How does this look for the partitioning on a WD6400AAKS 640GB hard drive?

c:\ 100GB NTFS Boot/OS/Programs
d:\ 10GB FAT32 Page file/temp files
e:\ 250GB NTFS Games
f:\ 250GB NTFS Pictures/Music/Movies
g:\ 30GB NTFS Backup/alt OS

Any comments would be appreciated.

Also, when I do this, I install my anti-virus, spyware, ad-aware, firewall etc on c:\ correct? Doing so will boot with the operating system and protect all partitions correct? Or will I have to put it on each partition for protection? Thanks!

I think you could reduce the size of your C and E drives, and put the extra into F. One of the main benefits of partitioning like this is to take advantage of the increased speed on the outer edge of the disk (spins faster than the inner area of the disk). With such a large C partition you will likely have 70-80GB of unused space taking up prime real estate on the hard drive. Your E drive probably is overkill with 250GB but it's not as important to keep this small as you only have data storage coming after it in your partition list. I would recommend 20 or 30GB for your C drive depending on your OS (xp-20, vista-30) and maybe 100GB for your games partition.

I propose:

c:\ Boot/OS/Programs/Games 100 GB
d:\ Pictures/Music/Movies/Backup/Page file/temp files/ 510GB
e:\ Alt OS 30 GB

You would have to reinstall you games if your OS failed. That's where the backup of C: helps.
Anti-virus, etc. will go on C: and it will protect all windows partitions.

I think you shouldn't even worry about it.

Hi, mate!

I agree on partitioning the OS (short-stroking; gets me 111MB/s average read/write + 7.7ms access time) with the 640GB drive.

Evongugg has the right idea. That many partitions isn't probably a good idea. I might even separate the programs onto D: and leave C: for just the OS, for a smaller partition (more speed). However, that is pretty difficult.

~Ibrahim~