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How best to partition Hard disk with two os?

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Befikit75

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Oct 1, 2010
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How best to partition Hard disk with two os for maximum performance and speed? How many partitions and Prog for partition?

I want to install on disc WD6401AALS:

Windows 7 , games for windows 7
Windows xp, games for windows xp
Films, music, games cds

in which sections?
Thanks
 
Windows 7 is best installed itself with 2 partitions...one small 1GB or so one for the "system" files, and then another for the rest of the OS. Not too sure about how big that system partition is...I cannot remember exactly, and am not on a Win7 box at the moment.

So, I would have 5 partitions... one small one for Win7's system files, 2x20GB or so ones for the OS's, and then two seperate partitions(approx 30GB each) for programs, etc, for each OS.

I would then buy another drive for music, video, etc. ;)

I run with an SSD with 2 OS's installed, and then use seperate 500GB drives for the programs, etc, and then a 1TB drive for data.
 
Only reason to have a partition is to save time like if you format that partition or need to do a diskchk or even install apps \ games to the second partition..

Size of partition depends on user but in most cases around 60-100GB is plenty. Maybe even lower but it's always a good idea to have spare just in case

If your looking for extra speed a separate HDD can help with that.

Use separate HDD's for best performance.
OS1
OS2
Games
Apps
Backup \ downloads and other stuff.

EDIT: And welcome to TPU!
 
Last edited:
How to install Windows 7 in the beginning of the disk, ie, in the fastest section?
 
The only way that I know (to do that), is using Gparted to partition the hard disk in the way you want it to be partitioned (don't forget to apply labels to make sure you can recognise them once you are installing Windows); look at the graph (upper section of the screen) to see which one is the first; reboot and start up from the windows install cd. Select the partition with the same label (for example "windows 7", or whatever name you gave to it yourself) as the label you gave to the first partition.

Just ask if you need help using Gparted.
 
Befikit75 said:
How to install Windows 7 in the beginning of the disk, ie, in the fastest section?
Click to expand...

The 1st partition made is the outside of the disk.
 
So the last partition is actually on the fastest part of the disk, ASRock?
 
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