New laptop, should I partition??

[maryc]

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.

 

[Dinesh]

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?

 

[maryc]

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

 

[Dinesh]

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.

 

[seekermeister]

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.

 

[maryc]

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.

 

[Dinesh]

Once you are ready, do these steps:
1: Click Start Buttonrb: in 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.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2670-partition-volume-extend.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

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.

 

[Dwarf]

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.

 

[aem]

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.

 

[huffman]

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.

 

[theog]

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

Take note of Dwarf & make them Recovery DVD's first.

You will find that Acer's install program will partition your drive on FIRST START UP.

I would say, if it works DO NOT PLAY.

 

[noyb]

Using Defraggler ... Defrag the HDD.
Using Shrink in disc management .. I'd shrink the C drive to something like 80 gig for W7
Using Disc management .. Make a new partition in the unallocated space for your data storage.

Any surgery on the HDD is risky .. make sure you have everything backed up first.

 

[awrightUK]

I have always partitioned drives but I never quite know what goes on when you buy "off the shelf" laptops. I intend to partition my new Acer Aspire Timeline but looking at disk management I already have:

12GB Recovery Partition
I assume this is created by Acer and is used if I have to use my recovery CDs in some way?

100MB System Reserved - System, Active, Primary
I have read what this is, seems a waste of space but I can live with it!

221GB Main - Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary
OS and program files etc..

What I would normally do is create a new partition and then image the OS so that I can quickly restore in the event of disaster. However if I run the image application, I only get the option of the main partition C:

If there was ever a problem with the "System Reserved" partition would this prevent the laptop from booting or operating properly? And, do I really need the "Recovery Partition"?

Lastly, is there a minimum recommended size of the OS partition for Win7 to work efficiently. I was thinking 50GB but even that seems quite large seeing as I won't be putting much else on it in terms of games etc?

Hopefully some of these questions will be relevant to the OP too!

Andrew

 

[noyb]

What are you Imaging the HHD with ???
The new Acronis now supports Windows 7.

I'm not sure how it handles the reserved Partition ... I removed it.

 

[awrightUK]

What are you Imaging the HHD with ???
The new Acronis now supports Windows 7.

I'm not sure how it handles the reserved Partition ... I removed it.

I read some bad things about Acronis & Windows 7 (although I still use it on my XP & Vista machines) so I have used Partition Wizard 4.1 which seems to have worked flawlessly.

Andrew

 

[pparks1]

I wouldn't go less than 50GB on C. And 80 is probably safer.

I don't forsee any need to do more than 2 partitions (C drive for OS and D drive for data, apps, entertainment, music, etc). Often having more than 2 partitions just makes things more complicated unncessarily.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I agree with PParks about the number of partitions. There is no point to being overly complex with a bunch of partitions. If you get into 4 or 5 partitions, you can pretty much count on running low on space in one of them and then be faced with resizing, reallocating, etc.

If I understand you correctly, your intent is to make an image of your system and place it on another partition on the same drive.

Not a good move.

What happens if that drive fails?

You wouldn't be able to get at your image.

Better than nothing, but far from ideal.

Standard recommendation: get another drive (internal or external) and put images and backed up data in general on it.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

ALWAYS SEPARATE the OS from the data.

1) Easier to backup and restore. You don't lose your data when restoring the OS.
(store the image on a DIFFERENT drive - preferably a network drive so you can restore it if you have to from another machine). A bootable backup is also a good idea.

Even a LARGISH W7 installation shouldn't need more than around 30 GB (and that's a largish installation) for the Windows partition -- but disk space is cheap so give it 40 GB.

2) Easier to MOVE your data to a network / other machine without any probs of having to re-install an OS. Just think what you would have to do if your music for example was on the OS disk and Windows crashed forcing you to re-format the entire drive.

'nuf said.

cheers
jimbo

 

[AllanP]

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.

I also have a new laptop and took the plunge. I have a 500GB hard drive and I want to dual boot Linux. I first used Windows 7 defragger; took around fifteen minutes. I backed up everything. I then created an Administrator account. Then I logged on as Administrator and opened up Computer management and Disk Management; right clicked C drive and selected "Shrink" and went for it. It did a default shrink to about half the size. I then created a 160GB partition for backups and the rest for Linux. Haven't loaded Linux yet. All went without a hitch.

Regards, Allan

 

[Frostmourne]

What's the point? That is what libraries are for.