Topic awaiting preservation: Partitioning thoughts

I'm getting ready to buy a new hard drive and I've been thinking about how I would like to set up the partitions. What kinds of thoughts do you all have about that? Do you run Windows (or whatever OS you run, let's not get into another OS debate here please) on one partition and your software on another?

I'm just looking for some ideas on how to set up the new drive. I'll probably keep my existing 40 GB drive and add another drive of either 80 or 120 gigs.

Thoughts, opinions, dissertations?

:::11oh1:::

I have a 120GB Hard Drive with 3 partitions.

XP - Files - Linux

I like having all my apps on the C drive but all my saved files and downloads on the D drive.
I did it this way incase I needed to reinstall XP on the C drive.

If you are going to keep your 40 gigger then you could always have the larger one running the OS and then all the files on the 40 gig. Just a thought.

Later,

C:\


~Binary is best~

Actually I was thinking of doing it the other way around. Running XP on the 40 gig drive and storing files on the larger drive. I have a ton of raw digital images that take up a lot of space. Plus music, PSDs, etc.



:::11oh1:::

I try to keep my OS and programs seperate at all times, either by partitioning or by seperate drives. This allows me to format Windows awhen needed and leave all my data/programs intact.


__________________________
"Show me a sane person and I will cure him for you."-Carl Jung
Eagles may fly high, but beavers don't get sucked into jet engines.
tj333- the semi-Christ

quote:

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I try to keep my OS and programs seperate at all times, either by partitioning or by seperate drives. This allows me to format Windows awhen needed and leave all my data/programs intact.

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what about the registry? doesn't it have reference to the programs if they are on a different drive. When you reinstall teh OS, the reference to the programs are gone....right?

Later,

C:\


~Binary is best~

if you run XP's File and Settings Wizard you can back that data up...

quote:

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quote:
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I try to keep my OS and programs seperate at all times, either by partitioning or by seperate drives. This allows me to format Windows awhen needed and leave all my data/programs intact.
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what about the registry? doesn't it have reference to the programs if they are on a different drive. When you reinstall teh OS, the reference to the programs are gone....right?

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The references to the programs are gone, but all I do is make shortcuts to the programs .exes and run them that way.
I have not had many problems with the registry for the majority of my rograms. I do reinstall anti-virus, firewalls, and other programs that I need to boot on start so they still have all of their registry settings but for the most part the games I play are not overly attached to their registries.


__________________________
"Show me a sane person and I will cure him for you."-Carl Jung
Eagles may fly high, but beavers don't get sucked into jet engines.
tj333- the semi-Christ

[This message has been edited by tj333 (edited 02-17-2004).]

Here's the way I deal with this partition/Windows/programs/documents stuff:

- my Windows is in drive E:\, that has around 7 GB. As of now, only 2.42 GB is in use.
- my Outlook Express files, all my programs, IE temporary Internet files, My Documents, my Favorites, all these folders are in another partition, D:\, from another hard disk, that has around 14 GB. As of now, only around 5GB is in use.
- Downloaded files are downloaded usually to My Documents but then I move them to other partitions, because I download a lot. That's why My Documents is always light, with only my latest files.
- my paging file is in another partition of a different hard disk, J:\.

Then I keep always a rather updated image of my partition E:\. As of now, this image has around 1.33 GB. I don't keep images of any other partition.

When something goes wrong (I install a program that I regreted, I made some stupid mistake, Windows XP starts behaving abnormaly for no known reason, etc...), I just restore the image of E:\, that takes around 5 minutes for the whole process.

If I have installed any program after the time when the image was made, I will have some programs that need reinstallation, and this is not a problem because all I have to do is to install it again, and I always install in the same folder that it was installed previously.

If I have uninstalled programs after the image was done, I will have references to a program that doesn't exist. I have two options: install it again in the same folder it was before and then uninstall it to remove all references, or clean the registry manually. Anyway, these entries in the registry are harmless.

I don't use IE anymore, I use Firefox, and I haven't yet figured out how to put Firefox's Favorites and temporary files outside E:\.

The idea is: keep only the core files of WinXP in E:\.
You don't need huge partitions for the main partition, where these core files will be, where WinXP will be installed. WinXP files don't use that much space so if you use a 30GB partition for this purpose, you'll have a lot of unused space or you'll start using this partition for other purposes, and then the general idea of having a small image of core files is lost.

My current Program Files partition (D:\) has only 5GB of files (there are more) because I don't mix games with applications. All my games are installed in another partition, because I always install games using full install. This game partition has around 10GB of files. BTW, I don't play games anymore, due to some personal problems. But the partition and all games are still there.

I like to keep th OS on one partition, programs in another and data files in a third. Most of the people I know think this is nuts 'cause they din't like to have to refer to a different drive. They prefer to have every thing in one partition, I guess.

One comment: You should keep your OS on the fastest drive no matter what size it is. This will help to reduce lag time when loading and swapping programs. Actually, now that I think about it, putting your swap files on a really fast partition (about 1Gb [i]should[/] be enough) would make the most sense and then it doesn't really matter how you partition the rest of the OS, programs, and data.

It is probably a good idea to put OS, swap space, programs, and data on separate partitions just for organizational purposes. But you can combine any of these in the way that works for you.




-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

I have 3 drives partitied into 6 partitions.

Drive 1
1 Windows and Programs -- so I can have a clean start when I reformat.
2 Music - I've trying to get my entire CD and album collection digital

Drive 2
3 Development server / Projects
4 photography / stock art -- like you I have tons of large photos

Drive 3
1 backups of program settings / archives / manuals (pdfs, etc)
2 tv shows and other video

My basic setup is pretty much the same as hyperbole.

C:\ Windows
D:\ Programs
E:\ Data;


Same reasons as above. Windows on C: so I can reinstall that without losing anything. I Do have to reinstall the programs for the reg settings but because I kept them on the seperate partitions I keep all the program data/config settings etc. And actually unlike viol I image the E: drive for backups.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

The 40gig HDD that came with my machine is quite slow (can't remember the numbers) So When I bought a new and faster 80gig HDD this is what I did.
I partitioned the new (faster) HDD into 3 drives (using Partition Magic) C, G. and H.
I use C mainly for the Operating system and a couple of progs that like to be on a C drive. I have kept the size of this drive to about 12gig. Drives G and H are split equally in size with what is left about 30gig each. The older 40gig HDD is now called D, this is where I am storing all my Image, Photography and music data.
It has been mentioned before, but I also find that by keeping the operating system on one smaller manageable drive it is so much easier to maintain.

:::tao:::

C:\ (10gb) - Windows/Programs
D:\ (10gb) - AutoCAD
E:\ (10gb) - Code
F:\ (10gb) - Porn
G:\ (10gb) - Random stuff
H:\ (10gb) - Empty

yah, they say to keep the programs and OS on one drive and the files on a different drive.

I lost 2 drives when my old computer burned up... Replaced them with one faster 80 gig. partitioned it for system / and for files. And it is slower than the old set up with different actual drives.

I think partitions are more for organization... not so much preformance. That is my take.

Especially if you are not going to be doing video editing. It really should not matter all that much.


[antique sigs are us]

Partitioning can slow down a drive because the drive head has to go from one partition to the other which can lead to more drive movement than you otherwise would have.
Partitions are mostly good for organizing things for when a drive needs to be reformated and having smaller clusters sizes.

If you partition your most accessed data to the outer regeons of the harddrive this data will have a lower seek times and be accessed faster. This is because the outer edges of the drive platter move faster then the inner platter. Kind of like being on a merry-go-round, you are fastest on the outside.

But having multiple physical disks to hold the data is best since the disks can be accessed independently. The harddrive is one of the worst botlenecks in the system so being able to pull data from multiple sources at once is of great benifit. This can be done by having multiple drives or through such technologies as RAID.

For my next PC I am thinking of going with two mid rage server drives. Lower capacity, higher cost, but great performance.

__________________________
"Show me a sane person and I will cure him for you."-Carl Jung
Eagles may fly high, but beavers don't get sucked into jet engines.
tj333- the semi-Christ

Here's the specs for my HD's / partition:

disk 1 (ATA 66 - 30GB)
c:\ - 7.5 k MB - Windows 2000
f:\ - 7.5 k MB - Windows XP installation 1
g:\ - 7.1 k MB - Program files for both Win2k and WinXP-1 installations
h:\ - 7.1 k MB - music

disk 2 (ATA 100 - 40GB)
d:\ - 14.2 k MB - personal and program files for WinXP-2
i:\ - 12.0 k MB - game installations
j:\ - 12.0 k MB - stuff

disk 3 (ATA 100 - 80GB)
e:\ - 7.5 k MB - main partition - WinXP installation 2
k:\ - 16.5 k MB - a bunch of stuff, including image backups
l:\ - 26.1 k MB - stuff
m:\ - 26.1 k MB - important stuff

disk 4 (ATA 133 - 200 GB)
p:\ - 5 k MB - used to have a WinXP third installation.
q:\ - 94 k MB - video editing - some final videos
r:\ - 95 k MB - stuff

disk 5 (ATA 133 - 200 GB)
s:\ - 64 k MB - stuff
t:\ - 65 k MB - stuff
u:\ - 65 k MB - downloaded files repository

Disk 4 failed but I have just received the replacement. My third WinXP installation stopped working after I installed the fifth HD, because of drive letter change.

There is a historical side to these splits. Hard disks were added to the system in order as shown. As bigger and faster HD's were added, a new installation of windows were also added, bigger partitions were created. Most of my partitions use NTFS formatting.

[This message has been edited by viol (edited 02-20-2004).]

At the moment I've got a rather easy setup.
/boot - > 32 MB
swap -> 512 MB
/ -> ca 120G
I should have separated / into two smaler partitions, but since I this is the first time I'm using Gentoo I didn't know where most of the programs were installed so I stuck with the safe option this round. Usually I have OS and programs on one partition and all my 'working files' on another partition. So when/if I delete the OS partition I will still have my work and configuration files.

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"
- the Golden Ratio -

Holy Cow Viol!

what happens when you get to "z" drive?

Does the system just spontaneously combust?

If so... can you get that on tape?




[antique sigs are us]

quote:

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what happens when you get to "z" drive?

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I've been questioning myself about it since I added my last HD !!
Maybe there is a way to use letter b:\ ??

Try making virtual drives with generic isos and see waht happens.

__________________________________


Sexy Demoness cel

viol- get a 5 1/4 Floppy drive... I had a 'B:' on an old 486...


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