Looking for advice on partitions

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  1. Posts : 632
    windows 7 x64 Home Premium
       #1

    Looking for advice on partitions


    I'm looking for some opinions about C:/ and D:/ drives. What do you recommend should be kept on the C:/ partition with the OS? Can I move everything to the D:/ partition? Or should I keep things like Firefox and Thunderbird on C:/?

    I've never had to deal with this question before... my old desktop pc only had a 20 Gb hd, so everything was kept together.

    I'd like to keep reinstallations to a minimum when the time to leave rc1 behind rolls around.

    Thanks!
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  2. Posts : 3,028
    Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) SP1
       #2

    i found it best to keep programs on the c: drive but have documents, music etc on a separate partition. once i have loaded my programs i make an image of c: and store it on a separate drive/partition. I use Acronis True Image 2009. If my pc goes belly up, i boot to Acronis then re-install my backed up image.
    There's a how-to-guide in the tutorials section for other methods
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  3. Posts : 990
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #3

    Do you have 1 physical drive? And is there data on it already?
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  4. Posts : 632
    windows 7 x64 Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Captain Zero said:
    Do you have 1 physical drive? And is there data on it already?
    Yes and yes.

    I have already created the second partition, and moved a few things into it, like music and documents.
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  5. Posts : 990
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #5

    Depending on how you use your system, you might only need a 30-40GB partition for your system. Once you've dropped all the files you want to keep on your extended partition, boot with your CD and you can create/modify/format new partitions from the installation process.
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  6. Posts : 463
    Windows 7 Build 7600|16384- 64bit
       #6

    Is this for backup purposes?

    Everything i have read says that partition your hard drive can actually make it slower, but i am not sure about that. I would say leave everything on your C driver, then use Windows Backup and make that go to D partition, or any other partition for that matter. Or leave everything on your C drive(one whole partition) and get yourself an external HDD for your backup. Having backups on the same HDD could be bad for mechanic problems as those different partitions are still on the same drive.

    Any chance you can move your old 20gb to a newer bigger HDD?
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  7. Posts : 3,028
    Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) SP1
       #7

    stevieray said:
    Yes and yes.

    I have already created the second partition, and moved a few things into it, like music and documents.
    having music, documents etc on a second partition won't hurt. i have found that loading some programs on a different partition to the os can be problematic
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  8. Posts : 748
    Vista and now 7 in 32 and 64 bit.
       #8

    Maybe that is not the best solution.Tw33k's solution is one, but I don't think that is what you are looking for. (I have several Acronis images saved to another partition/hd. A very good safeguard)

    What I have done is install a guaranteed working OS on C: This has all of my programs and data in situu and is used daily, with needed updates to personal files, favorites etc. On D: or any other available partition, I install any new releases. I take time out daily to mess with customisation or installation bugs with these.

    I always ensure, after a new installation over this latter, that my original OS remains the default startup.
    The "experimental" OS , whether I have had the time to install my standard programs or not, is then easily wiped without fear of losing any essential data.

    When , in the case of Windows 7, the final version is installed, then I will do as you have already started - begin to move libraries or whatever, over to my spare space
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  9. Posts : 3,028
    Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) SP1
       #9

    davehc said:
    Maybe that is not the best solution.Tw33k's solution is one, but I don't think that is what you are looking for. (I have several Acronis images saved to another partition/hd. A very good safeguard)

    What I have done is install a guaranteed working OS on C: This has all of my programs and data in situu and is used daily, with needed updates to personal files, favorites etc. On D: or any other available partition, I install any new releases. I take time out daily to mess with customisation or installation bugs with these.

    I always ensure, after a new installation over this latter, that my original OS remains the default startup.
    The "experimental" OS , whether I have had the time to install my standard programs or not, is then easily wiped without fear of losing any essential data.

    When , in the case of Windows 7, the final version is installed, then I will do as you have already started - begin to move libraries or whatever, over to my spare space
    it reads to me as tho he wants only the os on his c: drive and everything else on a separate partition. i would advise against loading programs on a different partition to the os.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 1,261
    Windows 7 Professional 32-bit SP1
       #10

    I like to keep all my programs and other system files on the C: partition.

    But of course, hard drives are very cheap these days and partitioning a drive doesn't really make too much sense at all. I find it far more flexible to rather install another drive, and then move all important personal files (documents, pictures, music, etc) to a completely seperate physical drive.

    Just have a look at my system specs. One of the 80GB drive is my system boot drive, with all the other containing my documents and other stuff.
      My Computer


 
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