Partitioning help

[felthas]

I know it's an age old question, but I'd still like some opinions as all the articles I read on the topic are 1-3 years old.

I'm 80% complete on a build that includes 2 320GB Western Digital SATA drives. I've hooked up the drives for individual use for now rather than RAID, which is one of the reasons I'm posting here. (My MOBO can take RAID or individual configs)

What would be the best partition number, size and/or configuration for my drives for performance and stability? I think the partition for the O/S alone and all other files on other partitions makes sense for the reason that an O/S re-install can be done without losing other files, but I don't want to make the O/S partition too small with Vista looming. I've heard partition sizes from 12GB to 80GB depending on the size of the drive.

Would it make sense to partition the entire 1st drive for the O/S and install secondary programs to the second drive? Or go RAID?

Any opinions would be appreciated. I hope I don't get flamed too badly for a repetitive question. I just want to make the right choice when I do install.

Thanks

 

[samir_nayanajaad]

well I myself like to partition off a space for my os so that I can just reinstall in and not worry about files, like you said.

as for what size to partition off for this I would say that 320 is plenty of space to do a nice large partition. No more than 80 gb should be needed heck even with Vista I think that would be a little much.

If you stay with two separate drives or a RAID that allows you to use all 640gb of hdd space 40gb to 60gb should be ample room for an os install and programs. I say programs too because I like a fresh install of programs to go along with my fresh XP install, that and I most of the time end up with more programs installed that I actually use and this cleans it up for me.

 

[g-paw]

I always create a partition for the OS and programs, usually about 30 to 35 GB but I don't play games and if you do, you might want it to be bigger. Then if it's a computer I use for work, I'll create a partition for work, and then one for everything else. On my other machine I create an OS partition, one for general stuff like Downloads and other misc stuff, one for my music and photos, and one for video. I usually don't partition the drive I use for back up. At least for me, how many partitions I have after the one for the OS pretty much has to do with the best way to get things organized.

 

[vanka]

Here's what I do- I have an 80 gig hard drive (one partition) for Windows and programs. Then I have a 250 gig and a 300 gig for documents (I redirect My Documents to another partition), music, movies, downloads, etc. This way if anything happens to the system partition or I want to test another OS, I don't lose any of my stuff. I just got a 400 gig to replace my 80 gig (I'm gonna turn it into an external hard drive) and I'm dedicating 100 gigs for the Windows partition. In my experience this is more than enough for all the software that I use (even a few games: Far Cry, UT2005, UT; I don't game as much as I used to). If you're worried about Vista, the system requirements call for a 40 gig hard drive with at least 15 gigs free.

If I was in your shoes, I'd spit one hard into two partitions 120/200 gig and use the 120 gig for windows and applications. The second partition I would use for documents and music. Then I would create one partition on the second hard drive and use it for large files such as movies or game installs.

 

[felthas]

Great, thank you all for your help

 

[duthoy]

my setup:

1 drive 120 GB

C: os and apps
D: music
E: personal files like word, photo's,..
hidden: backup C: made with driveimage
Z: swap & temp OS

my settings for my documents are e:\
so, restore backup, update windows and software, done

you've got choose for yourself wat kind of filetypes you want to keep on another partition.

os will need a partition of +/- 30 GB, space enough for os and programs on a normal setup, and gice you some extra GB to use for defragmentation,... of your C: drive.

 

[g-paw]

my setup:

1 drive 120 GB

C: os and apps
D: music
E: personal files like word, photo's,..
hidden: backup C: made with driveimage
Z: swap & temp OS

my settings for my documents are e:\
so, restore backup, update windows and software, done

you've got choose for yourself wat kind of filetypes you want to keep on another partition.

os will need a partition of +/- 30 GB, space enough for os and programs on a normal setup, and gice you some extra GB to use for defragmentation,... of your C: drive.

Seems a lot of people set up a separate partition for Swap Files. What exactly are Swap Files and how do you set them up on a separate partiton?

 

[merc14]

A few things here.
1. Setting the OS on its own partition is a great idea, however, do not think that you can just reinstall the OS and move on. Most of your programs will require a reinstall as well since they need to install new reg keys, dll files etc.
2. The above should drive your partition setup. One small partition for the OS, another for your programs and a third for storage. The storage is where you save yourself. It should be where all your programs store their data. Example is your photos and movies should go in storage. Documents should get dropped there etc. This one stays intact after a reistall of the OS>
3. You don't need 80GB for the OS. With XP, 10GB is enough but set 12-15 for your own comfort. The page file, or swap file, should be placed in its own partition on a SEPARATE drive, if possible. Putting the page file on the same drive as the OS doesn't save you anything as the drive is working just as hard or harder. I put my page file on the first partition of my storage drive (remember, the closer to the spindle, the faster the read/write). Page File should be set to custom and at least 1.5 times the amount of your RAM. If you have 2GB of RAM you should, hopefully, never have to use the pagefile.
4. IMHO the best setup is a RAID 0 array with a third drive set as storage. On my 2x80GB RAID 0 I have c: set at 12GB with the OS on it (no pagefile) d: set at 3GB for drivers, utilities, virus/spyware etc. and e: set as programs. On the standalone (a 250GB SAT 300) I have the first partition, 4GB set labeled p: and this is where I have the pagefile. the second partition is labeled f:, storage and this is where all my movies, photos, download program .exe, go.

With this setup I can basically trash the RAID without losing anything valuable as it is all on a stndalone drive. BTW, I have a 250GB external that I dump everythng important on and then turn off so that any major system meltdown won't kill off my most vital files.

 

[g-paw]

I've always kept the OS and programs on one partition and data on others. The reason I don't put programs on a different partition is that it's been my experience that when I do a fresh install of Windows it's best to reinstall all my programs. On my work machine I have a small FAT partition for a DOS program I use for work and while it worked after a clean install of Windows, it loss a couple of functions. What I'm not clear on is exactly what swap files and page files are and how to go about putting them on a separate partition.

 

[merc14]

You're absolutely correct that all, or most, programs will need to be installed again. I keep the OS and programs separate, however, because it helps so much with defrag when the OS is standalone. Keeps the OS from getting mixed up with all the other stuff. It also isolates viruses that attack only the c: drive (older viruses I guess).

I can defrag my OS in 3-5 minutes. You see a lot of benefit, IMHO, from defraggig the OS and you are more apt to do it if the defrag completes in the time it takes to go get another cold one from the fridge. Programs take longer to defrag since the partition is larger as are the files but they don't need to be defragged as often.

 

[g-paw]

Makes sense. I usually do the defrag overnight. Don't like my cold ones interrupted

 

[vanka]

Swap file is actually a Linux term (actually it's called the swap partition), in Windows it's called Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory is basically a system file on your hard drive that acts as virtual RAM; when your physical RAM is full or a program in physical RAM is not being used, Windows copies the program from the physical RAM to the hard drive (the swap file/virtual memory). This frees up the physical RAM for other programs and processes. This speeds up Windows by freeing up RAM for those programs that are being currently used; this is also why when you minimize a program to the task bar and come back to it in an hour it takes longer to load, loading from the hard drive is slower than loading from RAM.

It is recommended to have at least 1 gig of virtual memory and for best performance have it set up on a different hard drive than the Windows hard drive. If you only have one hard drive, having the swap file on a different partition is the next best thing. To configure the virtual memory:
Right-click My Computer
Choose Properties from the menu
Click the Advanced tab
In the Performance section click on Settings
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Change tab in the Virtual Memory section
Here you can set how much of each partition is dedicated to virtual memory.

<EDIT>Swap file, page file, and virtual memory are the same thing. A swap partition, under Linux and other Unix-type OS's, is a partition dedicated to virtual memory.</EDIT>

 

[g-paw]

Thanks, great explanation and instructions. Everything should be this easy to change. I changed it to a second backup drive with no partitions. Is it better to add a partition or doesn't it matter?

 

[vanka]

Well if you were able to configure virtual memory on that drive it means you have a partition on it; a hard drive is useless without a partition as you (the OS actually) can't access a drive that doesn't have a partition set up and if the drives not formatted. When you set up a partition, you basically create a table that tells the OS where it can start/stop writing data. When you format a drive you create a table that keeps track of where data was written and where there is free space on the partition. A hard drive can be broken up into several partitions (each will appear as a separate drive in My Computer under Windows) or a partition can span the whole drive. In your case you probably have one partition spanning your backup drive.

 

[Sagekilla]

I use a config like this:

40 GB Drive [C:] for Windows and any documents
80 GB Drive [D:] for Tools/Applications
320 GB Drive [E:] for Games
160 GB External Drive [K:] for Music, Videos, and any other related items of the sort.

Each hard drive is used for a specific purpose... I doubt you're willing to go as far as I did. I set this up mainly out of convenience since I had an external, I bought the 320 GB drive, and had the 40 and 80 GB drive already in use in my previous rig.


My best advice for you would be to partition one drive, the small (40~80 GB would suffice) for Windows, big one for everything else. Stick videos, music, or applications on the first drive on the bigger partition, then just stick everything else, like games, on your secondary drive. In this way, your games won't have to deal with the fact that the windows drive will most likely end up being fragmented frequently. In my setup, my windows drive is the only one that ever gets fragmented so I never have to worry about applications or games slowing down

 

[drifter_888]

I'm curios. if I partition a 150 GB drive to 75 & 75. I can use the first 75 for OS and the second for Applications. Is there any advantage? If I delete and re-install the OS won't I still have to reinstall all the applications even though it is on another partition. I would think the Registry file would have been deleted in the re-install so all the programs would be lost. Or am I wrong?

 

[g-paw]

I'm curios. if I partition a 150 GB drive to 75 & 75. I can use the first 75 for OS and the second for Applications. Is there any advantage? If I delete and re-install the OS won't I still have to reinstall all the applications even though it is on another partition. I would think the Registry file would have been deleted in the re-install so all the programs would be lost. Or am I wrong?

While it's possible some of your applications would work, you're always better off re-installing all your programs. It's always best to put your data, e.g., documents, photos, music, or videos, on a separate drive. Personally I always put OS and programs on the same drive but others prefer to put programs on a second drive but regardless, your data should be on a drive separate from any programs. As for the size of the drive with the OS and programs, my rule of thumb is to always have 30% to 40% of the drive free.

 

[wht1986]

I always create 3 partitions:

1) For OS and Programs

2) Data - for 'My Documents' and stuff like that, makes it easy to do a nightly backup - btw moving these in vista is annoying, you have to move each documents, picture, downloads, etc directory seperatly. No more moving the entire 'My Documents' folder

3) Temp space - I move my Pagefile, temporary internet files, temp and tmp directories to here.

 

[drifter_888]

Not to show too much of my ignorance in this matter but ... when you say OS and programs on a seperate drive do you mean physical drive or virtual or it doesn't matter?

 

[drifter_888]

How do I "tell" windows where to put the temp files and page files?

 

[g-paw]

From Vanka post above

"Swap file is actually a Linux term (actually it's called the swap partition), in Windows it's called Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory is basically a system file on your hard drive that acts as virtual RAM; when your physical RAM is full or a program in physical RAM is not being used, Windows copies the program from the physical RAM to the hard drive (the swap file/virtual memory). This frees up the physical RAM for other programs and processes. This speeds up Windows by freeing up RAM for those programs that are being currently used; this is also why when you minimize a program to the task bar and come back to it in an hour it takes longer to load, loading from the hard drive is slower than loading from RAM.

It is recommended to have at least 1 gig of virtual memory and for best performance have it set up on a different hard drive than the Windows hard drive. If you only have one hard drive, having the swap file on a different partition is the next best thing. To configure the virtual memory:

Right-click My Computer
Choose Properties from the menu
Click the Advanced tab
In the Performance section click on Settings
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Change tab in the Virtual Memory section


Here you can set how much of each partition is dedicated to virtual memory.

<EDIT>Swap file, page file, and virtual memory are the same thing. A swap partition, under Linux and other Unix-type OS's, is a partition dedicated to virtual memory.</EDIT>"

Once your in the Performance Options write down the Initial Size MB and Maximium Size MB and then Click on the drive you want to use and put in the numbers you wrote down.

 

[drifter_888]

Thank you. I missed that last line where they are the same thing. But a one gig partition or even a 10 G partition seems very small isn't it? Or do I just have no concept of what is large anymore. My system will have 2 GB of Ram .... technically from above I shouldn't even need it. Correct? I assume it would be better though ... a single 1 GB partition?

 

[afterhour]

Yup when comes time to partition i like to make only one partition for virtual memory. the amout is near x1.5 your system memory(RAM).
i prefer to put it at the begging of my C drive just before installing windows.
if you use another drive thats good too!
for big disk, partitionning is a part of performance factor.you'll want to check clusters size too.
overall i think you should use raid with you 2 disk, if its possible try to put it near the MBR. if not put it after installing windows.

thats it!
cu

 

[g-paw]

Thank you. I missed that last line where they are the same thing. But a one gig partition or even a 10 G partition seems very small isn't it? Or do I just have no concept of what is large anymore. My system will have 2 GB of Ram .... technically from above I shouldn't even need it. Correct? I assume it would be better though ... a single 1 GB partition?

If you're partitioning for just the Virtual Memory, I would think 2GB would be enough. I just set the Virtual Partition to a storage drive rather than creating a new partition. In terms of the size of other partitions, I usually set the C drive for the OS and programs at 30 to 35 GB and try to make sure I'm not using more that 70% to 75% of the drive. The rest of the disk I use for storage. The size, if I have more than one storage partition, depends on what I'm putting on it, e.g., for just documents 10 to 15GB should be enought, for photos and music you'd want considerably more depending on how much you have, videos take the most. If his is the first time you're partitioning I'd recommend just 2 partitions to keep it simple until you're used to working with them. I believe you said you have a 320GB hdd. I'd make the C for the OS and programs 40GB and use the rest for storage. There are partitoning programs, e.g., I use Partitoin Magic, which allows you to create and resize partitions after the OS is installed. Every now and then I resize partitons depending on my needs or even create a new one when needed. When ever I'm doing something new on the computer I try to keep it as simple as possible and as I learn more about it, I get into more complicated stuff.

 

[afterhour]

The amount of hard drive space you allocate for virtual memory is important. If you allocate too little, you will get "Out of Memory" errors. If you find that you need to keep increasing the size of the virtual memory, you probably are also finding that your system is sluggish and accesses the hard drive constantly. In that case, you should consider buying more RAM to keep the ratio between RAM and virtual memory about 2:1.Means 1.5x to 2.5x more VM than RAM. Some applications enjoy having lots of virtual memory space but do not access it very much. In that case, large paging files work well.

One trick that can improve the performance of virtual memory (especially when large amounts of virtual memory are needed) is to make the minimum and maximum sizes of the virtual memory file identical. This forces the operating system to allocate the entire paging file when you start the machine. That keeps the paging file from having to grow while programs are running, which improves performance. Many video applications recommend this technique to avoid pauses while reading or writing video information between hard disk and tape.

Another factor in the performance of virtual memory is the location of the pagefile. If your system has multiple physical hard drives (not multiple drive letters, but actual drives), you can spread the work among them by making smaller pagefiles on each drive. This simple modification will significantly speed up any system that makes heavy use of virtual memory.

Taken from how stuff works and me