Partitioning

[Varmint]

Hello, all, I just had a question about partitioning my 1tb hard drive. I listen to music, watch movies, use application, play games, and word process, all in moderation; how should I partition up my HD? I heard that smaller partitions load faster, is there any truth to this? Also I want to use 1 OS, but want space for a new one in the future.

[oolon]

You operating system like to wipe the partition it is on to do the install, you can do an install without wiping the disk however its can be messy. So at least partition your disk into two bits, OS and Data is a good thing to do. In the old days with FAT the larger parition the larger the block size it used, so small files took lots of space this is not the case with NTFS anymore. Likewise There are problem with some partition sizes, as operating systems broke boundaries like the 127 cyclinder mark etc. Personally I would keep my OS/Boot partition under the 120GB mark as this is addressable by a lba32, pariticularly if you are using XP. If you have more than one OS, I chop up this space into multiple partitions for the OSes. Now the rest of the disk I would divide in two, the reason for this is if you ever want to divide it up again, you only have to move half the data off, normally on the the other half of the disk, rearrange the disk then move it back. Personally I buy a small (and fast) hard disk for my OS, and a large hard disk for my data. That way when i do installs etc or get a virus problem, I can just unplug the bit I care about and keep it safe.

So if your case, knowing nothing more about your system I would do

120GB Primary partition 1
~440 Primary partition 2
~440 Primary partition 3

Note the sizes its less than you might think, a 1TB disk is 1*1000^4 not 1*1024^4 which is a TiB, windows lists things in TiBs but calls them Terabytes. Don't use the extend partition because you can only have one on the disk, and if all your remaining space is inside it you will not be able to make another primary partition without deleting it.

Welcome to partition table black magic, the easy bit was your hardware getting it setup nicely takes a life time!

[Varmint]

Do I install all my applications with my OS or in my data partitions? If then, do games/apps run fine if they are on different partitions as the OS?

[peterb]

Personally (with Windows) I like separate partitions for OS, apps and data. If you want to dual boot a Linux system later, you will need another two partitions.

You are limited to 4 primary partitions, if you want more partitions, you need to use one of the primary partitions to create an extended partition - and then you create secondary partitions in that. The practical difference between the two methods is indistinguishable for normal use. If you want more than 4 partitions, you have to go the second way. If you only want up to four (and no more) then use method one.

[oolon]

Do I install all my applications with my OS or in my data partitions? If then, do games/apps run fine if they are on different partitions as the OS?

Generally I put office type apps on the same drive as my OS, and games on a different one, a lot more games these days are using "My Documents" to save things so keeping your OS disk relatively clear is a good idea. If your more Advanced you move you that directory to another drive! Other large content goes on a different drive again. Really you just need to pick a system that works for you.