Partitioning - Worth Doing?

Was just wondering if there was any benefit in partitioning ones hard drive? ive always generally kept the drive or raid array as one partition installed the os and programs and data on it. Could someone explain any uses of partitioning?

1.Organization OS only on C: Programs on D: and E: Data/MP3's movies
2.You can have a greater Byte Cluster count on the C drive to speed up access. And the normal 4KB for storage partition.
3.One partion gets corrupted however the other 2 are safe.

Its always a good idea to keep the OS seperate from the other files. Less likely to corrupt the install.

You lose about 300MB when you partition a drive 3way.
Though the stability is worth it.

Whats the byte cluster count? how much does it speed up performance and how big should an os partition be?>

what do u generally use for partitioning? still fdisk?

I love Partition Magic ^^
It moves the data for you without losing anything.
Though in your case you should be able to Partition while doing the XP install

cool thanks for the information

Another good reason to partition is that the fastest part of a disk is the begining where the first partition goes.I also like windows by itself for the same reason. I do not like bsod's or a crashing program to hose my OS. I use another drive for my games and programs also on a limited first partition. I use the rest of both disks for storage. In my case both drives are actually raid0 arrays but it is still the same thing.

I use one partition for my OS. I then redirect My Documents to another. If I reformat the C:\ I will not loose any informantion on the second partition. The RAID1 has my PF also.

My Setup:

80gigs/ 30- OS rest unformatted(left for backup images. Linux and other Fat32 needs, if I want. My flex area.)

2x 120 in RAID1 - My Documents and other important files. This is the meat of my setup. I keep all videos and music here, every file I will use for restoring my drivers and programs. Setups( reg and batch files) and other goodies I cherish go on this section of my storage solution. If I have to reformat Windows or have a failure. I am set. When I reload the OS I just redirect the My Documents Folder to the RAID1. Pretty much this is 80% of my saved data.

My drive labels are:

Moe
Larry
Curley

So if i had 2 36gb raptors in raid 0 partioned 20ish gb for os and installed programs on rest then had a seperate hd for my docs would that be the best setup?

(basically asking if u could have any drives & partitions how would you confgure it)

Yup, if that'll give you enough room, that's a good plan. I keep OS and games on the Raptor(s) and keep music, vids, pics on a seperate HDD.

That is kind of how I do my set up. Minus me redirecting the 'My Documents' pretty much what I do. The reason I redirect the my document folder, is that I can access it like normal. Makes it nice so I am not hunting it down special. Plus it will show in the Sart bar folders.

Right click My Documents

Properties

Target: Wherever you want it to go.

Mine shows as//

Target: D:\My Documents

Since I created a folder called that on my D drive. My whole D could of been the My Documents. When I reload Windows. All I do is put in the redirect. All is good. *I have My Music, My Video and all the goodies..