Need help with disk partitioning

[skitsofrenic]

I used to have only 1 partition to do everything with. I'm reinstalling windows 7, and I would like to take this chance to partition my drives the correct way to help the computer run faster and waste less memory.

I browsed through multiple articles on disk partitioning but I just can't grasp the idea. I'm not too good with computers.

Would anyone be kind enough to explain/teach me how to correctly and efficiently partition my disk?

How many partitions would I need?

 

[unksol]

partitioning does not make the computer run faster or use less memory. there is no reason for an average user to partition their drive.

if you wish.to partition your drive the standard practice is to have an OS partition around 60-100GB with windows/drivers/basic programs. and a data partition where you keep your files and install large programs. the reason for this is you can use free image software to back up the smaller OS partition, and if you need to restore or reinstall windows you dont have to worry about pulling a massive amount of data off the OS partition before doing so.

 

[daglesj]

Well shortstroking can help.

If you have a 1TB drive and run a HDTune benchmark on it you'll find that at the start of the drive you'll get say 100MBps performance and this will continue to around 50% of the drive. After that performance drops till you get to the end of the drive whereby it will have dropped to say 60MBps.

So if you partition your drive to say 250GB for the System and apps part then you'll make sure your important stuff always stays on the fastest part of the drive. Access times also improve. You can then use the rest of the drive for just media files etc.

Minitool Partition Manager will do the job for you really easy.

http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html

 

[terryd75]

I completely agree with Unksol.

 

[unksol]

Well shortstroking can help.

If you have a 1TB drive and run a HDTune benchmark on it you'll find that at the start of the drive you'll get say 100MBps performance and this will continue to around 50% of the drive. After that performance drops till you get to the end of the drive whereby it will have dropped to say 60MBps.

So if you partition your drive to say 250GB for the System and apps part then you'll make sure your important stuff always stays on the fastest part of the drive. Access times also improve. You can then use the rest of the drive for just media files etc.

good defrag tools already do this automatically. ever look at the drive map? you don't need to.partition for this. and windows will partition the drive at install and through disk manager. there's no reason to use 3rd party stuff especially when he would need to set the partition at install.

 

[skitsofrenic]

Hey guys, I really appreciate the help.

I partitioned my disk into two drives.

The C drive, I set at 250gb(but reads 244.14gb) NTFS. It is Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

The D drive (Primary Partition), I gave the rest of the memory to. But for some reason it is only 687.27gb.

There are two other partitioned created automatically.

Disk1 (E drive at 7.86gb Healthy (Primary Partition)
and System Reserved drive at 100mb Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

Is it looking fine so far?

Also, when I install programs, I want it to go to the big drive, but it goes to the 250gb one. Any way to fix this?

 

[unksol]

sometimes it creates the system reserved drive at windows install. its a little annoying but doesn't hurt anything. not sure what up with E. The drive sizes are "off" because they sell harddrives as gigabytes 1,000,000,000, but computers work in binary and a gibibyte is 1,024×1,024×1,024
=1,073,741,824. Microsoft still call it a gigabyte though which leads to it looking "smaller" than it should be

I put all the basic programs(adobe, antivirus, office, etc) on the OS drive, as most programs must be installed to work, so even if they were on the data drive you'd still have to reinstall. Stuff like steam games, media, etc are great to put on the data drive. There is a way to change the default programs install directory, but any time you install something you can also choose a "custom" or "advanced" install and pick where to install.

 

[daglesj]

good defrag tools already do this automatically. ever look at the drive map? you don't need to.partition for this. and windows will partition the drive at install and through disk manager. there's no reason to use 3rd party stuff especially when he would need to set the partition at install.

Yes but shortstroking makes sure the system/app data never EVER moves to the slow part of the disk, mitigating the need for regular defragging.

Saves time for me.

 

[Guest]

hard disk makers use SI unit system to measure their drive size Like 1 kilogram = 1000 grams so on. So using this system they r legally correct when the say 1 gb = 1000 mb. They dont follow the 1024 formula as used in the computer industry.

 

[skitsofrenic]

Thanks for the replies guys.

But anyone know how to fix this?

"Also, when I install programs, I want it to go to the big drive, but it goes to the 250gb one. Any way to fix this?"

 

[Guest]

multi partitioned drive is some what fault tolerant. If windows goes down beyond repair, u wont loose all ur precious data residing on the rest of the partitions

Follow this post

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=63&post=44149&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

 

[skitsofrenic]

I actually want to know how I can make my C Drive bigger or if I can redirect all my future programs to the bigger drive. Anyone?

Sorry, I'm really really clueless about these things!

 

[unksol]

there is a way to change the default install location but it involves the registry which is not recommended tinkering with for novice users and it can cause some issues. the best option is to do an advanced or custom install when you want a program on the D partition and change it to point to a program folder on the D partition

 

[skitsofrenic]

Oh ok. Is it ok if the programs are not installed in the Program Files and Program Files (x86)? Will it cause problems?

 

[unksol]

nope, you can put them where ever you want. I have a "Games" folder on my data drive I install all my games and game related programs in. when you do the install windows makes an entry in the registry that tells itself and any other program that needs to know where you installed it. So you can just make a programs folder on D or you can do a games one or organize however you want.

 

[skitsofrenic]

Awesome. Thanks everyone ^^

 

[skitsofrenic]

Best answer selected by skitsofrenic.

 

[Guest]

to change ur partition size do this

right click on my computer > manage> Storage disk > disk mgmt. If u right click on any drive there u will see option for extend / shrink volume. of course u should have free space in ur hard disk to do this