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Newbie looking for sensible partioning advice

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  • Storage
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April 19, 2007 4:26:52 PM

I've been researching partioning and have found wildly conflicting advice. I'm doing my first build and need to make a decision on partioning. Unfortunatley, the process doesn't lend itself to trial and error experimenting - need to plan ahead well.

I use my system for the following:

1. Studio recording /w Guitar Tracks Pro - it's Cakewalk lite if you're a musician. Files get very large quick

2. Photo editing w/ Adobe - I'm approaching 10,000 photos of the kids, etc.

3. Video editing w/ Adobe - nothing too elaborate, mostly making projects for family, posterity, etc.

4. Games - why not play a few games on high settings if I'm buildign a dream system?

In terms of hard drives, I have a lot of gigabytes but not a coherent strategy.

150 GB Raptor
2x 500 GB Samsung, new drives
200 GB Western digital (recycle from old system)
160 GB Western digital (recycle C: Drive from old system)
250 GB external WD Media Center
500 GB external WD My book

I have lots of options here. These seem to be the key questions:

Does it help to separate applications from data? For example, should I have my music recording software or Adobe photo/video programs on the same partion as the relevant data files or should I separate the two?

If that doesn't matter I may just create partions dedicated to specific functions (music software w/ music files, photo software w/ photos, etc.)

I'm putting the OS on the Raptor but want to utlize that extra speed w/out bogging it down. Would it makes sense to put games on the raptor (I normally have two or three installed at a time)? Should the games go on a separate partion on the Raptor or another drive altogether (long load times can by annoying)?

Also, I don't mind doing redundant back ups w/ my old drives and external drives. I once had drive w/ all of the photos of my first born fail BUT I had a back-up and lost nothing. Since then, I do back-up overkill.

Any advce would be welcome ... thanks

Here's my build:

Intel Bad Axe 2
QX6700
Corsair 1066
8800 GTX
Sound Blast Audigy 2zs Platinum Pro w/ external box for guitar and vocal mic inputs
Samsung 20" LCD

More about : newbie partioning advice

April 20, 2007 11:55:24 PM

Opinions differ on the advantages of putting programs on a different partition, I never do because if you have to do a clean install of Windows you'll have to install the programs anyway. With all the hard drives you have, you really don't need to partition, you partition to protect data. If you want to partition any of the storage drives to make it easier to organize stuff, I'd suggest getting Partition Magic, lets you add, delete, and resize partitions in Windows.
April 21, 2007 3:15:00 PM

The question of partitioning seems to be a complex one, as you noted opinions are all over the map. Right now I have 3 systems, all with partitioning. No problems that I know of ever related to partitioning...altho I had one system essentially dump one of the user logon IDs (?), which I would think is an OS problem.

Don't forget that a related question is also how many physical HDs (volumes I think is the correct terminology), AND which files go where, i.e., separate partitions or separate volumes? Anyway, I've yet to sort this all out. But here's what I do at the moment.

I partition my primary HD into 3 virtual drives: C for the OS; D for programs; and E for Data, Download files & Temp/workspace programs. I do this not so much for the ability to reload it (as it really doesn't help too much), but to try & keep things somewhat organized. Easier for me to find a program and not have to sort thru all the Windows stuff, etc.

I have a secondary HD volume which I partition as: F for the OS swap file (a overflow type of memory usage always "created" by WINDOWS but infrequently accessed, supposedly best not on the OS volume & gets wiped out everytime the computer shuts down); and G as my BackUp hot drive. I use NORTON Ghost to backup a complete image of my primary drive to this partition. The advantage is if a drive goes south (when not if) I can completely re-create my HD files & setup by a simple GHOST restoration (reload).

I also have an external USB2 HD (therefore slower but usually offline & therefore more protected) which I alternate the backUp with the hot drive.

Every 6-12 months I create a BackUp image on DVDs.

I was burned by HD failure before. It won't happen again that way!

Hope this helps...at least to ask more questions. :D 
April 23, 2007 1:40:10 AM

"With all the hard drives you have, you really don't need to partition"

That's what I was going to say.
!