To Partition or Not to Partition

[bigmck]

I have a 160 GB drive. I was going to just make it one big drive and put Win 7 along with my other files on one C: drive. Is it smarter to partition my drive and put the OS on C: an all my programs, etc on D:? Thanks,

 

[seekermeister]

With multiple partitions you are less likely to lose personal data if you have an event that requires reinstalling the OS, but this would be more true if those extra partitions were on another harddrive.

 

[echrada]

I prefer using an external hard drive (as I use a laptop) but when I use a PC it is better to have 2 or 3 hard drives - then you are definitely safe.

 

[Cluent]

I general I like to partition because it gives you flexibility. For example, you can choose to defrag just the system drive; you can choose to backup just the second drive and so on. But keep in mind that various programs insist on putting data on the C: drive, sometimes without your knowing it. For example, Outlook, Onenote, XP Mode and others put data in various locations on the C: drive.

Also 160GB is fairly small to partition. How were planning to partition it? I keep most of my data on the D: drive, and yet my C: drive (that's where the system is) is already 70GB full. (I have a 750GB drive and I've devoted 200GB to the system; the extra headroom helps performance, I think).

 

[bigmck]

Considering the things pointed out in all of your replies, I think I will just leave it all one drive. I appreciate all of your help.

 

[burtie]

I have a 160gb internal HDD which I have partitioned into two drives. On C partition I have windows and the other partition I use to install all my programmes on. All my personal documents are stored on external HDD's which are always connected to my PC

 

[satchmo]

It's safer and better organized to have multiple partitions.

But it's more time and effort intensive to maintain all of the partitions.

I have only one partition for the past ten years, and I haven't had any issues with it.