Best way to partition a 200gb HD?

[u2vini]

Hi all,

Is there a way to optimize partition sizes or any size and amount is totally indifirent?

Example:

I have a 200gb HD, i created 3 partitions thinking i was improving the use for each type of programs.
Disk C: 15gb for windows and office applications.
Disk D: 25gb for games (i usually have only 2-3 games installed at the same time)
Disk E: rest for downloading, encode videos, mp3, etc..etc..!

Is there another way to optimize the use of the partitions? should i search for different sizes? i dont know!! ;(

 

[g-paw]

Partitioning is pretty much like pizza toppings, a matter of taste. I never saw any reason to put programs on a different partition from the OS because if you have reinstall the OS, you'll have to reinstall the programs. As for more than one data partition, I use several to make it easier to organize my stuff. Partitioning is really to allow you to reinstall the OS and format that partition and not have it affect your data, it really isn't meant to significantly enhance performance. E.g., there seems to be a debate on whether putting your swap files on another partition really affects performance.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Was pretty much covered here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244654-32-hard-drive-size-limitation#t1737770

But I have always had the habit from ole DOS days of eliminating cluster slop to the greatest extent possible. Puters are base 2 creatures so think of disk sizes as being happier when you just below a multiple of 1024. For example 1024 x 16 is 16,384 so selecting a number just below that will keep you from bumping over the old 16k cluster size limit.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/13747/13747.html
http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahwd.html

Cluster slop is when you say make a text file on that partition with one character in it. That file size is 1 byte. But since ya can't have more than 1 file per cluster, that file takes up 16,384 bytes.

In light of that, as drives got bigger, MS changed the partitioning scheme for NYFS such that clusters were never bigger than 4096 bytes, so in the slop example, ya only lose 4,095 bytes to slop not 16,383.

So what I would suggest is this:

C:\ <16,384 MB (16GB) for NTFS Boot partition
D:\ <8,192 MB (8 GB) for FAT32 page file / temp file partition (See other TomsHardware thread above for reasons)
E:\ <32,768 MB (32 GB) NTFS for Games
F:\ < 16,384 for Programs
G:\ For whatever
H:\ For Backups (maybe 2nd install of OS in case primary install gets fudged, backups of critical files or whatever.

If ya using XP and gonna use a partitioning utility, and are thinking of maybe experimenting with Vista, might want to consider leaving 16 GB or so of empty space between C and D for Vista at a later date. Can set it up to use same page and temp file locations on D:\

 

[u2vini]

JackNaylorPE,
Lot to read, brb!

 

[yadge]

I just have a question.

Why do you need 16Gb for the Operating System?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[jaguarskx]

I just have a question.

Why do you need 16Gb for the Operating System?

Thanks for any replies.

'Cause you might wanna install some programs on the C: drive. I use 20GB, but I'll probably boost that up to 30GB whenever I decide to upgrade to Vista. Just because.........

 

[daverimer]

Awesome post, as well as the earlier one mentioned. When I have some free time over the holidays I am going to give this a shot using 2 HD's. Can't wait for better performance!!!

 

[randomizer]

'Cause you might wanna install some programs on the C: drive. I use 20GB, but I'll probably boost that up to 30GB whenever I decide to upgrade to Vista. Just because.........

Go for 35-40GB, 30Gb is not enough (tried it already) because vista takes up 15GB on its own

EDIT: Unless you put programs on another drive as Jack was saying, something I have not tried but will when my new hard drive arrives. I've always put the swap file in a separate 2gb partition so that it remains unfragmented.

 

[nhobo]

One way to think about partitons is to think about what's on them. The OS and critical applications on one for easy backup and restore, data on another for the same reason, stuff you're not terribly concerned about on a third, etc. Without backups, OS and apps can be restored if lost, data can't. As for the size of the partitions, that depends on how much space your OS, apps, data, etc. take up.

 

[randomizer]

Fortunately I have no important data (no more than a couple of meg) to store, so I only need 3 partitions, though I might throw in a 4th.

 

[u2vini]

JackNaylor PE, read the whole doc, awesome i will try it in the future, bet!

yadge, i used 15gb cause i dont really use a lot the computer, for me, its a lot but i will leave a 30 as sugested for vista (if i ever install it)


To all, why i should create a partition for the swap if i can create a fixed size swap file? besides the location in disc of the HD!

 

[randomizer]

Because it will become fragmented if put on a partition with other files.

 

[u2vini]

So Windows dont hold the file in position? he only limite the file size?

 

[orky87]

Was pretty much covered here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/244654-32-hard-drive-size-limitation#t1737770

But I have always had the habit from ole DOS days of eliminating cluster slop to the greatest extent possible. Puters are base 2 creatures so think of disk sizes as being happier when you just below a multiple of 1024. For example 1024 x 16 is 16,384 so selecting a number just below that will keep you from bumping over the old 16k cluster size limit.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/13747/13747.html
http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahwd.html

Cluster slop is when you say make a text file on that partition with one character in it. That file size is 1 byte. But since ya can't have more than 1 file per cluster, that file takes up 16,384 bytes.

In light of that, as drives got bigger, MS changed the partitioning scheme for NYFS such that clusters were never bigger than 4096 bytes, so in the slop example, ya only lose 4,095 bytes to slop not 16,383.

So what I would suggest is this:

C:\ <16,384 MB (16GB) for NTFS Boot partition
D:\ <8,192 MB (8 GB) for FAT32 page file / temp file partition (See other TomsHardware thread above for reasons)
E:\ <32,768 MB (32 GB) NTFS for Games
F:\ < 16,384 for Programs
G:\ For whatever
H:\ For Backups (maybe 2nd install of OS in case primary install gets fudged, backups of critical files or whatever.

If ya using XP and gonna use a partitioning utility, and are thinking of maybe experimenting with Vista, might want to consider leaving 16 GB or so of empty space between C and D for Vista at a later date. Can set it up to use same page and temp file locations on D:\

Outstanding explanation there you have, however this applies to XP but what about Win7 some say Win7 handles those page file pretty well. Can you comment on that please just to clearify if the same tactic applies to Win7. Thanks