIG partitions. For gamming I would go with smaller ones. Other programs like autocad work well with 30 gig partions.
I would recomend a 10 gig partition for the OS, a 10 gig partition for the memory swap file (go to my pc, properties, advanced options tab, then visual effects button, rhen advanced options again and virtual memory at the bottom)and three 33 gig partions (one for apps, one for your documents, and one for whatever).
Or you can go for two 60 gig partitions and have a copy of everything on the second one (that would be a RAID 1 setup, and unless your MoBo has onboard raid then it would slow u down a bit).
The easiest is one big partition. After a while of messing around with this, I opted for the easy way out
I would recomend a 10 gig partition for the OS, a 10 gig partition for the memory swap file (go to my pc, properties, advanced options tab, then visual effects button, rhen advanced options again and virtual memory at the bottom)and three 33 gig partions (one for apps, one for your documents, and one for whatever).
Or you can go for two 60 gig partitions and have a copy of everything on the second one (that would be a RAID 1 setup, and unless your MoBo has onboard raid then it would slow u down a bit).
The easiest is one big partition. After a while of messing around with this, I opted for the easy way out
OP
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2003
- Thread Starter
- #5
mayagrafix said:Okey, how many letters do you want in the My Computer box? what kind of applications do you use? for example, for video and music editing you wanna have BIG partitions. For gamming I would go with smaller ones. Other programs like autocad work well with 30 gig partions.
I would recomend a 10 gig partition for the OS, a 10 gig partition for the memory swap file (go to my pc, properties, advanced options tab, then visual effects button, rhen advanced options again and virtual memory at the bottom)and three 33 gig partions (one for apps, one for your documents, and one for whatever).
Or you can go for two 60 gig partitions and have a copy of everything on the second one (that would be a RAID 1 setup, and unless your MoBo has onboard raid then it would slow u down a bit).
The easiest is one big partition. After a while of messing around with this, I opted for the easy way out
i want 1 big partition for all my install files/mp3s etc, and just a separate partition for windows...but how much should i partition for windows...10 gigs seems alot. and i also heard someone suggestion that i make a partition for virtual memory.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2002
- Location
- Rootstown, OH
You should have one partition for pure data files - multimedia, install files, backups. Judge what size on how much you have and how much you expect to have in the future. Do not install anything here, only copy/download files here.
You should have a windows partition which is also large enough to contain all your installed program files - 10 GB is probably plenty for most, but you will have to consider how much space your windows install and programs you use takes up. Anything you install should go here.
You should not have a seperate partition for the pagefile, unless you can move it to a seperate HDD on a seperate channel. If it is staying on the same physical harddrive as your windows install, then it should remain on the same partition as your install and be manually set so that the min and max size are equal.
You should have a windows partition which is also large enough to contain all your installed program files - 10 GB is probably plenty for most, but you will have to consider how much space your windows install and programs you use takes up. Anything you install should go here.
You should not have a seperate partition for the pagefile, unless you can move it to a seperate HDD on a seperate channel. If it is staying on the same physical harddrive as your windows install, then it should remain on the same partition as your install and be manually set so that the min and max size are equal.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2002
- Location
- Rootstown, OH
If your program files folder is 37 gigs, you are likely storing data there also, which is a bad place to store things - that, or you have A TON of large applications installed. So what do you have installed?
If you actually have that much space taken up by installed programs then you would need something like a 45GB windows/program files partition.
If you actually have that much space taken up by installed programs then you would need something like a 45GB windows/program files partition.
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2001
I dont partition my drives, I like to keep it simple. I have a 120GB drive for movies (I hate messing with DVDs so I rip and encode them to hard drive so if I want to view a movie I can do so without having to fetch the DVD. Im lazy ). I have a 40GB drive for windows, and programs and such. I have a second 40GB for Music and Downloads/Drivers. I also rip all my CDs to my PC for listening to.
). I have a 40GB drive for windows, and programs and such. I have a second 40GB for Music and Downloads/Drivers. I also rip all my CDs to my PC for listening to.
OP
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2003
- Thread Starter
- #10
IMOG said:
~20 games, along with a few mods for games, and some other misc programs like ad-aware, daemon, etc, etc.
also, is it better to have windows AND all my install files in the same partition than just windows itself in its own partition?
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2002
- Location
- Rootstown, OH
Pollux said:
Yes. Keeping your windows files and your program files on seperate partitions of the same drive will only slow things down a bit, but can't help - it will mean the drive has to seek further to go between reading OS files and Program files.
You may find the FAQ's here useful:
http://faq.storagereview.com/
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2003
well heer is my deal - right now i have a single 120g drive in my current computer
C - windows and programs likes msn / photoshop / office 9.99G
D - programs - all of my games and programs that i dont want to lose if system dies - 12g
E- misc - all of my download files / my documents etc - 74.5g's
that is how i split my 120g drive up and it works for me.
Putting your page drive on the same drive but diff parition is useless - unless you have another physical drive - leave the page file where it is.
C - windows and programs likes msn / photoshop / office 9.99G
D - programs - all of my games and programs that i dont want to lose if system dies - 12g
E- misc - all of my download files / my documents etc - 74.5g's
that is how i split my 120g drive up and it works for me.
Putting your page drive on the same drive but diff parition is useless - unless you have another physical drive - leave the page file where it is.
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Location
- Mexico
IMOG and MrG are right on the money. Their assesment is much for the better. Remenber, Windows and programs on one partition. All of your docs etc go on another, so a 30 gig partition and a 90 gig partition will do just fine (the sizes are aprox because windows takes some space for its own use, but the let the software figure it out). Also 30 gigs might seem to much for the OS and programs, but its better to have to much than too few gigs.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2002
- Location
- Rootstown, OH
I mentioned that in post number 6 in this thread. It keeps the pagefile from fragmenting all over the HDD.
I wouldn't keep a seperate partition for programs and games like Mr.G is doing - it increases seek times going from programs to OS files which will slow things down. If windows dies, those installations are dead anyways. It is a better idea to keep those on the same partition and keep install backups on your data partition - I store all CD's I have on this data drive, so anything that needs installed doesn't involve my CDrom, it goes straight from my diamonmax9's in RAID0 to my Raptor.
I'm glad you took the time to look through that link, its really useful information there huh?
It keeps the pagefile from fragmenting all over the HDD.I wouldn't keep a seperate partition for programs and games like Mr.G is doing - it increases seek times going from programs to OS files which will slow things down. If windows dies, those installations are dead anyways. It is a better idea to keep those on the same partition and keep install backups on your data partition - I store all CD's I have on this data drive, so anything that needs installed doesn't involve my CDrom, it goes straight from my diamonmax9's in RAID0 to my Raptor.
I'm glad you took the time to look through that link, its really useful information there huh?
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2002
- Location
- Rootstown, OH
Depends on the applications you use... For some things like video editting or photoshop, the programs like to have a very large pagefile reserved. I think my pagefile is set to 1.5GB, though I have 1.25GB of RAM and its hardly accessed. For the average system, I would say that anywhere between 700-1500MB is fine. Many people use far smaller than that though. Just choose a pagefile size, and if it is too small, you can enlarge it later.
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