Should I partition?

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I am about to buy a new computer and am wondering if I should partition the hard drive into operating system/programs for one and data for another. What are the pros and cons of the various partitioning options – does partitioning make for a more stable system. My present XP computer has just one partition and has worked well, except that it gets slower over time – does partitioning reduce this tendency.

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If you are an enthusiast who likes tinkering with hardware and software partitioning can make recovering your system when you trash it faster. Partitioning does NOT inherently make your system more stable. Computers can get slower over time from adding software, upgrading to newer versions with higher requirements, not doing regular housecleaning, etc. Once again partitioning does not inherently reduce the tendency for slowdowns.

Partitioning is not a magic bullet. It is an organizational tool that may help in some circumstances. Personally, I have a complete backup my personal systems scheduled daily and do not worry about partitioning. There are many others in the Lounge who swear by it and would not think of having a system without it.

Joe

--Joe

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I understand the rationale for partitioning and agree that it may speed recovery in certain cases. I never really enjoyed managing a multitude of partitions, so I try to keep it as simple as possible. Like Joe, I keep a single partition. I image it weekly, with relevant documents kept in live synch between my desktop and laptop and that works for me.

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I’m with Joe. Keeping everything on one drive means that I only need one image backup to backup both system and data files. Both Acronis and Easeus provide the ability to recover individual files or folders as need be in case of accidental deletion without having to resort to a full restore. I can’t remember the last time I needed to do a full system restore, so the additional recovery time of a single partition is not an issue.

Also agree with Joe that system slowdowns have other causes than lack of partitioning. If you are experiencing slowdowns, take a good look at the programs that startup when you boot. Use MSconfig and click on the Startup tab. Disable any software you don’t neeed. If you don’t know what an individual item is related to, do a google search or check the Startup Database here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/
You can also use Autoruns or Whats in Startup are other tools you can use.

Adding memory can also improve performance in some cases where newer software can cause more paging to disk to occur.

Jerry

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I am about to buy a new computer and am wondering if I should partition the hard drive into operating system/programs for one and data for another.

mike,
Hello… If your about to buy a “desktop” open the display model side-panel and take a look see … My PC had an extra “bay” for another HD and also room for another CDDVD-RW …Check also if there are any spare SATA ports on the motherboard… Then you can decide …”Cauz” if there is the room and ports you can add a 2nd HD for DATA and Images …The best way to go . Otherwise it’s like putting all your cookies in you lunch pail with a thermos full of chicken soup. ….:cheers: Regards Fred

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Purely organizational in my mind; if you want to image OS, programs and data all the time, and it all fits on one drive, partitions are not relevant and the simplest method to deploy. If you want more flexibility, with the option for differential imaging schedules or easier to set up network permissions access (especially where W7 is involved), partitioning might serve your purpose better. Also multibooting and VMs with a common data partition works better than having the data located with one or the other (or the other).

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Mike,

Partitioning is pretty much a personal choice. That said, I always partition my drives for these reasons.

[*]I travel a lot and I find it easier to sync my desktop with my laptop when Documents is on a separate drive/partition.
[*]I move my Outlook.pst file into My documents so all my user data, the stuff I DON’T want to loose is in one place and can be easily Imaged using less space. Also it moves with the rest of the data in 1 above.
[*]I play around with a lot of programs so I like to be able to Image my System partition separately, smaller file, so if things get fouled up the restore of the system partition is faster and I don’t have to worry about any data created since the last Image was taken since it doesn’t get overwritten.

So consider how you use your machine(s) and proceed according to your needs. YMMV! :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I partition for the same reasons RG does, plus partitioning allows me to dual boot another OS, in this case Win 8 DP to play with. My data is always safe because it’s on a separate drive from my 2 OSes.

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My data is always safe because it’s on a separate drive from my 2 OSes.

Well, unless that separate drive is in the cloud somewhere or otherwise off site and not near the computer, its not any safer that way. Example, if I hit your computer and any nearby externals with a 16lb. maul, does it fare any better than the OS drive?
Only a backup makes it safer and an additional backup off site makes it almost fail-safe.

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Thanks for all of the thought provoking comments. I had decided not to partition until I got to RG’s comments and was taken by the statement “so I like to be able to Image my System partition separately” – I had assumed that you could not usefully have the operating system on one partition and the rest on another as if you just restored an old system image the registry file would be out of date and foul up the computer – did “system” in this case include programs?. Presently I image my unpartitioned hard drive once a month and I make a refreshed copy of the “my documents” folder (which includes Emails) once a week, storing both on an external drive, although this would maybe not be as easy with Windows 7 as XP. Turning to off-site storage, my grandson had his laptop stolen in a burglary recently – he had backed everything up to an external drive, but they took that as well – there’s a moral there.

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The original OP question what are the pros and cons of partitioning the data onto a separate partition. Backups are not a part of the discussion. I do not believe the original OP had physical damage from a 16 pd maul in mind when possing the question either. There are many discussions on Imaging and bachups to review elsewhere.

To be honest my data on a separate partition is safe even when my OS is trashed. I can restore the OS, as mentioned by others here, without touching the data, and do so fairly often. As a matter of fact my data is backed up on 2 separate PC’s in our home, but again not pertinent to the present discussion.

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99% of the backup solutions I read here and on other forums as well, all go up in smoke when lightning strikes and your whole computer goes up in smoke.
I can replace my computer, but not the 20 years of data that it holds.

So come up with all the complicated backups schemes you want and when your whole computer is GONE, by fire, theft or hurricane, flood, etc., how good is your backup scheme then?

In ’97 my entire computer system was stolen, while I was at work. The loss of the hardware was grievous, but the loss of all my data would have been much greater, but I had it all on CD’s stored in a fireproof vault, 20 miles away.

Think about that, the next time you think you have the ultimate backup scheme.

Cheers mates!

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Mike, you can read a lot about Imaging in the Security and Backups forum. To put it very simply:

C Drive: OS (Win 7) and all apps installed.

D Drive: All data (any data allowed by Windows to be easily moved)

W Drive: Win 8 DP and all apps installed

When I Image I can include C, D and W if I want. All will be included in one Image file. To restore, pick whichever drive you wish to restore and your Imaging app will restore that partition. Recently I have been including C and W in my Images with my data backed up to 2 other PC’s on our network.

I had not mentioned my backup schemes in previous posts because your original question did not seem to be asking about this, but just the reasons those of us who do partition do it.

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Yes Ted, don’t want to rile any feathers, I know your procedures and they’re fine as laser split hairs, but your data, as stated by you, which the OP would probably not know about the extra steps you take (until you posted again), is not one bit safer just because its on a different partition or a different drive on the same system. I was just being anally retentive.

For Mike21, yes, almost always when partitioned, the OS partition includes the programs so it doesn’t get messed up exactly as you mentioned unless exactly matching backups are restored (program partition and OS partition) at the same time, which means they also have to be made at the same time all the time…so its better to keep them together.
Data is independent and as such not tied to any particular OS.
For a home user I have crushing amounts of data so I always keep it separate because it won’t even fit on several computers (that each have up to 5 TB of storage space) and imaging is quite out of the question.

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I am about to buy a new computer and am wondering if I should partition the hard drive into operating system/programs for one and data for another. What are the pros and cons of the various partitioning options – does partitioning make for a more stable system. My present XP computer has just one partition and has worked well, except that it gets slower over time – does partitioning reduce this tendency.

Not realy
Get away from using partitions if at all possible.
Start favoring added extra internal drives to store non operating system data on instead.
With a new desktop platform computer you’ll have plenty of extra SATA ports available.
I highly recommend 1TB drives as multipurpose storage drives. The 1TB drives are highly stable for this usage.
(mixed drives with small and large file sizes)
If you have alot of very large files sizes like movies/video/images, 2TB drives are best for storing this type of media.

Better file system and data organization, along with an extra internal drive or two would help.
You could then locate certain folders onto them like Pictures, Videos, Documents, Downloads, etc.
Keep your programs installed with the operating system on the fatest drive you can afford.
(SSD’s are optimal. 10000 rpm medium to smaller sized mechanical drives in the 150-300GB size range are best)
Keep your system lean and clean. Separate out the bulky accumulates, like photos and videos to other internal drives.
Limit the programs you install to known stable, usable, and trusted apps, or learn how to do image based backups if you like to experiment.
Keep a full backup of all your applications in their original executables, and keep them on another drive separate from your operating system
and/or in their original CD/DVDs.
Don’t be timid about performing clean installs, they are your absolute best os speed & stability tweaks.
When buying a new computer consider dumping the OEM disk or image reinstall disk for a genuine os disk of a professional version.
(Don’t be cheap, it will always come back to bite you)
Invest the time and effort in making system and data backup one of your priorities if the data you have is mission critical to you.

LAPTOPS
The use of partitions can be usefull but should be very limited when it comes to laptops.
Use external drives for image based backups and dedicate one external drive exclusively for the image storage and restoration only.
Burn or store “other” data on CD/DVD or other external drives, but don’t include backup drive images on these.

Partitions in laptops can be usefull in storing data on in the event you loose the os, but they should never be relied upon for the sole backup because they are on the same hard drive.

If you are dead set on using partitions, settle on an optimal size and avoid manipulating it any further.

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I have always used one partition.
Like others here I image daily…

I image to two different internal hard drives. This way I have two images in the event one is bad I always have the other to fall back on.

About once a month I then burn an image to DVD just in case I can’t access the hard drives…

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I couldn’t count the number of times and the number of forums, where the OP’s question has been asked. The answers to that question are always the same. Yes, NO, Maybe and conditional. But as you work with a computer day after day, year in and year out, you’ll eventually come to the same conclusion I did, about 20 years ago.

I like to keep my PC as clean, lean and mean as possible. So there are things like old pictures, vid’s, ISO’s and things like that, that just cause a tremendous BLOAT on my C: drive after a while. How does that negatively impact my computer, you may well ask. Ok…..

I have three programs that do regularly scheduled scans of my PC for viruses, trojans, worms, rootkits, adware and spyware. Those regular scans can take much longer if they have to scan the same ‘bloat files’ day after day. A defrag also has to deal with those same files and forget about a total C: drive backup. It gets HUGE when backing up the same junk, time after time. So why not simplify?

I equate a PC with only one HD partition to a new house, with NO internal walls, even for the crapper. Not only is there no privacy, but there’s no closets or storage rooms for your junk. No matter where you put it, it’s still in the same room. I just can’t imagine living like that…… can you?

OK, back to the hard drive. On every new HD I have to set up, I create the obligatory OS partition ( C: ) of an adequate size, and then I create a “Storage” partition to occupy the rest of the drive. I set up folders on my Storage drive to segregate my ‘Stuff’ into separate compartments. So all my really HUGE files, like various .ISO files, go into folders on D: rather than adding greatly to the file bloat on C:. Currently, the size of my “Storage Drive” is at least twice the size of my C: drive.

I know we’re not really discussing backups here, but for a true explanation of the benefit of a second partition, backups must at least be mentioned. I won’t say that hard drive crashes NEVER happen, but so seldom, anymore, that for the moment I’ll discount them. What more commonly happens is that something gets into your drive and corrupts Windows. Sometimes so badly that Windows cannot even boot. If you have a good backup on a separate drive or partition, in as little as fifteen minutes you can be back up and running, as if nothing every happened. You might miss a few emails, but that’s usually about as bad as it gets. You also MUST have your Backup/Restore software on a bootable disk of some sort, because you won’t be able to run it from your C: drive.

I do my own weekly backups to my Second Partition, because that’s the fastest. Then if time permits, I do a Partition Backup to my USB External drive (much slower) and at least once a month, I do a backup to DVD’s (now taking TWO DVD’s for a C: drive backup) (new Paragraph) It’s not necessary to back up my entire C: drive daily,,,, that would be wasteful and redundant, however I do back all my data files, with a batch file, using XCOPY to backup any new or changed files. That normally only takes a second or two, to run. So the question comes down to “how much of your stuff, can you afford to loose when Windows get messed up and your computer won’t boot? Eh?

The Doctor

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My preference is for the System on one partition C: and everything else on a second partition D:.

The problem is there are programs, Garmin’s software is one, that will only install to C:.

There are endless other programs that insist on dumping program data and DLLs on C: no matter which drive you tell them to install. The worst offender I know is Microsoft as Office puts mega bytes and mega bytes of data on C: even if it’s installed to a different drive entirely.

Finally many new computers come already partitioned with one or more small partitions that can reinstall the operating system and the garbage they load onto new systems to the state you received the computer. Making a recovery disk can do that better and it’s possible to delete all the garbage, but without special tools, those extra partitions are hard to get rid of and pretty well preclude partitioning.

So I’m living with a single C: partition with a small partition that has no drive letter so it can’t be accessed.

Another way to set up your new system is make a recovery disk first thing. Then blow away everything on the original hard drive. Go and buy a new smaller drive, most new computers are coming with 1TB hard drives, of say 250 to 350 GB. Install this drive and make it C:. Install your operating system to that drive. Your original drive will now be drive D:.

Install all your applications to D:. The system will run faster assuming your two drives are equally fast because the system and your applications now have two sets of drive heads instead of one. There will be less contention.

The down side of that configuration is now you can’t have an internal hard drive as backup. My current system has the 1TB original drive C: has the System and all applications. My second drive Z: is a 350 GB drive and is strictly used for backup. The C: drive is backed up nightly incrementally and a full backup once a week. All my data files are also backed up to it separately in an original format so recovery of data is very straight forward.

Pick the version you like.

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You may question the sanity of the advice to use only one partition when you power up the computer,
and Windows says “C: is corrupt and you need to run chkdsk.”

My primary drive is 1 TB.
C: = 25 GB and is more than enough for Windows 7,
But Chkdsk C: would be 40 times worse if C: was the whole 1 TB.

Twice this year Windows Security patches have trashed Windows,
but it only takes 4 minutes to restore a Macrium partition image,
and the other application partitions did not suffer any damage or need restoring as a result of the Windows Fiasco.

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Well, that’s the purpose of making images…

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Bany, the point being creating an Image, and then restoring to that Image takes a lot longer in the OP’s case because of the size of his HD if he had just one partition. If you have a large amount of data, which many people do, then creating the Image on a single partition PC would be much more time consuming than on a PC where the data is on a separate partition.

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Well Ted, not knowing how large an amount of data you mean I guess for some that’s the route to take…

I image every day and it only take about 20 minutes and I recently, after deleteing my email by mistake, I restored an image in less then a half hour…
That was on a 200 GB drive.

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Yes but I suspect you have an option chose to only Image used space, as most of us do, and that you would find the size of the actual used space much smaller. For those of us not having large amounts of data this is somewhat less of a problem. Since you Image each day, your system is just fine. For me, I only Image when a change takes place in my system. For me if my Image is say 3 weeks old, my data would be out of date and I would have to then restore the data from backup as well. Extrapolating to a bigger hard drive with lots of data, this could be a real problem.

I guess bottom line is you use a system that works for you. The more often you Image the less chance your data will be out of date. The larger you data is the more of a problem this can be. Getting back to the original OP’s question, it would depend on how you anticipate using your PC. If you anticipate lots of data with just an occasional Image, then I would encourage you to partition. If your system will be used like many of us, then perhaps a single partition will work well for you. If you never have to restore your system, this is all a moot point. Unfortunately we can never anticipate when this will happen.

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I did not see any mention of system PERFORMANCE as would be related to speed or time.

The outer edge of the platter is the fastest…one looong track, while the inner (spindle) area would be the slowest, many short tracks forcing arm movement (mechanical is still very slow).

Drive speed is generally rated at 1/3 of the overall performance. Simply stated a 10 mbs rating would allow for a .95 at the outer edge and a 35 mbs near the spindle (if even that fast).

I would rather have the programs I use multiple times a day near the outer edge instead of the data archive I may use once or twice a year. Add to this the other file types: internet cache, temporary files, etc., and you will be stuffing the “sweet spot” on the disk drive, so there isn’t any reason to add to this area with your archive files. Think along the same lines for the documents you wish to save, but not reference every day, they can be in the outer area forcing the program updates further and further into the platter. Your program load times (and system start up) will take longer.

I like to partition in a 50/50 or one third arrangement. It depends on how often I intend to access the data.

I always recommend using multiple disk drives, either internal or external. Put your data elsewhere, you can reinstall everyday if you wish, but you cannot replace your data unless you have it backed up. Start out by putting your data on “another disk drive” for starters, and burn to DVD for extra security.

Worst case would be a bad drive that won’t work. You now have a paper weight, and hopefully will purchase a new disk drive and restore your data from DVD or reinstall the operating system.

I am currently running with 4 disk drives. I have also had two disk drives go bad within a month of each other on two different units (thankfully they were backed up). I like to keep an unused on hand, hopefully the currently largest capacity there is on the market.

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How do you know which side of the platter is being used or whether you are using inner of outer tracks? What happens if you have more than a single platter.

I don’t believe that life is that simple.

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DrWho and I are of the same mind, although his is ever so slightly older. As I mentioned in my last post here, the size of the data is a big consideration on whether you should partition or not. The other big consideration is how often you Image because if your data is on C, then unless you Image very often it will become out of date quickly. I do and always shall partition my data to a separatee partition (or drive) so my data is always up to date when I have to restore my OS, even if my Image is several weeks old.

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If you buy a computer it’s very unlikely that you will only have one partition. You’ll likely have a restore partition from the manufacturer and Windows 7 uses two, one for the boot sector (100mbs). You can have one additional primary partition for a total of four. I used to partition for two operating systems and one extended partition for additional logical partitions. I’m currently using the extra primary for another OS on my main machine. I miss the logical drives but two operating systems is handier for many reasons.

On my previous machine, still in use, I installed a new hard drive with no backup partition, two operating systems and several logical partitions in on extended partition. It’s optimal for me, keeps the OS smaller for quicker imaging with less storage required. I recommend you do partition (be careful) and if you don’t need or want another OS then use it for storage. You’ll be glad later. Your files will be safe unless the HD ruins instantly, not usual except on solid state drives but possible.

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The question of partitions is linked to at least four other variables and much depends on your needs, especially your needs and preferences for backups. The variables are:

1. One or two Hard Drives.

2. Amounts of data.

3. Where the data is stored.
Basically, backup is faster when data for ALL the users is saved in one common, easily accessible place. On computers I manage for others I either partion a single drive, or I make c:Data and add subfolders according to preference. The advantage of one root DATA folder is that it is easy to backup, and data backups have to be done more frequently than system backups. I prefer to backup by imaging a partition to an external hard drive, therefore it greatly helps to use partions.

4. Backup strategy.
This seems to have been missed in the discussion so far. Many System image backup programs only work on Win7 if you image the whole drive. This is because the booting on Win7 begins from a small hidden partition. So you have to image the whole drive in order to get system backup. If you have only one hard drive and have loads of data — especially loads of small files, then backup takes a LONG time.

Scenario A1. One hard drive, no partitions
Suitable for people with low amounts of data. Backup whole drive regularly.

Scenario A2. One hard drive, at least one other partition.
Easily set up. Data backup is easy. The problem is that under Win7 a full image system backup requires a backup of the whole system.

Scenario B1. Two hard drives.
Drive 1 is small for the system, and Drive 2 is larger for your data. Effectively this is like two partitions. There are major advantages to this scenario, especially if you invest in at least four external hard drives [once the price falls again!] ie two for each drive. The cheapest way of course is to buy the internal hard drives, and buy the boxes and make up your own external hard drives.
** For Drive 1 I have a “first good” so that in a disaster I can boot from that, and later use a boot disk and copy back the first good onto the computer. The simplest tool I know for doing this is Casper from fssdev and I use it myself, and highly recommend that the ordinary people I help do so. The second one is for regular system backups, like before a risky patch upgrade.
** For Drive 2 I use my backup drives in rotation.

Scenario B2 Two hard drives, the second one with several partitions
For instance, because I analyse linguistic data, I often download whole websites. Millions of small files means incremental/differential backup can take longer than making a fresh copy. To speed up backups then, I have put this kind of raw data material on a separate partition and back it up when I need to.

Of course, the other advantage of a second drive is that you can travel with the backup drive. Also, when you come to change your computer it is extremely simple to transfer your data.

I hope this helps

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I am a big fan of keeping OS and data apart whether this achieved with a partition or separate disks. Two disks have a narrow advantage for me because if I want to reload or restore a fresh OS, I can disconnect my data disk and know that the data is safe. If I have partitions, I would back up the data partition just in case the reinstall goes wrong and breaks the data partition (which I know it shouldn’t).

These days I use a small SATA6 SSD for my OS. A full backup of the OS drive takes less than 6 minutes to an eSATA backup drive.

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I too like to keep OS and data apart, and use partitioning.

I also use a system called HyperOS, which enables copying of the OS in a comparatively short period, but in particular allows switching between multiple OSes on different partitions almost instantly. If say I have a problem on my (normal) E drive (C is minimal containing just boot and a few other files, plus the HyperOS files) I can switch to an identical OS on the F drive in about 2 minutes, and then have plenty of time to restore the E drive at my leisure – either from say an identical F drive or an OS copy stored elsewhere. I have used it for years and it is so very flexible, and means potentially there is always a “clean” OS available.

A word of warning though. Several years ago I had a virus (despite all the usual safeguards and controls) which left the C drive intact, but destroyed all the remaining partitions, and thus all of the operating systems AND the data! The data was fine, being backed up the previous week (apart from a Presidential Address I had just composed!) but all the OSes had gone, needing a full reinstall, the first since installing XP. So you can never say never, sooner or later ‘it’ will happen.

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I am about to buy a new computer and am wondering if I should partition the hard drive into operating system/programs for one and data for another. What are the pros and cons of the various partitioning options – does partitioning make for a more stable system. My present XP computer has just one partition and has worked well, except that it gets slower over time – does partitioning reduce this tendency.

My thoughts on your new (Windows 7?) system: It depends on how many and what kind of storage drives it has.

In general:

[*]On a single-HDD system with a smaller drive that you intend to put a lot on (say, programs and data that push your used space above 80% or so), then I’d recommend at a minimum having a second partition that’s just big enough to hold your Windows swap file (and only the swap file). Why? Once a single-drive system is getting close(r) to being full, and as time passes, the hard drive will have more and more non-contiguous sectors in use for file storage. This tendency may well result in the swap file’s becoming fragmented, significantly slowing down Windows (this is possibly what’s happened on your XP system; and yes, Windows 7 still makes ample use of the swap file, even on a system with 6GB of RAM). For more info on this, see my related Lounge post on the topic.
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FYI, I’m in the camp that also believes in segregating data onto a separate partition, but that has no impact on system performance or stability, just the ease of backing up and restoring. Oh, and on Windows 7, there’s this feature called System Protection that may also influence your decision.
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[*]On a multiple-HDD system, I’d definitely recommend moving your data to a different physical drive than your system and apps. Past that point, put a partition for the Windows swap file wherever you have the most room (or, if you have a third HDD…well, read my Lounge post on a partitioning strategy for multiple-HDD systems).
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[*]If your new system will include a solid-state drive (SSD), here are some considerations that are specific to that configuration.
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[*]Finally, be aware that a new Windows 7 system will come with a special “system recovery” partition already on the primary HDD (in addition to the “boot” partition, which holds Windows). Read this Lounge post for more info about this. Yeah, I know you didn’t ask about this, but no sense in your being surprised to find it on your new system.

FYI, the Windows 7 Disk Management utility is perfectly capable of handling the disk partitioning on a new system–you can access it in the Computer Management control panel (right-click My Computer and select “Manage”). The one thing it’s not as good at is adjusting partition sizes after they’ve been created. It can be done, but it’s a little kludgy, so you’ll want to think things through before jumping in and creating partitions.

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