Partitioning Hard Drive

Over the years I have seen different opinions with regard to partitioning a hard drive.
Separate OS partition, separate program partition and separate data partition. Placing the paging file on the data file vs. The OS and program files on a one partition and the data on a second.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each and/or there others.

 

To address just one of your points...

One big advantage to having your data on a different partition to your OS is that you can reinstall/recover easily without losing any of your files.

 

I'd certainly recommend moving the My Documents or Documents folder to a separate partition. I'd not bother with the paging file unless you had a 2nd physical hard drive installed. As soon as I install Windows, I set the paging file to 4092MB min and max then move the Documents folder to the 'data' partition.

It just seems to simplify and speed up routine maintenance tasks.

Ideally, the 2 drive option (OS + Apps on disk 0 and page + Docs/data on disk1) is the best option.

See Helpdeskgeek for the method of moving the Documents folder in W7 (it's very similar in XP and Vista), they also have some articles on why and how to use 2 drives.

 

@ Satrow

Is ther a particular reason for that number?

I usually set it to 2500MB min & max but i have no particular reason for it, but then mine is a nice round number, your seemingly random 4092 has got me curious?


Cheers, Bob.


edit: I should point out i only do this on older/less powerfull machines, i just let windows manage it or turn it off completely if it is a good enough machine (with enough RAM)

 

Correct to a point; recovering from software problems, malware and virus attacks is much simpler - but if it's a hardware problem or a corrupt partition/filesystem ... but that's also where routine maintenance comes into play, an unfragmented file is a whole lot easier to recover than a fragmented one .

The 4092MB size is the maximum a 32-bit paging/swap/virtual memory file can be. Windows usually sets it to 1.5x the original RAM installed (which is often not enough on a PC with a small amount as standard), it may not increase it when you add or upgrade the RAM. If Windows has to increase the size of the page file, the PC is almost unusable for some minutes and the file becomes fragmented as well.

 

Well that is a lovely little of geeky trivia..... you learn something new every day.

 

Also, 4092MB is a nice round number, in binary. It is 2 to the 32nd power.

 

Ok, you win :-D