Partition Advice 3

[Gavona]

I have a 500GB Sata drive that I intend using with NTFS for:
1.Operating System - Vista Home Premium
2. Software
3. A shared folder used by all the PCs/Laptops on my home network
4. Backup copies / Images of other PCs
Would there be any benefit to operating multiple partitions?

My feeling is that I might end up just constantly needing to re-size the partitions.

Gavin

 

[goombawaho]

I don't really believe in partitioning, but if you were going to do it, I'd only create one partition (maybe 50GB) for the operating system with the rest for data. In other words, don't segregate the rest of your data storage into different partitions.

I'd create a DATA folder on the D: drive for all of your data except the SHARED data and then create a directory at the same level as DATA for doing the sharing to keep it real simple. That way, you set sharing on the one SHARED folder and there are no worries about what is shared and what is not.

 

[Gavona]

Thanks, that's exactly what I'll do.... Unless... I guess it would be better for my backups to be at the end of the drive where performance will be worse. Is there some other way I can achieve that?

Gavin

 

[goombawaho]

You can't really tell where your data will go based on a partition as far as I know. It not sequential like a record playing from the outer grooves to the inner grooves. Hope you're old enough to have seen a record playing. I'm getting old as evidenced by this analogy.

To be honest, backups or (ghost) images shouldn't really be on the same drive - it defeats the purpose in case of drive failure.

 

[wahnula]

Here's a good read on partitioning:

http://partition.radified.com/

The first partition gets the outside of the platters. This has the fastest read & write speed, so your OS & Apps should go there.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[adnan1100]

Well, once you partition your drive. You cannot keep re-sizing the partitions at your will. Its a tedious job.

If you want to install multiple OS, then partitioning is a must (atleast i do it that way) to install 1 OS per partition.

Keeping a seperate partition for OS as suggested wont harm. But I dont see any specific benefit of doing so.

Adnan

http://www.ammuindustries.com

 

[Gavona]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.
goombawaho: the backups are of data / images of other PCs

Gavin

 

[wahnula]

Keeping a seperate partition for OS as suggested wont harm. But I dont see any specific benefit of doing so.

It keeps all your OS data in one compact area, near the edge of the platter, where read/write time is fastest. In this era of 500GB+ drives you can save some seek time if you devote that space (and only that space) to the OS files.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[CapitalData]

Dividing partitions may cause problems later. I prefer to keep one partition on the drive unless it's absolutely required to have another one. If you are not a gamer and 3%-5% boost in HDD performance will not get you excited then keep one partition. If you are after high speed and that 3%-5% is absolutely critical for you, then yes, you can split the drive into 2 partitions.

Good luck!

Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.

http://www.capitaldatarecovery.com