Partitioning a 250 gb hdd, whats the best way?

[alm99]

I have alreay partitioned a 40gb for the OS and apps. I have a remaining 190gb to partition. Whats the best way of doing this? I have mp3s, games, movies, etc that I want to place on the drive, but my concern is that will these files stay on the other partition(s) if I were to ever reinstall windows on the primary partition 6 months down the road?

Also when partitioning with Windows XP should the extra partition(s) be an extended partition or a primary partition?

 

[Amorphus]

primary partitional allows you to put an OS on there, if you want to multi-boot. doesn't really matter (you can have 3 primaries, IIRC).

I keep a partition for all my programs, a partition for my download, a partition for personal work and such, and a partition for other stuff. dole out the GB as you see fit.

if you format one partition (c:\, or your windows partition), the other partitions won't go away, no.

 

[alm99]

cool, thanks.

Any suggestions on how I should split the remaining 200gb?

 

[Lonyo]

At least 20GB for games (40's better). I have a 45GB partition on my total of 135GB just for games. Already 28GB used.

20GB for backup of important files (in case partitions get messed up/corrupted) - save games/work documents etc.

A partition with an image of the OS installation (so you can restore)

1.5x space your mp3's and movies take up for an mp3/movie partition (you always want a bit extra space)

10GB or something for work files.

Then a big empty space to be used as an when needed for whatever else.

 

[SUOrangeman]

If you intend to only run one operating system, you're probably better off with just one partition encompassing the entire drive. I would (and do) only partition for a single-OS system if I want to physically set a hard limit for a particular group of files (say, limit downloads to 40GB or MP3s to 80GB). Otherwise, you'll just get stuck when you've filled one of those partitions and all of your planning will seem for naught. I've been there and I have done that. I don't wanna go back!

-SUO

 

[HGC]

I put everything I want to back up on one partition, and everything I don't want to backup (games, etc.) on another. Makes backups quicker and easier.

 

[cloudchief]

Originally posted by: SUOrangeman
If you intend to only run one operating system, you're probably better off with just one partition encompassing the entire drive. I would (and do) only partition for a single-OS system if I want to physically set a hard limit for a particular group of files (say, limit downloads to 40GB or MP3s to 80GB). Otherwise, you'll just get stuck when you've filled one of those partitions and all of your planning will seem for naught. I've been there and I have done that. I don't wanna go back!

-SUO

That makes absolutely no sense. If you only have one partition encompassing the entire drive and your OS goes south and you have to reinstall, your willing to lose 200+ Gigs of saved data.
May have made sense when drives were a gigabyte and all of your important stuff could be backed up to floppys, but not 250 gigs.

 

[McCarthy]

Originally posted by: cloudchief

That makes absolutely no sense. If you only have one partition encompassing the entire drive and your OS goes south and you have to reinstall, your willing to lose 200+ Gigs of saved data.
May have made sense when drives were a gigabyte and all of your important stuff could be backed up to floppys, but not 250 gigs.

I don't reformat when installing an OS, haven't for ten years, my data's been fine (until I bought an IBM Deskstar 60GXP).

Why would you lose the entire partition? Should be backing up what you don't mind losing in the first place (see parenthesis above) Partitioning doesn't save you from physical failure after all, and I've yet to see an OS go on a killing spree and take down the entire partition with it.

 

[Toro 45]

I'd leave it the way you have it,40 for the OS & 190 for everything else.Personaly I hate digging through all the drive letters of a multi partioned hard drive & a couple of optical drives.

Toro

 

[cloudchief]

Originally posted by: McCarthy

Originally posted by: cloudchief

That makes absolutely no sense. If you only have one partition encompassing the entire drive and your OS goes south and you have to reinstall, your willing to lose 200+ Gigs of saved data.
May have made sense when drives were a gigabyte and all of your important stuff could be backed up to floppys, but not 250 gigs.

I don't reformat when installing an OS, haven't for ten years, my data's been fine (until I bought an IBM Deskstar 60GXP).

Why would you lose the entire partition? Should be backing up what you don't mind losing in the first place (see parenthesis above) Partitioning doesn't save you from physical failure after all, and I've yet to see an OS go on a killing spree and take down the entire partition with it.

First off I should of said "That makes absolutely no sense TO ME" I may know more than a lot of people, but there are a lot more people that know a lot more than me.
For me there there have always times when no matter what I do the only thing that will work is format and fresh install.
As far as backing things up, I have over a terabyte of hard drives and just dont have the time or the energy to be backing all the stuff on it up.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Cloudy, I'm not sure you read past my first sentence. As you describe, I would recommend having separate partitions to physically isolate a certain set of files, be they downloads, music, or personal files.

-SUO

 

[poppyq]

What's the point of having five or six different partitions based on what you put on them? I say stick with a 40GB OS/program partition and put everything else on the leftover (190GB) Most of the recommendations given can be done just as easily with folders on the 190GB partition rather than creating a partition for each individual type.

Here's what my system looks like as an example:

40GB = C = c:\games c:\windows
120GB = D = d:\files d:\mp3 and I have the files directory split up into other sections like programs, movies, pictures, documents

Not sure why I put the games on the first partition, they'd probably be better off on the second, but at least that gives you an idea.

 

[alm99]

How would the performance be if I were to have the other partition as one large 190gb partition? Would it lag at all once it gets full? Would my system slow down?

 

[cloudchief]

SUO
You are one of those people that I sense know a whole lot more than I do about computers, which is all the more reason it did not make sense to me.
I did read your whole post more than once and the way I understood it was the only reason you would add additional partitions was if you wanted to allot space for certain things. "I would (and do) only partition for a single-OS system if I want to physically set a hard limit for a particular group of files" I took that to mean you only add partitions for that reason. Maybe my reading comprehension is bad. I certainly meant you no disrespect, in fact quite the opposite since I have learned much from your posts over the years.

 

[eGAK]

A good read on partitioning strategies

 

[SUOrangeman]

Certainly no offense taken. I tend to type way to slow for my thinking, so the final message I convey can be confusing! I think we're meaning the same thing and just stating them differently.

-SUO