Boot drive setup

ajm · 25 Oct 2008 at 15:09

I have decided to get a Samsung F1 320GB

I will be using this as my boot drive and wondered what the best way to use it is.

1. Do i just leave it as 1 partition or make it into 2 one for win XP and the other for games?

2. With it being a single 320gig platter will it make any difference having 2 partitions?

3. Also will it slow down if just used as 1 partition?

I know i have poste4d questions about drives before but now i am just wanting to know the best setup as i have chosen the drive i want.

decrypt3r · 25 Oct 2008 at 15:28

why not get 500gb for £5 more?

and keep as 1 partition

psd99 · 25 Oct 2008 at 19:13

I agree spend the extra fiver for a bigger hard drive.
But if you decide not to.

1. That is your choice. I see no advantage for making it two partitions except data loss.

2. Good question perhaps you want this drive in particular because it is a single platter. Well it might be faster with just the one platter but we are talking micro seconds.

3. Nope I've said it before so what if it takes an extra second? It is only a second!!!

ajm · 26 Oct 2008 at 08:40

Thanks for the replies.

I agree spend the extra fiver for a bigger hard drive.

I don't really want the drive to be any bigger as i already have 2 drives in the system with ample free space, so it would probably be wasted.

Bane · 26 Oct 2008 at 10:50

Getting the same hard drive. I plan to follow the same method as below, but with increased sizes. Depends on what your needs are really.

Using my current 250GB Samsung as a point of reference: C: 50GB, D: 97GB (storage), E: 97GB (games).

Drive C: has Vista 64 bit, Works 9, and some very light utilities. That's taken up 25GB space, so if you have an proper office suite and other apps you want to install on same partition then it might be worth considering a bigger C: partition.

I keep my MMORPG's on E: to avoid patching them back up if I format (could take days). As they don't need registry entries in order to run so I can reinstall OS again without issues.

Poweredge · 26 Oct 2008 at 11:23

Personally, I'd split it down into 2 partitions.

It's all well and good having a shed-load of space for your OS partition, but it makes adminstration a little tougher if/when you need to give it a clean out or reinstall. Put things like mail folders, address books, docs, etc on the 2nd partition.

Using 2x500GB F1's here, and have them split into 3 parts each (C/D/E - F/G/H). XP64 on C, Docs on D, Music/Video on E, Swap/Outlook/Address on F, Backups on G/H).

From what I've read, the 320's have a slight speed/reliability advantage over the 500's, and put the extra fiver towards a 2nd 320 (part into two again), then put swaps and backups on the 2nd.

ajm · 27 Oct 2008 at 09:26

Thanks guys. I am really just planning on 2 partitions (I think) 1 for windows and the other for installed games as i have all other files on another drive.

@Poweredge

then put swaps and backups on the 2nd.

What is the swaps, is it the swapfile and what does this do?
What are the benefits of it being on another drive?
How do i put it on another drive?

ajm · 29 Oct 2008 at 08:58

Still looking for some help with the swap file thing as i know nothing about this and need someones prctical help rather than trying to find a link to understand a load of bumf using technical terms i may not understand.

Also not sure now whether i may be better off getting the 640 f1 if i will be partitioning anyway.

musicman53 · 29 Oct 2008 at 11:47

ajm said:
Still looking for some help with the swap file thing as i know nothing about this and need someones prctical help rather than trying to find a link to understand a load of bumf using technical terms i may not understand.

Also not sure now whether i may be better off getting the 640 f1 if i will be partitioning anyway.

Swap file =pagefile(XP and Vista)
Hard drive space used as virtual memory by Windows as and when needed.
Regardless of some people saying it is not needed when you have more than 2Gb of ram it IS needed and there can and will be problems if disabled.

The pagefile(used to be known as swap file)resides on the boot drive as default but there can be some gain if you have it on it's own partition on a different hard drive than where Windows is.

Putting it on a partition on the same drive as windows will not gain anything and could cause problems.

Putting it on it's own partition on a different hard drive(first partition)can help in some ways as it lets windows get on with running programs and tasks.

A good size for the pagefile partition would be around 10Gb but 3-4 Gb should be ok.

Setting the min and max size for the pagefile to my way of thinking is not a good idea.

Leaving it to Windows to use min/max size is best and if on it's own partition on a different drive then there is no need to set min and max size anyway.

I have a 7 Gb partition just for the pagefile on a different drive to windows and have never seen it go over 2Gb in size.
Hope this info is of some help to you.

ajm · 29 Oct 2008 at 13:13

Thanks musicman53 that is really helpful info you posted there. Now i understand it much clearer. Just one thing am i right in thinking that i need a partition of say 10gig on a partition of it's own with nothing else on that partition? and it has to be the first partition on the drive?

musicman53 · 29 Oct 2008 at 14:17

ajm said:
Thanks musicman53 that is really helpful info you posted there. Now i understand it much clearer. Just one thing am i right in thinking that i need a partition of say 10gig on a partition of it's own with nothing else on that partition? and it has to be the first partition on the drive?

You need a partition on a different drive to where Windows is installed.
For instance........
I have windows installed on a 50Gb partion on hard drive 1 and then the rest of hard drive 1 is divided by 3 and I use said partitions(D, E, F)for email and other stuff.
Then I have a second hard drive(HD2)and that has 3 partitions(G, H, I).
Partion G is the first partition and that is 7Gb in size.
H and I are as equal in size as I can get them.
Nothing other than the pagefile(swap file if you call it that)is on G.
That way Windows can use as much of partition G as it needs to.
Hope that explains it.

ajm · 30 Oct 2008 at 10:31

That is very clear, looks like that is the way i will have to do it and give it a try. Only thing is my second drive is at the moment 1 partition so will have to copy the stuff to somewhere else so i can create new partitions. Do you have to somehow change where the pagefile will be to this new partition?

musicman53 · 30 Oct 2008 at 17:20

ajm said:
That is very clear, looks like that is the way i will have to do it and give it a try. Only thing is my second drive is at the moment 1 partition so will have to copy the stuff to somewhere else so i can create new partitions. Do you have to somehow change where the pagefile will be to this new partition?

Control panel, System properties, Performance options, Advanced tab....
Virtual memory click the change button..... set select drive C:
Select custom size and enter 50 in both boxes
then click Set.
Then reboot.
After reboot go back to the same place and select the drive letter where the new Pagefile is going to be.
When selected choose system managed.
Click set and reboot.
From then on windows will use the partition you chose for the pagefile.
The reason why I said set a min of 50 and max of 50 for drive C: is because if the PC crashes or blue screens then the error report/memory dump will be saved to windows folder.

ajm · 31 Oct 2008 at 08:37

Thanks very much musicman53 for this detailed info it is much appreciated. Didn't realise there would be settings to change and then reboot a couple of times. I am glad i asked now or i may have just changed it and expected it to work by entering the new drive.

fobose · 31 Oct 2008 at 16:40

I have a 96GB partition for windows/apps/games, and the rest (500GB) is storage. I dont see a point having a partition for games, if you have to format you will need to reinstall your games anyway.

Most saved games tend to be in my documents these days, so I cant see any real gain from having a seperate partition incase you need to format.

ajm · 1 Nov 2008 at 09:53

Actually fobose i have always had my games on a seperate partition as in most cases if you do have to format windows, the games are still there and usuable. You just need to copy saves back to my docs. I do agree that some games do have to be reinstalled but i haven't came across many so far.