Does it make sense for a separate documents partition?

cycleback said:

I plan on having a second drive for backups. My main thoughts about partitioning the system drive is for ease of restores incase of virus/malware problems. My only concern about partitioning the system drive into OS/Programs and Documents is a potential for a speed hit.

It should not affect your speed. You are still using the same drive.

WindowsStar said:

Here is what I do on desktop workstations only (Totally different on Servers):

C: 100GB -
----------|-- 1TB Drive with 2 Partitions
D: 900GB -

R: --- 1TB External Drive 1 Partition.

C: = OS and Software
D: = Data, Documents and anything non-OS related.
R: = Back ups, Images, and all D: Data.

If the C: Drive completely fails I have a backup on R: with an Image as well as the D: Data
If the D: Partition fails I have the backup on R: with all Data
If the C: Partition fails I have an Image on R:
If the R: Drive fails, I buy a new drive and transfer to the new R:

(Note the images/backups are on the D: drive as well for backups of backups)

This is about as safe as you can get with only 2 drives.

Why do you have the programs with the OS? It would seem that if the programs were with their related files, it would be more efficient. Thanks,

bigmck said:

WindowsStar said:

Here is what I do on desktop workstations only (Totally different on Servers):

C: 100GB -
----------|-- 1TB Drive with 2 Partitions
D: 900GB -

R: --- 1TB External Drive 1 Partition.

C: = OS and Software
D: = Data, Documents and anything non-OS related.
R: = Back ups, Images, and all D: Data.

If the C: Drive completely fails I have a backup on R: with an Image as well as the D: Data
If the D: Partition fails I have the backup on R: with all Data
If the C: Partition fails I have an Image on R:
If the R: Drive fails, I buy a new drive and transfer to the new R:

(Note the images/backups are on the D: drive as well for backups of backups)

This is about as safe as you can get with only 2 drives.

Why do you have the programs with the OS? It would seem that if the programs were with their related files, it would be more efficient. Thanks,

Simple answer: Mostly because Microsoft set it up that way and most software tries to install that way. I have installed many software in other places and many work fine but others have hardcoded parts and look for the Microsoft install place and don't work.

Also, even if using only one drive for the OS/APPs and Data, it's still nice to have the OS/APPs in a separate partition from the Data because aside from the advantages when restoring, it also provides a lot more flexibility because it allows you to back up the two partitions separately, perhaps on different schedules (if that is appropriate). Also because the two partitions will each be smaller than one big combination OS/APP/Data partition would be, this makes it possible to back up to smaller sized possibly less expensive or free backup media which one might have lying around perhaps cannibalized from previous systems. An inexpensive hard drive dock is a useful accessory that makes this very easy, (and fast if a firewire or esata port is available and one gets a dock that supports one or more of those connections).

The one issue that is rather irritating with 2 partitions, is that whenever you install things you have to reset the directory and disc, which is annoying.

Anyone know a fix for this?

~Lordbob

cycleback said:

It should not affect your speed. You are still using the same drive.

I think there will be a speed hit for seeks. If you are accessing a data file on D: and a system call to the OS or Swap is on C: then the head needs to travel across quite a bit of the disk. The seeks should increase because the files are not packed as closely. This is what I am concerned about.

There will not be an issue. As long as you are not REALLY fragmented, the head moves fast enough that moving from partition to partition is not a big deal. Though if it is on a second disk, then there would be NO difference, because it is a different HDD.

You would only encounter this problem if there was lots of data scattered all over the drive (middle, outside, inside) and it needed to access different ones of those where it was moving in and out, in and out, in and out. That is what the defragger is for.

~Lordbob

There is not much travel with today's hard drives and it is quick. There should be little or no more travel than if you had the OS, programs and data on one partition. The system call is more than likely taking place in RAM. The data has to be accessed from the hard drive anyway in either case - and it is on the same physical drive in both cases.

As Lordbob said, if the disk is really fragmented, you will take a small hit; but that would be the case if your were fragmented with only one partition.