Best way to partition a single HDD?

[Gregory_WE]

I'm going to be reformatting pretty soon and I only have one hard drive for all my stuff. I've been considering formating it like this: ~7.5GB for Windows, ~1GB for page file, and the rest for storage of programs and such. Any opinions?

 

[FireMogle]

You can do it when you install windows, delete the current partition and make new ones. This will of course kill all your current data. If you are wanting to do a re-arrangement then a third party program like partition magic will be needed.

 

[Gregory_WE]

Yes, I know how to do it already I just want to know if there's any optimal way to lay out the partitions, as opposed to just having a single partition with everything (Windows install, page file, etc.) on it.

 

[Gregory_WE]

This is what I'm thinking of:

1) C: , NTFS , Windows , 7.5 GB

2) D: , FAT32, Page File, 1 GB

3) E: , NTFS , Applications (Games, etc.) , 30 GB

4) F: , NTFS , Storage (Music, videos, etc.) , 30 GB

I've been doing some searches, and I'm getting mixed opinions on whether I should have a separate partition for the paging file or just have it included with the Windows one (#'s 1 & 2). Also, if I go with a separate one, would FAT32 be better?

 

[Gregory_WE]

It looks like I could also create a partition for the temp, temp internet, etc. folders so that my Windows partition doesn't become fragmented either.

 

[shadowdr]

I myself like a few partitions.I don't think one just for a pagefile is necessary however.I prefer that it be on the outside edge of the platter so it has the fastest access.I have norton's system works and when you chanfge your pagefile to static(same max and min) it automatically moves it to the front of the partition.It fragments less because windows will not be stretching and shrinking it and other nonmovable file can be placed directly behind it instead of the lag space usually left there by Windows.

 

[Gregory_WE]

Yeah, I always have it static anyways.

 

[tekOC]

----- Sorry to threadjack -----

But, what IS the best way to set up partitions? I'm also thinking of doing a reformat soon for my 60gb Windows HDD. I have one WD 60gb, and one Maxtor 250gb for storage.

The 250gb HDD is strictly for backups/files/downloads/music/etc.
and the 60gb HDD is for Windows, and I always leave like 5gb of it for a different OS (right now running Longhorn on that 5gb space).

I can do whatever I want with the 60gb HDD, and make as many partitions as I want, but I dont wanna touch the 250gb -- cause all my important stuff is on there, music, files, etc. -- but if I have to I could take some space off that HDD through PartitionMagic. I never heard anything about making a seperate partition for pagefile.... I'm not even sure what pagefile is.... haha.

Any pros here at setting up partitions? I'd like to know how many partitions I should make off this 60gb HDD..... and how many GBs for each partition.

And sorry again Gregory for threadjacking, but we're asking for basically the same thing.

TIA

 

[Gregory_WE]

np, and you can learn about the page file by just doing a search on it or virtual memory, there's lots of explanation for it. I won't bother explaining it here since there's better, more thorough explanations at the fingertips