Windows 7 in a 250GB Hard Drive

[smiths22]

Hi beautiful people,

Currently im using a 60gb partition for windows 7 32 bits ultimate in a SATA HD (AIHC mode), i've been told in the past that it is not recommended to use the entire HD as one partition cause slows the system (the needle works more), is that still true?

 

[not so gray matter]

To a certain extent yes, It is better to have one partition in the top of your drive to hold your system files (programs, drivers, etc) and another partition to hold your data. This will help your system run faster.

However, you cannot just rely on this alone. You should do regular disk cleanup using a program like CCleaner (don't use the registry cleaner option) and defragment your hard drive regularly as well.

 

[smiths22]

Thanks for your answer could i know your partition size, please?.

I don't play games but i want to play one that doesn't fit in the 60gb OS partition, if i install it in the second partition (190GB) could i suffer of slow performance? what should i do?

 

[Jacee]

I have Windows 7 on a 500 GB hard drive ... no partitions. It's not slow, but I clean and defrag often.
Seagate Barracuda HD

 

[Pixelpro]

I have windows 7 on a 320gb HDD, fast and reliable... i defrag every 1-2 weeks and clean space up quite oftern.

 

[smiths22]

Oh i see different opinions, should i use my entire 250 HD as one partition? i think its up to me...:sarc:

 

[Dave76]

You should do what was suggested by notsograymatter.

Check what is taking up the space in your OS partition, it should be less than 40GB (closer to 30GB). If you have pics, music, vids or any other non OS and programs files move them to your 'Data' partition or non OS partition.
Check the temp files and download files. Delete the temp files, move the download files if you want to keep them. Set up your browser to download into the non OS partition.

I would recommend to keep you OS in the 60GB partition, will make it easier to re-install and make backups. Just put everything else in the other partition.

 

[not so gray matter]

I forget where I saw it, but someone was talking about installing onto SSD drives. They mentioned having all of their data on the secondary partition in addition to system restore files, page files and other system files that take up alot of space.

Personally, I don't really use the method above. I have a Macbook Pro w/ W7 and OS X installed. I have a 50GB partition for OSX, and then a 250GB partition for Windows. In theory I could give Windows an 80GB partition, but I play alot of games and I don't need to store things on a secondary partition because I have multiple hard drives. All my data, videos, pictures, and such get stored on external hard drives. The only things that are on my main HDD are system files, programs and games. Anything I download gets stored on that HDD for a max of a day or two, then it gets either deleted or moved to one of my externals.



Oh yeah, I have to defragment once a week. Not only do I defragment, I use CCleaner to delete all temp files including system restore files except the latest. I also use my OS X install disk to repair disk & permissions once a month. If you do a clean install and then set all of your settings (including system restore) and then watch very carefully, you can usually tell where your disk space is being used. Some of the big users are your users folder, system restore, temporary files, and downloads.

 

[mvnsnd]

I run Windows 7 on a 320 GB hard drive on my laptop with no partitions. If you can support 2 physical drives, then it can make sense to separate the OS from the data. Otherwise, even with 2 partitions on the same disk, if you have a disk error, you will lose both partitions. So either way, and I think you're seeing this, is to do whatever makes you feel better, but make continual backups of your important data, including an image every now and then, and clean and defrag often.

 

[smiths22]

I run Windows 7 on a 320 GB hard drive on my laptop with no partitions. If you can support 2 physical drives, then it can make sense to separate the OS from the data. Otherwise, even with 2 partitions on the same disk, if you have a disk error, you will lose both partitions. So either way, and I think you're seeing this, is to do whatever makes you feel better, but make continual backups of your important data, including an image every now and then, and clean and defrag often.

The HD's needle works less i believe.

You should do what was suggested by notsograymatter.

Check what is taking up the space in your OS partition, it should be less than 40GB (closer to 30GB). If you have pics, music, vids or any other non OS and programs files move them to your 'Data' partition or non OS partition.
Check the temp files and download files. Delete the temp files, move the download files if you want to keep them. Set up your browser to download into the non OS partition.

I would recommend to keep you OS in the 60GB partition, will make it easier to re-install and make backups. Just put everything else in the other partition.

thanks for your answer im currently using 25.2GB of 60GB in my OS partition.... so the game goes in the data partition then.