reinstalling windows 7

bigjimmyauk · 5 Feb 2011 at 18:35

doing a re-install tonight and going to create partitions this time round and see if it makes a big difference.

what sort of size should i be looking at making for windows 7 64 bit

*EDIT* I have a 1tb F3 HDD

Danny091 · 5 Feb 2011 at 18:39

Depends... I would say like 200GB for the OS and the rest for doc's.

200GB will give you more than enough room for windows / programs and a few games if you run out of space you can always install the rest onto the doc's partition.

bigjimmyauk · 5 Feb 2011 at 18:45

Danny091 said:
Depends... I would say like 200GB for the OS and the rest for doc's.

200GB will give you more than enough room for windows / programs and a few games if you run out of space you can always install the rest onto the doc's partition.

oh my games list is extensive so that was going on the other partition

i was thinking along the lines off 60GB for OS 500Gb for games and the rest for pictures and music

Danny091 · 5 Feb 2011 at 18:56

120GB min really for OS id recommend just for putting windows and programs. I think you would struggle with 60GB after a month or so.

Buchanan0204 · 5 Feb 2011 at 19:31

This is a purely personal choice and there is no right or wrong, some people can live with 30GB partitions for the OS, others need hundreds. Depends how much software you plan on installing. Just go on previous installs, how much do you usually use?

Sylver123 · 5 Feb 2011 at 20:17

I have my Crucial C300 256GB SSD split into two partitions.

I use a 100GB partition size for my Windows 7 64 bit and another partition for anything I like.

If you ever needed more os space on your main first partition, then all you would need to do is to remove any partitions after the main first one and use windows
Computer Management to extend the main os partition and then you could make another partitions again if you wanted if there is any space left on the drive.

You can extend your main os partition without needing to reinstall windows or affecting your installed windows and programs.

Surveyor · 5 Feb 2011 at 20:25

Partitioning a single disk will make no difference to speed, load times etc.

Your PC is still accessing the same disk over the same interface and will achieve the same speed.

Dewotter · 5 Feb 2011 at 20:29

Surveyor said:
Partitioning a single disk will make no difference to speed, load times etc.

Your PC is still accessing the same disk over the same interface and will achieve the same speed.

It's great though in case of emergency Windows reinstalls being needed. No need to fret trying to access data -from the last backup of course.

Paul11 · 5 Feb 2011 at 20:31

Surveyor said:
Partitioning a single disk will make no difference to speed, load times etc.

Your PC is still accessing the same disk over the same interface and will achieve the same speed.

in theory partitioning a drive will make searching for files quicker

in pracice if you would notice the difference is a whole other question

Mattus · 5 Feb 2011 at 20:41

Surveyor said:
Partitioning a single disk will make no difference to speed, load times etc.

Your PC is still accessing the same disk over the same interface and will achieve the same speed.

That isn't quite true. A mechanical disk doesn't have a uniform read rate - data that's on the outer edge of the disk can be read considerably faster than data on the inside, because the outer part moves past the head more quickly as the disk rotates. The fastest way to use a disk is theoretically to put your most-accessed files at the beginning of the disk (which equates to the outside).

Some defrag software will do this for you. But having a small OS partition is one way to ensure that your OS files are always on the fastest part of the disk.

I wouldn't count that as the main advantage of partitioning, though. That comes when you need to reinstall Windows. I personally have a 40GB OS partition. I install most programs to a second partition, since a lot of programs don't actually have to be reinstalled when you reinstall Windows.

Surveyor · 6 Feb 2011 at 00:18

Surely if you have Windows on one partition, and program files on another partition, your program files won't work properly if you reinstall Windows as all of the program file Registry entries will be gone.

Buchanan0204 · 6 Feb 2011 at 02:49

Surveyor said:
Surely if you have Windows on one partition, and program files on another partition, your program files won't work properly if you reinstall Windows as all of the program file Registry entries will be gone.

You're right. Some programs are standalone however.

LeJosh · 6 Feb 2011 at 03:12

My OS partition is 50GB and I still have 30GB free. I save everything onto different drives and leave OS related things on the C: drive.

100GB+ is just a waste to be honest.

I'm using W7 64-bit HP too.