New hard drive - questions re partitioning

[kempie]

I've just got a new hard drive to install on my computer - a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint F3 to replace a WD Raptor 75GB drive.

I'm going to replace my existing drive completely and do a fresh install of XP and all other programs, however I am not sure how to partition my new drive for optimum performance (primary use is gaming).

I'm thinking of a set-up along the lines of:

1st partition - 20GB for Windows and key driver (e.g. graphics card) install
2nd partition - 100GB for installation of games
3rd partition - 50GB for installation of other programs
4th partition - remaining 330GB for all music, video, etc. (only have around 60-70GB of media files at the moment).


Questions:
- Should I use FAT32 or NTFS?
- Is it worth having a separate partition for use as a Windows paging file, i.e. virtual memory?
- I'm thinking of getting Windows 7 perhaps a year down the line, but might keep the same hard drive - is it worth leaving a second 20GB partition for a future install?
- Should I set-up a separate partition for receiving downloads of music and video as these are often fragmented when being downloaded?

 

[runningbot]

NTFS or you won't be able to copy files larger then 4gb. (software ISOs and such) FAT32 may also give you trouble when you make your partitions.
For extreme enthusiasts yet, having a 8 or 16gb partition in the front and assigning your page file to that partition will provide higher performance. Is it practically noticeable? Probably not.
Do you plan to dual boot XP and 7? If you go with 7 I'd just replace your XP install.
I wouldn't bother with a separate partition to download into. Just defrag as you normally would.

If your serious about getting the most out of your storage solution multiple hard drives are the way to go. Having one drive for OS and Apps and another for files will allow you better access to the drives and less fragmentation headaches.

 

[dokk2]

I've just got a new hard drive to install on my computer - a 500GB Samsung Spinpoint F3 to replace a WD Raptor 75GB drive.

I'm going to replace my existing drive completely and do a fresh install of XP and all other programs, however I am not sure how to partition my new drive for optimum performance (primary use is gaming).

I'm thinking of a set-up along the lines of:

1st partition - 20GB for Windows and key driver (e.g. graphics card) install
2nd partition - 100GB for installation of games
3rd partition - 50GB for installation of other programs
4th partition - remaining 330GB for all music, video, etc. (only have around 60-70GB of media files at the moment).


Questions:
- Should I use FAT32 or NTFS?
- Is it worth having a separate partition for use as a Windows paging file, i.e. virtual memory?
- I'm thinking of getting Windows 7 perhaps a year down the line, but might keep the same hard drive - is it worth leaving a second 20GB partition for a future install?
- Should I set-up a separate partition for receiving downloads of music and video as these are often fragmented when being downloaded?

Well now, since you asked, ;<),, there are as many ways to partition a hdd as there are users, first of all, for whatever it is worth create your primary partition from DOS,set it as active,format it, and then you can create as many a partitions as needed with windoze, using your existing windoze to create the logical drives in the extended partition,,,FAT32 or NTFS,, FAT32 is faster that NTFS, but, AYK has a file size limitation of 4g,but not a directory limit, personally I have a rather small boot partition of 10g as I only have the OS and some needful utilities thereon,I have 3x100g partitions and a couple or three [small less than 15g] fat32 partitions for my ghost,writing cd/dvd's ,and another 100g partition for whatever and lastly a fat32 for stuff needed for the installation of the os y'know audio/video drivers and various programs, if you have 4g of ram a swapfile is optional....