Is using an hdd without partition OK?

[stumped3r]

I have only one 1TB hdd and now I have only one drive due to some wrong operation of last time reinstalling.

What I want to know is that is it really necessary to do some partitions? If I keep using my only hdd as a whole drive without any partition for a very long time, will it slow my system? And what's your opinions on partition?

 

[rtwjunkie]

Partitioning is not necessary, and can actually slow down your drive. I will suggest that you get another drive soon and keep your irreplaceable data/photos/etc onto there as soon as possible. And also make sure you have a backup plan for it.

Just regularly use drive cleanup for junk, occasionally defrag your HDD, and you should be fine for speed.

 

[Ungari]

Using an HDD without permission is just plain wrong!
Always get permission to use an HDD.

 

[stumped3r]

Using an HDD without permission is just plain wrong!
Always get permission to use an HDD.

what does your "permission" mean?

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Using an HDD without permission is just plain wrong!
Always get permission to use an HDD.

Either trying to be funny or can't read...

There's no need to partition your drive, it's a personal choice... But get another drive or back up your data that you can't afford to lose cause a single drive is a single point of failure if it does die on you.

 

[newtekie1]

I never partition any of my drives.

 

[stumped3r]

thanks guys, i'll use my portable hard drive back up important stuffs.

 

[Flow]

Your drive already has a partition, or else it would be "raw"and unusable. It's where your data and/or operating system sits.
But yes, better to get another drive for backup.

 

[natr0n]

I never partition any of my drives.

+1

 

[RejZoR]

Well, you need at least 1 partition. Drive without partition is RAW drive that can't be used at all

 

[lorraine walsh]

Definitely partition. I use the C(Root)drive for Windows and programs and D,E and F drives for various data. With this setup, if you have an unrecoverable crash you can just reformat and reinstall Windows and lose none of your data. If you just have the C drive and are not particularly computer savvy you are likely to lose all your data.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I never partition any of my drives.

This. The only partitions I have are required by EFI/GPT/MBR. Said differently, my drivers only have one letter.

 

[Jetster]

I never partition any of my drives.

You have to have at least one partition (the active one). Otherwise its a raw drive

But no problem you can use the whole drive for your system. Single partition It wont slow anything down

It actually is going to have two partitions The System Reserved 100/250Mb and the Active partition

Now people uasally learn about how to add a partition and go fn crazy. You don't need a bunch of partitions. But keeping your data separate from your system is a good idea in case of a system failure and you can only afford one drive. Then you can delete the system and reinstall while not touching your data

 

[FYFI13]

Hard to believe how many people here think they're using unpartitioned hard/solid state drives

 

[Jetster]

Hard to believe how many people here think they're using unpartitioned hard/solid state drives

Not really, its a confusing word.

 

[Frick]

Not really, its a confusing word.

No it isn't. The OP means a second partition.

Anyway, I like to have two partitions if I have a single drive.

 

[Komshija]

"Whole" drive usually means one partition with the same size as total HDD capacity. Even if you are using it as a system drive, where system creates unmarked 100-500 MB partition which is not user-accessible, you'll still have one partition.

 

[qubit]

Partitions are very useful indeed and this is how I've partitioned my drives:

SSD: two equal partitions with Windows 10 on the first one. The second partition is formatted and used for scratchpad / temporary use, such as moving a Steam game with long loading times that I'm currently playing, to it. There's actually a small third, system reserved partition that W10 created, of course.

HDD: this is not a boot drive and has four partitions as follows: Steam games, Origin games, general data and music. The general data and music partitions are backed up regularly using Karen's Replicator. I don't back up the Windows partition as it's not so difficult to reinstall Windows should it break and a backup would take a lot of space.

See specs for hardware details.

 

[stumped3r]

No it isn't. The OP means a second partition.

Anyway, I like to have two partitions if I have a single drive.

I'm not a good English speaker so my words maybe not accurate.
Thanks for understanding.

 

[newtekie1]

You have to have at least one partition (the active one). Otherwise its a raw drive

Hard to believe how many people here think they're using unpartitioned hard/solid state drives

In the tech industry, when partition is used as a verb, it means to divide the drive up into multiple usable partitions. In all of my training, this is always what it means. The A+, MCSE, etc. all do this.

I'm fully aware that there must be are least one partition on the drive if you want to use it.

Also, an unformatted partition is raw. A drive with no partitions is uninitialized. Once you initialize the drive, and decide what type of partition table it will use(usually MBR or GPT in Windows), the drive already has one large partition. That "unallocated" space is a partition in the partition table.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

In the tech industry, when partition is used as a verb, it means to divide the drive up into multiple usable partitions. In all of my training, this is always what it means. The A+, MCSE, etc. all do this.

I'm fully aware that there must be are least one partition on the drive if you want to use it.

Also, an unformatted partition is raw. A drive with no partitions is uninitialized. Once you initialize the drive, and decide what type of partition table it will use(usually MBR or GPT in Windows), the drive already has one large partition. That "unalocated" space is a partition in the partition table.

Glad you said it, quite frankly fed up of seeing people post the same thing about it like they know something we don't... The op was blatantly talking about partitioning the drive after installing Windows and nothing to do with partitioning a raw drive or the goddam system reserved partition /rant

 

[Mussels]

I always have two partitions on my windows drive, just to make reinstall easier.

a 100GB C: partition is a lot easier to wipe and reinstall an OS, than a 1TB+ - moreso when your files are already safe on the D: partition.


More than two partitions, or on secondary drives - no, i don't think its worth it.

 

[Jetster]

I rather have separate drives than multiple partitions

 

[Nabarun]

This. The only partitions I have are required by EFI/GPT/MBR. Said differently, my drivers only have one letter.

Then you have 2 partitions. 1 unusable as a drive.

You have to have at least one partition (the active one). Otherwise its a raw drive

But no problem you can use the whole drive for your system. Single partition It wont slow anything down

It actually is going to have two partitions The System Reserved 100/250Mb and the Active partition

...

No, it's not GOING to have that unnecessary waste of a partition if you partition your drive BEFORE starting the windows setup from cd/usb etc and prevent it from creating that by creating 4 primary partitions. You can use a Linux CD or any other boot medium to partition the drive and THEN start installing windows from your preferred source. After the installation, if you don't want the extra drives then you can just delete them. I used to have multi-boot configuration in my computers long ago when virtualbox wasn't so evolved and running multi OSes was too much for the system resources. And the Extra partition that windows setup ate up was a bit of a nuisance. Multi-boot and access to the bare-bone hardware is still a very viable option for many, for tasting the "actual" power of many OSes and to do stuff which aren't quite as good "virtually" or just might not work at all.

 

[eidairaman1]

Partitioning is not necessary, and can actually slow down your drive. I will suggest that you get another drive soon and keep your irreplaceable data/photos/etc onto there as soon as possible. And also make sure you have a backup plan for it.

Just regularly use drive cleanup for junk, occasionally defrag your HDD, and you should be fine for speed.

Yup partitions slow it all down because the platters and heads would have to move from 1 to the other. 1 partition per drive is a must.

I honestly feel SSDs have dropped in price that it would be a cheap upgrade.
I have the swap space/paging file set to 4096 MB- max allowed so it doesn"t waste any space and those programs that use it have plenty. My HDD is a velociraptor 1tb for games and downloads.