Best HDD config for Windows/Apps/Games

[Randell Floyd]

Currenlty have

Internal Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus 200GB in two partitions. A 20gb Windows and Apps and a 180gb data partition.

Then I have two external 250gb ( 1 usb2, 1 firewire ) running as pure data drives.

Now I have another space for a HDD in my shuttle and it has to be a SATA drive.

Im thinking the best setup would be: New 200gb SATA ( Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus 200GB )

Windows : 10gb IDE
Programs : 10gb SATA
Games : 50gb SATA
Data : 190gb IDE and 140GB SATA, Both Externals

How does that sound, or how could it be betterd?

[chiyau]

Try having the Pagefile on a separate drive as well which will help speed things up.

[zaphod]

So many partitions..that would drive me crazy! RAID0 the two 200's if you get another. I hate partitions. Ive got 2 120s on a raid0 in one 224Gb partition, thats the way I like it...no complications!

[wasabi]

Re: chiyau's comment - partly true. You don't need a separate drive for the pagefile - just a partition very slightly bigger than the pagefile size (or twice as big if you're planning a ram upgrade soon). If it has its own partition (which is strictly only used for pagefile) it never gets fragmented.

I don't really see any point doing separate partitions for games and programs - less flexibility and no speed gain surely? If your programs aren't massivley speed sensitive maybe you could put that partition on one of the external drives to leave more room for games?

[zaphod]

Seperate page file disk is a goog idea. Speeds things up a bit. But with 1Gb and a fast a raid the preformance increase of a Seperate page file disk is tiny.

[Tifosi]

So many partitions..that would drive me crazy! RAID0 the two 200's if you get another. I hate partitions. Ive got 2 120s on a raid0 in one 224Gb partition, thats the way I like it...no complications!

But when Windows inevitably fouls up and you have to format you have to back everything up or lose everything. At least with seperate Windows partitions from Data/Storage you minimize recovery time.

[hibby]

I have Windows on one partition, Program Files on another, and then 3 other partitions to store different types of file (documents, media, downloads). That's if you want to stay organised, don't know what it does for the speed though. This way, I can reformat C: to reinstall Windows and keep the rest.

I've heard that it's possible to organise the partitions to speed up Windows and the pagefile. I think it's something about putting the partitions at one "end" of the disc or the other, but which one I'm not sure. Any ideas?