Help: How Should I Partition My Hard Drive Whats a Good Partitioning Scheme

[rapco 0]

Ok, i just bought a new pc, and i wan't advide on how to distribute my new 120 Gb.Prior to this new HD i had another 120 GB with no partition whatsoever (just the main one) with a NFTS principal partition... i suffered data lost... and i'm using the new HD to recover my lost data with Active Undelete... so, after i finish doing this (is a 28 hours proccess) i want to make a new organization system with my Hd's...Will you give me advice???????????????The 120 GB HD is a Maxtor, 7200 rpm, IDE connection....THANKS!!!

Notice from microscopic^earthling:

Topic title edited.

Edited April 15, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

This isn't an ideal partitioning scheme but this is what I've used for years with a good amount of success (as in against data loss, os crash etc.) with windows. Of 120 GB,Windows --> 10-20GB (max. 20) - make this NTFS for better performance of the OSRest of the Space, create one big extended partition spanning the whole free space and then split up into 15-20GB logical drives - as many as you want. Peferably partition type here is FAT32 - for easier data recovery/backup in case of OS crash. But dont keep any of them larger than 20Gigs. That causes considerable slowing down of read/write. I distribute all my data uniformly over these partitions - I label them according to the kind of data going into each - say, all my MP3's go into a logical drive labelled "Music" .. all programming stuff goes to another drive labelled "Development" .. "Graphics & WebDesign" on another.. and so on.. Advantages are: firstly all your programs+work is neatly categorized into several different logical drives - in case of a windows crash - only the first NTFS partition is affected and that doesn't contain any of you important work-data. Only pain you've to take up is while installing new software you've to redirect the installation to an appropriate drive. Also I'd recommend (if you use the My Documents folder i.e.) - to move the My Docs to one of these drives and fix the shortcut to refer to this new location. This way all your files going into My Docs automatically gets saved on a different drive and isn't affected by any win crashes.Lastly, get a good defragmenter and fix a good defrag schedule on each of these drives.. make sure it runs at least once a week on all of them.

[snowcrash 0]

This isn't an ideal partitioning scheme but this is what I've used for years with a good amount of success (as in against data loss, os crash etc.)  with windows.

 

Of 120 GB,

Windows --> 10-20GB (max. 20) - make this NTFS for better performance of the OS

Rest of the Space, create one big extended partition spanning the whole free space and then split up into 15-20GB logical drives - as many as you want. Peferably partition type here is FAT32 - for easier data recovery/backup in case of OS crash. But dont keep any of them larger than 20Gigs. That causes considerable slowing down of read/write. ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi I'm in a similar position and about to format a new drive.

 

In terms of formatting the second partition as FAT32, wouldn't it be better to also use NTFS, as it is supposed to be more secure and less prone to errors?

 

Also, I thought partition size >20g wouldn't affect reading/writing speed, as this would be more to do with fragmentation of data on the drive. So even if it were a larger patition, it would be ok as long as there wasn't heavy fragmentation?

 

thanks

snowcrash

[vizskywalker 0]

The larger a disk partition, the more area the head of the HD has to travel to read the whole area, so If the file table sends the head to the end of a 120 GB partition it has a ways to go, whereas if It has to go to the end of 20GB partition, it needs to cover less area. The more are it has to cover, the more time it takes because the head can only move at top speed at the RPM speed, and that is in minutes, not seconds.~Viz

[Killer008r 0]

I'D say split the drive into 3rds, make (make them 40 gigs each) have important programs on one, have games on the other, and have backup of important or games, or bouth on the third one, that way if part of the drive fails it won't take all 100% of the drive ^ ^ its what I do with my HD and when it fails it only has one of the parts fail.

[rapco 0]

vizskywalker, xplain this:

The larger a disk partition, the more area the head of the HD has to travel to read the whole area, so If the file table sends the head to the end of a 120 GB partition it has a ways to go, whereas if It has to go to the end of 20GB partition, it needs to cover less area. The more are it has to cover, the more time it takes because the head can only move at top speed at the RPM speed, and that is in minutes, not seconds.

what are you saying, if i partition my disk into 6 20gb's partitions.. my write/read speed will be affected???????????

please help me trough this... taht 3 40gb's sound good... fat32 is still the best way to recover data loss.. so NtFs on the main and fat32 for the rest is definitive...

[vizskywalker 0]

Yes, the smaller a partition (up to a point) the faster the reading if data is. This is changing as hard drives get better, but in general, a read/write head on a hard disk can go to the beginning of a partition very quickly, however, traveling through a partition takes more time as frequently jumps to certain locations on a hard drive cannot be accomplished easily.~Viz

[rapco 0]

Well, i've been using the partition shceme i told oyu before, and the write/speed doesn't seem to be THAT affected as i thought, so, i'm sticking to my scheme....I think Companies (hd manufactures) should give some advice on this!!!!!!