partitioning

Jim666 · 27 Feb 2011 at 16:41

Hi lads

I'm pretty new to all this so please bear with me i am looking to try and change the partitions on my pc for better performance and such and i am a little stuck. my pc is a HP G2500-uk pre built with 1tb hard drive space, now the partition for the OS (windows 7) is 918.83GB with 874.81GB of free space am i right in thinking this is a little excessive. If so should i be shrinking the partition to say 200GB and the amount i have shrunk this down by i can now use for photos videos ect? any answers are greatly appreaciated thanks peeps!!

Surveyor · 27 Feb 2011 at 21:46

What's excessive about it?

All your other programs, photos, videos etc. go in the remaining 874.81GB.

Jim666 · 27 Feb 2011 at 22:19

why do people partion then if its fine to have it all in one? like i said im new to all this so just trying to get my head round it all. :confused:

Surveyor · 27 Feb 2011 at 22:27

Jim666 said:
why do people partion then if its fine to have it all in one? like i said im new to all this so just trying to get my head round it all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

Advantages

1.Formatting Convenience - If you ever need to format, you do not have to copy your data out first since it resides on another partition. You can just format the OS partition.
2.Increased Security - There is increased data security, since your data is now on another partition. Malware that affects or scan files on only one single drive will not scan your data partition.
3.Improved Performance - you can defragment your OS drive for max performance, and not worry about it being fragmented so fast, since data (where it changes the most), resides on another partition.

Disadvantages

1.Slower Data Moves - Moving data from one partition to another takes awhile, unlike moves in the same partition.
2.Set-up Inconvenience - There are advisable steps to do in order to let your OS use the other partition as data effectively without impacting your workflow. e.g Moving your My Documents folder to the other partition.
3.Reduced Space - When you have 2 partitions, some space is lost.

Jim666 · 27 Feb 2011 at 22:33

thank you very much mate great info appreciate it

Liquid · 28 Feb 2011 at 02:43

Remember that if you setup another partition for your documents etc, should the drive fail, you will potentially lose everything on both as you would do with it all on one partition.

Those advantages are pretty lame to be honest and you are not likely to see any performance increase anyway. And if there is any occasion where both partitions are in use it at the same time it will be crippling performance/bandwith wise and the drive will be worked hard.

JonJ678 · 28 Feb 2011 at 03:48

You wanted the storage forum, not memory really.

One argument for a smaller OS partition is that it puts the OS on a faster part of the disk. I'm not convinced that's noticeable.

A good argument for it is making disk imaging (for backups) much quicker. As a matter of course I now save an image of the OS partition after finishing installing software, and keep it elsewhere on the drive. When windows is a bit knackered, I write the image back across. This would take much longer, and tend to conflict with data, if everything was on one partition. WIndows and programs on C:, data and my documents on D:, and keep an image of C: on D:. All in the spirit of minimising down time.

Liquid · 28 Feb 2011 at 04:11

JonJ678 said:
You wanted the storage forum, not memory really.

One argument for a smaller OS partition is that it puts the OS on a faster part of the disk. I'm not convinced that's noticeable.

A good argument for it is making disk imaging (for backups) much quicker. As a matter of course I now save an image of the OS partition after finishing installing software, and keep it elsewhere on the drive. When windows is a bit knackered, I write the image back across. This would take much longer, and tend to conflict with data, if everything was on one partition. WIndows and programs on C:, data and my documents on D:, and keep an image of C: on D:. All in the spirit of minimising down time.

Fair points but you are still screwed if the physical drive has a failure, you are even better off in this situation if you have another hard drive, which cost nothing these days. Pick up a 320gb for os and he can then make the 1tb drive the data/backup/documents drive.