partition size

[tek33]

hi i am building a new pc and am going to put vista home premium 64 clean install on a wd 640 gb hd .instead of in the past i put 1 big partition .this time i would like to just put the os on a partition away from the rest of the files .question is how big should i make the partition to be safe?

[DanTheBanjoman]

That's basically all up to you, I think a clean install can get up to 15-20GB, depending on what software you use this is more. Personally I prefer keeping one big partition.

[a_ump]

i agree with Dan, though i'd give it 25-30gb of space just for security updates and what not, though im not sure why you would do this, do security updates know which partition has the OS or not, and if it's for safety reasons wouldn't a virus/worm/trojan be able to infect all the files on harddrive just like an AV can protect the whole harddrive? just thoughts running through my head

[lemonadesoda]

I recommend the following setup:

1./ Somewhere between 30GB and 100GB for your "system partition", C:
2./ Somewhere between 100GB and x GB for your "data partition", D:
3./ Somewhere between 100GB and x GB for your "media partition", M:

Put all your important data and setup/installation files on D:

Put all your videos and MP3s on M:

Now, if you want to backup your drive, its easy! Just backup what you want to backup. Even better if you have a drive caddy or USB drive, you should set the D: and M: sizes compatible with the size of your backup HDDs. (I have my D: and M: at 200GB, because I have old 200GB HDDs lying around I use for occasional backups). I also have an S: and separate my data from my setup files on S:

MOST IMPORTANT. If your PC OS gets farked, you can just reinstall your OS partition nice and clean, and your D: and M: (and S: ) are still there and unaffected.

I also have a (hidden) Z: partition. This is a mirror of my C: with OS installed, patched and updated. If my C: gets farked, I just mirror Z: to C: and I'm up and running in minutes.

[mlee49]

Originally Posted by lemonadesoda

I recommend the following setup:

1./ Somewhere between 30GB and 100GB for your "system partition", C:
2./ Somewhere between 100GB and x GB for your "data partition", D:
3./ Somewhere between 100GB and x GB for your "media partition", M:

Put all your important data and setup/installation files on D:

Put all your videos and MP3s on M:

Now, if you want to backup your drive, its easy! Just backup what you want to backup. Even better if you have a drive caddy or USB drive, you should set the D: and M: sizes compatible with the size of your backup HDDs. (I have my D: and M: at 200GB, because I have old 200GB HDDs lying around I use for occasional backups). I also have an S: and separate my data from my setup files on S:

MOST IMPORTANT. If your PC OS gets farked, you can just reinstall your OS partition nice and clean, and your D: M: (and S are still there and unaffected.

I also have a )hidden) Z: partition. This is a mirror of my C: with OS installed, patched and updated. If my C: gets farked, I just mirror Z: to C: and I'm up and running in minutes.

I agree 100%, this is how I have my HDD staggered.


I like to partition my OS in case of reformat needs. I think 30-50GB is plenty for an OS partition.

[DanTheBanjoman]

How can you recommend any size for data or media when you don't know what he does with his computer? Perhaps he doesn't even have any music or video on his computer nor does he want to. Besides, partitioning means you eventually run out of space on one partition and have to make folders on other partitions, it'll get messy. If you use folders from the start this issue doesn't exist. Surely it's still a matter of preference, but recommending things without knowing anything is impossible.

[a_ump]

^true but that just serves as an example i thk, so if he doesn't have much music/movies then he could shorten media to 10GB or something, just and example. though i never will understand the benefit from partitioning a drive 3 times for the same OS, only made sense to me if you were doing ubuntu on one and windows on the other, everyone's different i guess

[lemonadesoda]

^^ I would like to think that the gentleman is sufficiently intelligent to "interpret" the recommendations to suit his needs. He clearly has "other files" he wants to separate from the OS. The illustration is a reminder that more than two partitions can serve a purpose for file and directory management AND aid backup to equally sized HDDs.

Who cares what "type" of data is he wants to manage. He can apply the pricinples as he choses.

Perhaps he archives interesting threads and comments from TPU moderators. I'd suggest he follows your suggestion of putting those in folders. The windows\temp directory for example.

My hardrive is as follows:

500GB across 3 partitions:

50GB for windows (Roughly 10GB left, so take that into consideration)
200GB for programs
250GB for storage.

I prefer to have seperate partitions for programs and strage, purely becuase if vista screws up i dont lose either.

[a_ump]

i c, just out of curiosity, is it any slower having those partitions compared to a single full partition?

[mlee49]

Nope, the drive reads all the info the same. Just blocked off into sections.

I doubt it, the partitions just "fence off" chunks of data.

[tek33]

the answer i think i was looking for was from lemonandsoda. if i need to reinstall the os i can just reformat that partition . i just had to reformat my hp i bought 2yrs ago ago and had to reinstall everything pain in the butt. i do a lot of pc gaming flight sim, crysis ,far cry 2 etc. thanks. also any good links to setting up a dual boot pc i want to run xp 32 and vista64. thanks.

[AsRock]

Here's pic how mine are both OS's are well used ( Vista and XP x64). In th end it's up to how you use your computer. Vista takes about 5-10GB more space for me there's just a lot more files on the XP partition.

[ktr]

I agree with Dan. Just have one partition, and just make folders. You can use the MSDOS command subst (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subst) to assign a driver letter to a folder.

So an example is...

subst x: c:\movies
subst y: c:\music
subst z: c:\pictures

etc...

So the folder "movies" in root of C: will be assigned a letter of X:..."music" in root of C: will be assigned a letter of Y:...& "pictures" in root of C: will be assigned a letter of Z:...

One thing is when you reboot, this assignment will be gone. So the solution is to make a batch file and put it in your startup folder.

[a_ump]

lol the first time i've read of batch being useful

[ktr]

Originally Posted by a_ump

lol the first time i've read of batch being useful

You haven't played much with batch files then

[mlee49]

Even if you batch; if you need to reinstall your OS you would have to back up the files to an external drive.

I don't know who takes the time to back files up, maybe set it as a schedule, but why even worry when you can just wipe the partition clean with a fresh OS? What if he want's to install Win7 in two years, having a set place for the OS is better than keeping your files backed up regularly and needing extra software/hardware.

Granted there are more than one way to skin a cat and this is just my simple minded opinion.

[mc-dexter]

word of warning.... from experiance, if your using sata try not to use more than one partition on each physical HDD as you will suffer performance and possibly if gone unnoticed... data loss, which is always a bitch

[lemonadesoda]

^please explain. That shouldnt happen.

[{JNT}Raptor]

Originally Posted by mc-dexter

word of warning.... from experiance, if your using sata try not to use more than one partition on each physical HDD as you will suffer performance and possibly if gone unnoticed... data loss, which is always a bitch

You really need to explain the logic behind your statement....sounds like your rig has Issues NOT related to partitions.

I've been running SATA for years....with partitions...and suffer from NO performance loss and NO data loss....you need to be careful with your statements on a site that gets alot of traffic....someone may actually believe your comment....which IS untrue.
40-50gig for the OS...less if your not using VISTA....It's a preference thing.
Split the rest up as you need it to be......all your games can go on a separate partition...all apps can be installed outside the OS partition...but not all apps will work after a fresh reinstall of the OS.......trial and error will Inform you of which........also...some games may not function after a fresh reinstall....but as long as you reinstall the game to the same location....(Same Folder)..It'll take a fraction of the time to Install. Then after you get your OS tuned and loaded with apps.....don't forget to ghost it to a backup Image....so you don't have to reinstall....just re-image your backup over....takes less time than a reinstall...and your up to near full speed out of the gate.


Hope it helps.

[Darknova]

To be honest, I've never liked partitions and I have always recommended people don't use them. I much prefer to have seperate harddrives, 1 for OS and programs, 1 for Data/Media and 1 for Backups.

The problem I find with partitions is that if the harddrive goes you've lost everything, where as if my OS drive fails I've lost my save games and non-essential documents. It's not as big a deal as the whole drive taking everything out with it.

[mc-dexter]

JNT: I do somewhat agree with you, i know people who have used partitions on sata drives for many years and they too have never had any problems.

The problem i've always tended to have though is i'll partition a drive say for example my 80gig, the OS partition will be 20Gig, and the rest data, so yeah everythigns fine..... but when it comes to formatting every now and again, its fine too, but every now n then it will pretty much die, read rates of very low 1.5MB/S untill i format the whole drive as one and then re-partition it.

I'm no expert i know that, but thats the only thing i can see what the HDD doesnt like after so many formats (on each partition) if you JNT can actually correct me on this i'd love to know, as i've never thought other wise.