Partitions

Fenris · 19 Mar 2009 at 16:40

Hello,

Just a quick question about HD Partitions. I have a Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB for my new system, and am just wondering how I should partition it.

I'm guessing a partition for the OS and apps etc and then use the rest for documents and programs etc.

Also how big should I make the OS/Apps partition?

Thanks.

Gunnar · 19 Mar 2009 at 19:18

Hi,

What I tend to configure is the following partitions:
OS - 20 to 25 GB (Primary)
Page File - 4GB
Apps - 70GB
Temp/Internet - 5GB
And then any other partitions you might want, eg Music, Video, Docs, Downloads etc.

At the end of the day, it's all down to personal preference and how you want to view/organise your hard drive. For instance you might decide to have 2 primary partitions for dual boot purposes.

Anyway, hope this helps.

knightrider. · 19 Mar 2009 at 19:34

You partition for page file and temp files?
One partition for each OS with one for apps if you feel the need, I don't.

Gunnar · 19 Mar 2009 at 19:50

Yeah....a nice clean small partition for a static page file. A separate trash and burn partition for temporary and Internet dross. It's always worked for me, and just how I like to organise.

knightrider. · 19 Mar 2009 at 20:02

Partitioning for temp files just doesn't make sense to me I guess. As for the page file, I don't have one

Fenris · 19 Mar 2009 at 20:14

Gunnar said:
Hi,

What I tend to configure is the following partitions:
OS - 20 to 25 GB (Primary)
Page File - 4GB
Apps - 70GB
Temp/Internet - 5GB
And then any other partitions you might want, eg Music, Video, Docs, Downloads etc.

At the end of the day, it's all down to personal preference and how you want to view/organise your hard drive. For instance you might decide to have 2 primary partitions for dual boot purposes.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Great thanks, I'll probably just be using a single partition with 25Gb for Vista and the rest for everything else, less hassle.

Just to make sure, 25Gb is enough for Vista Home Premium 64 right?

Gunnar · 19 Mar 2009 at 22:44

25GB should be more than ample, so long as it's just the OS and any must install of C drive software.

Gunnar · 19 Mar 2009 at 22:49

knightrider. said:
Partitioning for temp files just doesn't make sense to me I guess. As for the page file, I don't have one

I've never managed to get away without a Page file.

Up to thee on the Temp Files - I just don't like the continual fragmentation temporary files and Internet files would cause to my OS partition.

miniyazz · 21 Mar 2009 at 00:41

Gunnar said:
Up to thee on the Temp Files - I just don't like the continual fragmentation temporary files and Internet files would cause to my OS partition.

True, but then you have to decide how much space to allocate to those temporary files. Or you could go SSD and say byebye to fragmentation mattering ;-)

By the way, does having so many partitions not stress the hard drive somewhat? Not sure why it would, I just have a feeling!

musicman53 · 21 Mar 2009 at 08:12

There is no gain in having a partition on the same hard drive as the OS for pagefile.
By having it that way the read/write heads are jumping all over the place.
Another hard drive with a dedicated partition for the pagefile is better and that leaves the read/write heads on the drive with the os to get on with what they need to do as and when.