Windows - Partition v Dedicated

doodah · 3 May 2007 at 13:30

Got a bit of money and was going to buy two 7200.10s (80Gb for Windows and a bigger one for storage) and a X-Fi. Just wondering does it make much difference having a dedicated windows drive instead of a partition - if not im buying another 2Gbs of Geil and a 7200.10. Quick answer appreciated as i want to catch cut off point before next day delivery. Thanks

swinnie · 3 May 2007 at 13:49

It makes a difference as the drive with your operating system on is most likely to fail. If your data is on that drive and you have no back-ups you will have to pay someone hundreds of £'s to retrieve the data, and there is know guarantee that this will be effective etc...

When I get my new PC I will have two hard drives, one for windows and one for data as I want to protect my data in more than one way, a backup!

Hope this answers your question.

FatRakoon · 5 May 2007 at 11:48

I always keep my Windows Partition just for Windows.

Obviously, with having larger drives these days, thats stupid.

So, with a 2-drive setup, I would have the following :-

Drive 1
P1 = C: Windows ( Never needed it bigger than 8GB )
P2 = E: Media

Drive 2
P2 = D: Apps
P3 = F: Junk

The swap will be shared between C: and D: and therefore the swap will be shared across 2 drives... Im not going to go into any stupid arguements over the swap as there are those for and against anything Id say.

The above example, is how I have setup all my LAN PCs and its proven to me, to be about the best for what I want it.

On a single Drive setup, I have C: as an 8GB, have the entire swap on there and D: will be the rest of it... Having more than 2 partitions I feel is a waste.

Also having a dedicated partition for the swap is also a silly thing to do that I have never understood, having a dedicated drive would be quicker, however, Windows always gives C: the biggest shared of its time, and so having a SWAP in C: will be the fastest.

Now, on my main PC, I have multiple HDs and so, the partitioning system is similar to *** 2 Drive example up there, but this is how Im running it at this time :-

RAID ( 2 x Raptors )
C: = 8GB ( Windows only )
T: = 60GB ( CD/DVD ISO Images )

RAID ( 2 x Hitchi 80GBs )
D: = Apps ( All the programs & Games etc )

Drive E: = Media ( MP3 / Movies etc )
Drive F: = Junk ( Everything else really )
Drive M: = uTorrent Downloads

Now, I have T: on the back of C: purely because I will rarely be accessing the ISO Images at the same time as C:... At least nowhere near as much as if I had the Apps on there for example.
Media Drive has a seperate drive all to itself as well as the Downloads ( Fairly vital to do this really as the torrents are accessing the disk 24/7 )

However, as to your original post...

Windows having its own drive or partition....

I feel that if you needed to reinstall windows for whatever reason, then if you have only had windows in the windows partition ( or drive ) then its not a worry... At most you will lose EMails / Address book / My Documents. I myself back up those regularly to my F: Partition and I know that right now, I could just wipe my C: and I will lose 2 EMails and even those are offering me bigger and better "GIRTH" if you know what I mean there!

Its also better for deragging... I have never taken longer than about a minute to defrag my C: and thats only because I dont have it full of stupid junk.

squiffy · 5 May 2007 at 11:55

swinnie said:
It makes a difference as the drive with your operating system on is most likely to fail. If your data is on that drive and you have no back-ups you will have to pay someone hundreds of £'s to retrieve the data, and there is know guarantee that this will be effective etc...

When I get my new PC I will have two hard drives, one for windows and one for data as I want to protect my data in more than one way, a backup!

Hope this answers your question.

And if the drive that stores your data goes down? You still lose data. Having Windows on a seperate drive just saves time if/when you need to do a fresh install, you can quickly wipe it, losing nothing (make sure profiles ie email settings/emails, bookmarks, documents are stored elseware) So you still have data elseware.

Also it's faster, as Windows files/swap file isn't on the same drive as games. If you do a lot of heavy HD read/writing, such as multiple video/audio ripping/encoding and gaming at the same time, use multiple hard drives otherwise performance will be terrible.

Drive 1 - Windows
Drive 2 - Games
Drive 3 - Ripping to or Source drive
Drive 4 - Encoding to and Output drive

If the OS gets corrupted, and single windows/data/games/music drive, you can retrieve the files, but it means installing onto another blank drive then recovering files from the other one.

IAmATeaf · 5 May 2007 at 17:33

I always install the OS into a separate partition, I normally make this partition around 40gb in size so that it can accommodate all the software I'm likely to install. Data and users profiles are then stored on another drive so if I have to rebuild Windows all my data is still there intact.

FatRakoon · 5 May 2007 at 20:51

I tell you what I did purely for a laugh a while back... Never was sure as to why I did it, and I am still not sure to this day, but...

I customised one of my Windows CDs... I used a Win2K one at the time and my youngest sons PC, I have only one HD in, and so, I set it up to use the following :-

Windows = C:\WinNT\
Program Files = D:\
My Docs = E:\
Temp = F:\

Now, obviously, I gave it 4 Partitions, at the time, I gave it 4GB + 20GB + 10GB + 3GB ( Im sure it was anyway ) and then some time later, I added an 80GB and using Partition Magic, I simply copied D: to the new Drive, Killed off the old D:, gave the new Drive the D: Label instead, stretched C: to 7GB and pulled E: back down, increased that and expanded F: to 10GB and its been like that ever since.

When I first installed it, was when I only had one legal copy of XP, so it must be like 5 or 6 years ago surely...? - Well we are still running that PC ( occasionally anyway ) and as of yet, it has NEVER crashed or anything nasty.... Come to think of it, its never been checked for Viruses or spyware either so I bet once we do, it will find a billion of them and start to crash etc every day.

Anyway, what I am saying there is that in the end its ultimately up to you really.

You need to be aware, that while I feel its better to do things this or that way, and other say do it another way, its all down to you.

No matetr what you do, your data will always be at risk... You use Drive A for Windows and Drive B for data bu there is nothing that says that when Drive A dies, its not going to take Drive B with it? - after all, it might short out, and kill the entire system, so always backup.