Hi, bought new Acer laptop with 320gb hard drive. Still in the box at the moment! Dont want to make a mistake so need to know whether I should partition this drive and if so what size, also if Win 7 is capable of doing this. Havent done this before so simple answer/instructions please! Thanks very much.
Hi Maryc and Welcome to the forums. a 320 GB HDD is large In My opinion.
You should create at least 2 partitions: 1 for Windows 7 and other for you personal stuffs like music, movies, photos, etc. Yes Windows 7 has the feature of partitioning the hard drive. Is Windows 7 already installed on your new pc?
hi, thanks for the quick reply.
Yes I guess it comes preloaded with Win 7 - havent switched on yet, instructions say allow 30 minutes for setup. Just want to be sure what to do before I start, if I should have a partition especially for program files (how big?) then one for documents, mp3 clips etc. (again how big). Also I use magical defrag on my desktop, if I load this to the laptop is it just the document etc. folders I need to defrag? Thanks
As you have a 320 Gb HDD, give 100 Gb to Windows 7. Then make 1 partition of the rest size for data and personal stuffs. In order to create partition, we will 1st need to see some things about your hard drive. Let us know when you are on the main screen so that we can start working on it. :)
Edit: You can use Defraggler - File and Disk Defragmentation - Free Download to defrag the hard drive. You wont need to select any specific folder. This utility will take care of it.
Last edited by Dinesh; 10 Nov 2009 at 03:42. Reason: added defrag info
No one could tell you how big to make the partitions, because no one else know your needs and habits. I would creat a minimum of 3 partitions. My primary partition is set for 100GB, but I still have 78GBs free, because I haven't installed many games, but I would still recommend a minimum of 50GBs for it. For other purposes...files, etc. You probably could get by with much smaller partitions, unless you use your computer for business, and correspond alot, but I will leave the size up to you. Where many people need the most space is for movie, video and audio files and it wouldn't hurt to have a separate partion for backup, unless you have an external drive for that.
Hi, thanks again for reply. Up to my ears in paperwork at the moment so probably won't fire up until this afternoon. If you aren't on line then, could you give me a rough idea of what I need to do, or what info you need? Also thanks for defraggler info.
Once you are ready, do these steps:
1: Click Start Buttonin the Start Search box, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.
2: It lists your hard drive and partitions. Now you can follow these tutorials to extend or shrink partition.
Partition or Volume - Extend
Partition or Volume - Create New
Or, if you are not sure about it, just post a screenshot of your Disk Management window and we will be glad to help you create a new partition. :)
Seeing as though it is a brand new laptop, I would strongly advise you to be careful what you do. At the very least, you should create the restore disks (see manual for instructions), and I wouldn't consider (at the moment anyway) deleting the hidden restore partition.
I would used a tool like Acronis Disk Director to do the partitioning/resizing. Also create your second partition as another primary partition so to make easier to install dualboot. Not a fan or extended volumes.
To me partitioning is a very important. It allows the computer to act like a file cabinet and I can remember where everything is located with little or no effort.
The partition I made for Win 7 was 50gb which is more than enough. The partition I made for installing software was 20gb and again is plenty because most software installs the bulk of the program on C drive anyway, but it does allow for easy to uninstall if that becomes necessary.
In your case that would leave approximately 250 gb which I would make into two equal partitions for Data and Entertainment. I found that one of these two partitions is a good place to store Acronis images for easy restore.
That is just my way of doing it and you have to decide how you want it setup and go for it.
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