| Windows 7: Question About HDD Partitioning |
13 Feb 2011
|
#1 | | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 |
Question About HDD Partitioning Hello, I recently purchased an Asus g73jw-a1 with two ST9500420AS hardrives, each with about 460 Gb of space. My laptop came from the company with four partitions across both disks. These partitions, I'm sure, are typical, but I will list them anyways:
OS (C  - 116 Gb (2 Gb free)
Data (D  - 327 Gb (0 used)
DSATA1 (F  - 232 Gb (0 used)
DSATA2 (G  - 232 Gb (96 Gb free) - Used for Windows Backup
Now, I am not experienced in the slightest with matters involving logical hard drive space, so my question is what are the ramifications if my OS drive fills? Also, what can I do to optimize my performance (Like, should all my current files be on the C: drive? I've researched, and as I understand, increased partition size translates to increased seek time and greater wear and tear on the hard ware)
Keep in mind, I may need explicit instruction, because all i really know how to do (not that I've done it, but I believe I can figure it out) is reassigning space to different partitions, but I feel that there is a better solution.
Thanks, Andrew R.
Edit: I would also like to avoid BIOS tweaks and that kind of thing. I'm just curious about optimization by... non invasive (?) means like appropriate allocation of files to their respective partitions. | My System Specs |
| System Manufacturer/Model Number Asus g73jw-a1 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU Intel Core i7 Q 740 @ 1.73GHz Memory 8 Gb Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M Hard Drives (1) ST9500420AS
(2) ST9500420AS |
13 Feb 2011
|
#2 | | |
Assuming C and D are the same drive, I would shrink D and increase C into the freed space to make more room for the OS. If you start running out of space on C for logs, etc., Windows won't behave very nicely. You can use the free version of partition wizard to do this. Download it, familiarize yourself with it, then post here for help/instructions. | My System Specs | | Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Home built (GeneO industries)/Model 3 OS Windows 7 64 bit SP1 CPU i5 2500k @ 4.5 GHz, 1.264V 124 GFlop (IBT with AVX) Motherboard ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Memory 16GB (4GBx4) 1600MHz G.skill Ripjaws X 8-8-8-24 Graphics Card MSI GTX 660 Ti PE/OC, 2GB 7160 MHz DDR5 clock, 1228 Mhz Core Sound Card Onboard Realtek HD Monitor(s) Displays NEC Spectraview 2490WUXi-SV Screen Resolution 1920 x 1200 Keyboard HP Wireless Mouse HP wireless PSU Seasonic X-850 (2012 KM3 model) Case Fractal Design "Define R3" Cooling CM TPC 812 push/pull, 3 120mm, 2 TY-140 case fans Hard Drives Samsung 128GB 840 Pro SSD (System), Crucial 128GB M4 SSD, 2x WD Caviar 1TB Black internal (data), 1x WD Blue 6Gb/s 1TB Internal, 1x 2TB eSata WD20EARS Green, 2x 500GB Seagate external USB, 1x 350GB exte Internet Speed 27.8 Mb/s down, 5.6 Mb/s up Other Info USB 3.0 x4 , SATA III x4, eSATA x3, SATA II x4, USB 2.0 x8. 2 Samsung DVD R/W drives.
WEI: CPU 7.7, Memory 7.8, Graphics 7.9, Disk 7.9 |
14 Feb 2011
|
#3 | | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 |
Hey, I've done some research, and luckily, there is a Disk Management utility already installed on windows 7. However, when I shrink my D: partition, I cannot expand the C: partition using the free space that is created. Is Disk Management on Windows 7 the problem, or am I missing something?
Edit: They're also, I believe, both on Disk 0, so I don't really get why I can't move the space.
Update: For now, I'm moving all of my video games to my data (D  drive until I can figure this out. Are there any forseeable problems with doing this?
Last edited by Lethals; 14 Feb 2011 at 02:59 AM..
| My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Asus g73jw-a1 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU Intel Core i7 Q 740 @ 1.73GHz Memory 8 Gb Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M Hard Drives (1) ST9500420AS
(2) ST9500420AS |
14 Feb 2011
|
#4 | | |
Yes, Windows partition management is limited. That is why I suggested Partition Wizard (or equivalent). | My System Specs | | Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Home built (GeneO industries)/Model 3 OS Windows 7 64 bit SP1 CPU i5 2500k @ 4.5 GHz, 1.264V 124 GFlop (IBT with AVX) Motherboard ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Memory 16GB (4GBx4) 1600MHz G.skill Ripjaws X 8-8-8-24 Graphics Card MSI GTX 660 Ti PE/OC, 2GB 7160 MHz DDR5 clock, 1228 Mhz Core Sound Card Onboard Realtek HD Monitor(s) Displays NEC Spectraview 2490WUXi-SV Screen Resolution 1920 x 1200 Keyboard HP Wireless Mouse HP wireless PSU Seasonic X-850 (2012 KM3 model) Case Fractal Design "Define R3" Cooling CM TPC 812 push/pull, 3 120mm, 2 TY-140 case fans Hard Drives Samsung 128GB 840 Pro SSD (System), Crucial 128GB M4 SSD, 2x WD Caviar 1TB Black internal (data), 1x WD Blue 6Gb/s 1TB Internal, 1x 2TB eSata WD20EARS Green, 2x 500GB Seagate external USB, 1x 350GB exte Internet Speed 27.8 Mb/s down, 5.6 Mb/s up Other Info USB 3.0 x4 , SATA III x4, eSATA x3, SATA II x4, USB 2.0 x8. 2 Samsung DVD R/W drives.
WEI: CPU 7.7, Memory 7.8, Graphics 7.9, Disk 7.9 |
14 Feb 2011
|
#5 | | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 |
I'll look into it. I moved my steam folder over to D:, and it seems that I'm experiencing minor issues with load times. I'll continue to test and see if there's a noticable difference. Is a reduction in performance expected under these cirumstances? I believe there to be no registry issues because I deleted the ClientRegistry.blob for steam and let it reconstruct the file in the new directory.
Edit: I'll download Partition Wizard and expand C: and move all my documents and such to Data and put the games back in C: if there is, in fact, a drop in loading times. What would recommend I move out of C: in terms of file types etc.? | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Asus g73jw-a1 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU Intel Core i7 Q 740 @ 1.73GHz Memory 8 Gb Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M Hard Drives (1) ST9500420AS
(2) ST9500420AS Question About HDD Partitioning problems? All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:28 AM. | |