partitioning a harddrive

[rudeboymcc]

hi. i've read that partitioning a hard drive will increase it's life and make windows run faster. is this true??

if it is, how do i make windows put for example the users' folders on a different drive than the windows folder. same with program files. etc. ??

[Neo Neko]

As a general rule I ALWAYS make a separate partition for the swap file. Outside of that if the disk is still being accessed I don't see how it's life could be lengthened. Partitioning could save you some disk thrashing. And that might extend it's life though. My systems always go like this.

Partition 1 is a swap partition.
Partition 2 is for programs and program data.
Partition 3 or another hard drive is for user data.

I never did this to increase drive life. But more so I could easily recover from common windows bugs or crashes.

[Hiro2k]

also partitioning helps organize your files and make them load faster since the drives aren't fragmented as bad. I have a partition for just my MP3's and another for all the video encodes. This also makes re-install's a breeze since you won't keep important documents on 1 hard drive that has to be formatted.

[Zhnujm]

i usually dont use partitions anymore because i too often wanted to save a 10GB file with only 2*5GB left :rolleyes:

[OvERaCiD23]

Originally posted by Neo Neko
Partition 1 is a swap partition.
Partition 2 is for programs and program data.
Partition 3 or another hard drive is for user data.

exact same here. putting the swap file at the beginning of the drive really speeds up your system. other than that, it's all for organization and quicker defragging (I have my temp directory on my 3rd partition, as well as all the files i access normally. partition #2 never needs to be defragged, and when i do ~~~> once a month, it's about 2% fragged.) also, using PartitionMagic, if I want to alter sizes, it only takes a few minutes. ~~~>sidenote: I love how PM can fit there entire program onto 2 diskettes, and charge so much for it. I only install it once, make the diskettes, and use those.

[markrb]

I have a general idea of what I like to do then I stick with it. I currently have about 320Gb's of storage on 4 physical Drives. I have them Split up in this fashion for convienence, not speed or life extension.

120 GB Single drive Split into 1 10GB bootable XP partition with programs like Word and the rest as 1 Partition for my made videos and DC share stuff.

2 X 80GB Raid SPlit into 2 x 30GB for DVD conversion space and the rest as one partition for temp capture space.

1 X 80Gb Bootable 98 as 1 partition and for DC and videos as well. I make a few videos I guess. I have almost 100gb's in just TV shows on my HDs.

As for will it make you drive last longer? Well maybe, but if so then not by a bunch. Keeping your disk defragged will serve you better.

Will it make programs run faster? Well maybe a little, but once again a defragged drive will serve you much better.

Partitioning is more about house cleaning then speed. It is one way to better orginize your files. I like more partitons, because single large partitions tend to get cluttered easily and it gets harder to find stuff. As you can see from my setup I have 6 hard drive letters. I could cut that down easily to 3, but I like a little structure.

If you want to partition your drives get something like Partition magic. If you want to move installed programs your easiest way is to un-install and re-install on the new drive. I like keeping programs on one drive and data on another myself. Easier to back up the data this way.

Mark

[rudeboymcc]

ok. a few questions:
1. what is the swap file?? and why is it better to put it at the beginning of the HDD?
2. if i wanted to make one partition for windows files (ie, all the files created when you install winxp), how many GIG's do you recommend i should make it? (not including any user files).
3. how do i make windows not make any user files on the partition it's booting from. (ie. to have all the user's documents on another partition)?
4. can i do all this with partition magic without having to reinstall windows and format my harddrive?

i ask these because my harddrive is only 60GIG, and at the moment i have it in 2 partitions, one 45GIG for all the files, and 1 15GIG for DVD stuff. i've since found out that hte 15gig isn't enough. so i start using some of the 45 GIG, whcih makes it VERY complicated. (moving files from one to the other part. takes ages).

[Hiro2k]

1)The Swap file is what windows uses when you run out of ram, so it copies everyting in your ram to your hardrive. Also placing it at the begining of your hard drive makes it fast since the needle doesn't have to read from the center of the platter.

2)My windows partition is only 15 gigs, but i do include my user accounts. I have a seprate partion for all my games and VERY LARGE Programs, ie.. 3DStudioMax, Office XP.

3)I don't know, but I wish i knew how.

4)I don't think you can partition it without having to format the hard drive. But you might, I think it depends on if you use NTSF or FAT32 as the filesystem. The reason I think so is because I use to have Win98 on a my machine and I did use an older version of partition magic that didn't format my hard drive when i partitioned it.

[markrb]

4)I don't think you can partition it without having to format the hard drive. But you might, I think it depends on if you use NTSF or FAT32 as the filesystem. The reason I think so is because I use to have Win98 on a my machine and I did use an older version of partition magic that didn't format my hard drive when i partitioned it
Partition Magic will now do format conversions and partiton a drive with files on it as long as there is enough free space for the new partition. It cannot move files from one to the other on the fly or even make a new partition if the future new space is used.

Mark

[rudeboymcc]

ok, so how do you tell windows where to put the swap file??

[markrb]

For Xp.

Start -> Setting -> Performance and Maintenence -> System -> Advanced -> Performance Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory Change

This is where you can adjust the size and what drive it's on. I have never tried to move it on a drive, but I think there is software out there to do it. Be careful this can seriously screw you up. Too big and you waste space. Too small and you will run out of memory. If you don't know what you are doing leave it alone.

Mark

[rudeboymcc]

how do you move it to another drive? i can't find the option.