Benefits of Data Partition?

[detailmore]

Hi I just installed Windows 7 64 Professional.
I thought I would be able to combine partitions during the install, but couldn't.
Now I'm at Disk manager and I'm wondering if I should keep my Data partition or combine it with the OS. (They are on same hard disk).

I heard it really didn't make any difference on Vista, but I was wondering what you guys think. (In terms of performance, fragmentation, etc).

(my hard disk is 5400rpm SATA)

 

[Tews]

The only advantage that I can see is if you need to reinstall, but most folks image their drives/partitions which cuts down on the need to reinstall ..

 

[richc46]

Hi I just installed Windows 7 64 Professional.
I thought I would be able to combine partitions during the install, but couldn't.
Now I'm at Disk manager and I'm wondering if I should keep my Data partition or combine it with the OS. (They are on same hard disk).

I heard it really didn't make any difference on Vista, but I was wondering what you guys think. (In terms of performance, fragmentation, etc).

(my hard disk is 5400rpm SATA)

I cannot speak for others, but I am happy with 2 partitions. I have C for the OS and I have my backup drive. I do not see any noticeable increase in performance with more drives, but then I do not have those many programs, etc on my computer.

 

[Wishmaster]

I personally like to keep things separated and organized.

Running At least 2 drives is best IMO, making a partition for the OS and major apps, maybe, Music or Videos on the rest of the Drives partition.

And second Drive for pagefile, Games, Documents ... or something along that line.

With just 1 physical drive, it will help to keep the OS and main apps on a seperate partition from all your other media in the sense of:

1. keeping fragmentation down on the Os itself.


2.easier to back up with something like Acronis, as you need only back up the OS (40Gb or so) partition.

3.in the event you must do a clean install, if you moved all media/data the second partition, all your movies, music, pics will still be there after you re-install.

(keep in mind, moving the pagefile as i suggested above will do more harm than good perf. wise with only 1 physical drive)

The down sides:
1. You'll take a slight performance hit, as the HD must seek to a slower part of the drive to access the media.
(nevertheless - I still think its worth the small perf. hit keeping the OS separated from other DATA, the pros outweigh the cons IMO)

2. you're still unprotected if the HD itself fails. Youll loose all obviously.

 

[richc46]

I personally like to keep things separated and organized.

Running At least 2 drives is best IMO, making a partition for the OS and major apps, maybe, Music or Videos on the rest of the Drives partition.

And second Drive for pagefile, Games, Documents ... or something along that line.

With just 1 physical drive, it will help to keep the OS and main apps on a seperate partition from all your other media in the sense of:

1. keeping fragmentation down on the Os itself.

2.easier to back up with something like Acronis, as you need only back up the OS (40Gb or so) partition.

3.in the event you must do a clean install, if you moved all media/data the second partition, all your movies, music, pics will still be there after you re-install.

The down sides:
1. You'll take a slight performance hit, as the HD must seek to a slower part of the drive to access the media.
(I still think keeping the OS separated from other DATA is bit better however, even if just 1 drive)

2. you're still unprotected if the HD itself fails. Youll loose all obviously.

Thank you wishmaster. Since there is no right or wrong answer, it is good that the poster gets both sides.

 

[ZeshanA]

I personally like to keep things separated and organized.

Running At least 2 drives is best IMO, making a partition for the OS and major apps, maybe, Music or Videos on the rest of the Drives partition.

And second Drive for pagefile, Games, Documents ... or something along that line.

With just 1 physical drive, it will help to keep the OS and main apps on a seperate partition from all your other media in the sense of:

1. keeping fragmentation down on the Os itself.

2.easier to back up with something like Acronis, as you need only back up the OS (40Gb or so) partition.

3.in the event you must do a clean install, if you moved all media/data the second partition, all your movies, music, pics will still be there after you re-install.

keep in mind, with only 1 physical HD, trying to move the Pagefile for better perf. will only hurt. Will only help if its going to a 2nd physical drive)

The down sides:
1. You'll take a slight performance hit, as the HD must seek to a slower part of the drive to access the media.
(I still think keeping the OS separated from other DATA is bit better however, even if just 1 drive)

2. you're still unprotected if the HD itself fails. Youll loose all obviously.

+1 and a +REP Brilliant post!

ZeshanA

 

[detailmore]

Thank you everyone.
I decided to keep it separate.

 

[Qdos]

I don't agree with there being any performance gain with moving the pagefile to any other physical disk unless it's a disk dedicated to the pagefile alone, although this is a contentious point with many (and has been for many years!)

I think keeping your drive formatted to say 35Gb for the OS and having a seperate larger partition for 'my documents' is a great idea - in so much as reinstallation or cloning and restoring an OS image are much more practical.

What remains to be said is that entrusting data to one physical disk requires you to remember that if the disk fails you risk losing everything; therefore it's far more of an advantage to have two physical disks and a third/NAS for mirroring, syncronised data and OS image backup archives, and so on...

 

[Frostmourne]

No partitions here and I'd rather buy a cheap 7200RPM second hard disk and use that, backing up all to a NAS as has been mentioned.

 

[Zepher]

I think keeping your drive formatted to say 35Gb for the OS and having a seperate larger partition for 'my documents' is a great idea - in so much as reinstallation or cloning and restoring an OS image are much more practical.

35GB is too small. you want your programs on the same partition if you plan on imaging it for restoring later. no sense in just imaging the OS since Windows 7 takes 20 minutes on a current machine to install. The apps are what is going to take the time, so those should be installed in the default folder and then imaged after all your apps are installed.

 

[Guy with a Colt]

I think keeping your drive formatted to say 35Gb for the OS and having a seperate larger partition for 'my documents' is a great idea - in so much as reinstallation or cloning and restoring an OS image are much more practical.

35GB is too small. you want your programs on the same partition if you plan on imaging it for restoring later. no sense in just imaging the OS since Windows 7 takes 20 minutes on a current machine to install. The apps are what is going to take the time, so those should be installed in the default folder and then imaged after all your apps are installed.

Exactly.

I clone images to another drive that can be removed from the computer via a removable bay and labeled the drive "Image Backup Drive".
I install windows (XP or Vista or Win 7 etc), Install apps required including any MS Updates, Once everything is configured the way I want it to be, I make an image. Now I install and configure my games, once I'm happy, I then make another image.

I have a 1TB drive, I split my drive, it's split to 320gb and the rest I use for personal stuff like game updates etc.

In that case I make regular backups on many windows installs and my personal backups.
In many cases having a split drive, it's still possible of losing important data. This is why I use 2 external drives that are not constantly connected to the computer.

For the OS backup I use a 320GB or 640GB drive.
For my Personal Backup I use a 800GB or a 1TB drive.

I use Symatec ghost boot disk to conduct backups and backup restores.
One can use other backup software which can do the same thing or if not more than.

example; Acronis Disk Director Suite.
In the end it's personal preference.

anyway, moving on.

I believe that 32GB is way too small for OS and Applications yet alone for small games too. :shock:
It's very hard these days to find a decent 32GB or a 120GB hard drive, it's all 150GB or > (greater). :huh:

 

[bigmck]

Hey, "Guy with a Colt". Is the Colt the kind that could be named Trigger or does it HAVE a Trigger?

 

[Qdos]

35GB is too small. you want your programs on the same partition if you plan on imaging it for restoring later. no sense in just imaging the OS since Windows 7 takes 20 minutes on a current machine to install. The apps are what is going to take the time, so those should be installed in the default folder and then imaged after all your apps are installed.

I thought people would appreciate the 35Gb was merely an example, the OP stated his disk was a humble 5400rpm SATA, so there's every chance is was also of limited size in addition.

There is every point in making a bare metal drive image by the way, it should be the first thing you do after installing, tweaking, and updating Windows7 - but performed before loading additional programs - because then you have a sound point to restart from which will save you hugely in excess of the 20 minutes cited...

My tuppence worth

 

[RogerR]

I thought people would appreciate the 35Gb was merely an example, the OP stated his disk was a humble 5400rpm SATA, so there's every chance is was also of limited size in addition.

+1. Not everyone is a power user. A modest 7 install can run quite happily in that space if the box is only used for internet and word processing needs. Even less in fact. I had it on a 20gig hard drive with 4 user accounts for my kids. Ran aero and chugged along quite happily for them.

 

[Wishmaster]

I think the OS partition (or drive size) really does depend on your personal needs/use.
We all have different setups, so a few things come into play when choosing what size you need for Win7:

My self, I run mine and all its apps on a 30GB SSDdrive and its plenty of room.

However:
I disable and delete the Hibernate file
as well as disable System Restore.
(i use Acronis for all back ups on a secondary drive instead)

These save a large chunk of space on the main OS drive.

I also moved my Pagefile off the OS drive, and set a small one on a spinning disc. (So this is something to consider as well, as it will increase the space used)

As others have said previously in this thread, moving the pagefile to another drive may not offer any perf gain.
This quite likely true, I simply do it to keep the OS drive "cleaner".
I think if you have 4GB or more RAM, you'll likely rarely access it anyway. And you may not need a very large one. (I could be wrong though)

All other games, and personal media elsewhere on other drives.


For me, going that route, with all my many apps, Win7 uses less than 14GB of Space.


Im thinking with All of these enabled and running on the OS drive, you could likely reach low-mid 20sGB of space quite easily.
So 30-40GB may very well be too small as some have said, especially if you need these things, or want them on the the OS drive. Completely a personal choice.

So, yea, really depends on your how you set it up and your needs.

im not saying this is the best way to set it up, or the prefered way etc ... just how I do it and 30GB is more than enough for my personal needs.

However, when dealing with just 1 physical disc for the entire system, most of these thing should likely be left with the OS itself, moving only personal media.

Just thought it may be worth pointing out some of the variables that make the diff. for some users. :-/

 

[tbernstein]

I have a slightly different perspective.
Even with two HDDs I still like to create a number of partitions

It's much simpler and tidier if documents that my wife uses are on her partition, with folders for her stuff.*
And a drive letter to identify it all with. (Her initial).
Ditto my own stuff (T: ) and of course drive F: is family stuff.
Then drive B: will have backups
P: for pictures
V: for videos
S: for software

Back in the old days I'd just give a folder its own drive letter ( SUBST if I've remembered my MSDOS) but it's so easy to just make a partition, nowadays.






*So if she saves her stuff randomly in whichever folder she happens to be pointing at, at least it will be in her drive, somewhere.

Maybe I was a librarian in a previous life.