Recommended Partition Size


  1. sd0
    Posts : 6
    Windows 7
       New #1

    Recommended Partition Size


    I have 2 500GB SATA drives. I'm thinking of partitioning one of them. The first partition will have the W7 OS only, the second will be for apps, games, documents, etc. This is what I did on XP and it worked well.

    Couple questions:

    What is the recommended partition size from experienced users? I used the Windows XP recommended partition size and I found myself with 2 - 6 GB free after a year or so. What are most people comfortable with on W7?

    Does it really matter? I want to partition the drives in order to organize my data, but does putting the OS on a separate partition increase/decrease performance? What exactly does it accomplish other than feeding my pseudo OCD?

    I was thinking 100 GB for the OS partition. Thoughts?
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  3. TheSchaft
    Posts : 833
    Windows 7 x64 HP, Windows 7 HP, Windows 7 Ult
       New #2

    sd0 said:
    I have 2 500GB SATA drives. I'm thinking of partitioning one of them. The first partition will have the W7 OS only, the second will be for apps, games, documents, etc. This is what I did on XP and it worked well.

    Couple questions:

    What is the recommended partition size from experienced users? I used the Windows XP recommended partition size and I found myself with 2 - 6 GB free after a year or so. What are most people comfortable with on W7?

    Does it really matter? I want to partition the drives in order to organize my data, but does putting the OS on a separate partition increase/decrease performance? What exactly does it accomplish other than feeding my pseudo OCD?

    I was thinking 100 GB for the OS partition. Thoughts?

    Welcome to Seven Forums, if that hasn't been said yet... :)

    100G for the OS should be more than sufficient, I've seen articles recommending it as Windows apparently will try to make it 200G, which seems excessive.

    As for the benefits of having the OS on a separate drive, this allows you to image the OS and, if necessary, restore it without having to use up backup media for the data portions.

    Hope this helps.
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  4. Dave76
    Posts : 12,177
    Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
       New #3

    sd0 said:
    I have 2 500GB SATA drives. I'm thinking of partitioning one of them. The first partition will have the W7 OS only, the second will be for apps, games, documents, etc. This is what I did on XP and it worked well.

    Couple questions:

    What is the recommended partition size from experienced users? I used the Windows XP recommended partition size and I found myself with 2 - 6 GB free after a year or so. What are most people comfortable with on W7?

    Does it really matter? I want to partition the drives in order to organize my data, but does putting the OS on a separate partition increase/decrease performance? What exactly does it accomplish other than feeding my pseudo OCD?

    I was thinking 100 GB for the OS partition. Thoughts?
    If your in need of the space, it can be 60 - 80 GB.
    Mine is 80 GB and there's no crowding.

    It's generally accepted to put the OS partition first on the disk, to minimize wear on the HD.

    I also put my OS on one partition and my personal files on another.
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  6. mickey megabyte
    Posts : 8,398
    ultimate 64 sp1
       New #4

    it all depends on what sort of things you are going to install. it's not uncommon these days for individual games to go into the double gigabyte figures.

    i've got lots of games installed on my 'rtm' partition, and 100 gb was very nearly all used up.

    i've given myself 300 gigs this time (luckily i've also got a new hard drive :)), and already empire:total war has taken up 16 gigs.

    partition sizes aren't fixed in stone, they are flexible and can be changed at a later date.
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