Solved better to make partions on drive or not..

[Monster212]

ok i just installed a new 320gig hard drive in my laptop yesterday.. my question is would it be better to make partitions... and if so what size partitions...

thanks

 

[richnrockville]

ok i just installed a new 320gig hard drive in my laptop yesterday.. my question is would it be better to make partitions... and if so what size partitions...

thanks

Monster212, I would suggest that you not partition the drive as 320 gigs is just about the smallest drive you can get today. If it was a 750 or 1tb drive then I would suggest partitioning it but 320 should work fine .

Rich

PS: Welcome the Windows 7 forums.

 

[Monster212]

ok i just installed a new 320gig hard drive in my laptop yesterday.. my question is would it be better to make partitions... and if so what size partitions...

thanks

Monster212, I would suggest that you not partition the drive as 320 gigs is just about the smallest drive you can get today. If it was a 750 or 1tb drive then I would suggest partitioning it but 320 should work fine .

Rich

PS: Welcome the Windows 7 forums.

thanks for the info Rich.... i will keep it the way it is....

Thanks Ken....

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Monster212, welcome to Seven Forums!


There are many ways to use partitions/drives as storage space, have a look at Method One of this tutorial at the link below for some additional options before you make a decision.

Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

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[whs]

I would say it depends completely of what you do with the drive. If that is where your OS is installed, you should have a seperate partition for the user data.

If, however, it is just another drive for dumping stuff, partitioning may not be required - Although I prefer different partitions for different subjects. But you can accomplish the same with different folders.

 

[DeaconFrost]

On a laptop, I always prefer to have two partitions...one for the OS and one for data, unless I'm using a small drive, like a 64 GB SSD. For 320 GB, I'd probably make a 200 GB C drive, install Windows 7, and then partition the rest as D.

 

[rraod]

I would prefer a primary partition of C: (80-100GB should be OK) for Win 7 and applicatons and the rest for D: as an extended partition with logical drive. However care should be taken to select the size of the C: as this depends on what applications are going to be installed.

It is always better to keep a single extended partition with one logical drive D: which may be used to store all the user data. Always make it a habit to keep all the user data in D: logically stored in folders rather than keeping them in My Documents or Desktop. This way even if windows crashes, the data in D: will be safe and the C: partition can be recreated/reformatted for a fresh install of Windows.

 

[Barman58]

my long term policy was always to pre-build my required partitioning on any new HDD before installing the OS but that has changed with Win7.

I now clear the drive and let the windows installer create the system reserved partition with a free hand and acccess to all the drive.

After windows is all installed and up and running I then use a 3rd party application to add and adjust the partitions I require.

I would suggest a 100GB primary partition for the OS in addition to the System Reserved Primary partition. The data partition would then be created in a logical partition comprising the rest of the drive.

This leaves two Primary partitions from the available four for the installation of any other Multiboot OS that requires a primary.

As for the actual use of the data partition I create a folder root called "user's Stuff" for each user of the system, with the user folders, (documents, pictures, Etc.), under this. I then use the Windows7 7 "locate" feature to point the system to this location for storage, for all "special Folder Locations, (including Links, Contacts, Desktop Etc).

This gives the advantage of keeping the data separate from the OS whilst retaining the built in default locations as are used by properly written windows applications

 

[Monster212]

thanks Barman58 for that very useful info.. and to all the others who posted info.... i sure am learning alot reading this forum..