Partitioning HDD

Hi Guys

Just a bit of advice if you could please.

For reasons beyond my control I'm upgrading my machine a few months earlier than planned.

As a result the money would only stretch to one HDD. I've bought a copy of Vista with an upgrade to Windows 7, so later this year I will get additional drives ready for the the OS upgrade.

I plan to partition the drive to mimic my existing setup. When I have the additional drives I will move the data and remove the partitions.

How many partitions do you think is OK for a 1TB drive, and what sizes?

Are there any issues with SATA and IDE HDD's on the same system?

Are there any SATA tips as I have never built a system with one before?

Cheers in advance

Grim

In reply to a post by GrimUpNorth:

Hi Guys

Just a bit of advice if you could please.

For reasons beyond my control I'm upgrading my machine a few months earlier than planned.

As a result the money would only stretch to one HDD. I've bought a copy of Vista with an upgrade to Windows 7, so later this year I will get additional drives ready for the the OS upgrade.

I plan to partition the drive to mimic my existing setup. When I have the additional drives I will move the data and remove the partitions.

How many partitions do you think is OK for a 1TB drive, and what sizes?

I don't do partitions, so I can't comment on this..

In reply to a post by GrimUpNorth:

Are there any issues with SATA and IDE HDD's on the same system?

Not that I know of, but be careful with the BIOS boot sequence, as some will insist on booting off an IDE first..

In reply to a post by GrimUpNorth:

Are there any SATA tips as I have never built a system with one before?

As above, check the BIOS boot order.

Posting the potential motherboard you want could elicit some responses about any compatibility issues..

How many partitions do you think is OK for a 1TB drive, and what sizes?

You can use as many, or as few, partitions as you think appropriate. Just bear in mind that if you want more than 4 you will need to create an extended partition and then create logical partitions inside it.

Personally, I would go for just 2. One for the OS and one for data (it can make life slightly easier when upgrading the OS). That way you get the maximum flexibility with free space. With a 1TB disc I'd make the OS 100GB and then the rest for a data partition.

Having said that, my main PC has two discs with about 10 partitions between them - but that's because I multi-boot several OSs, which is not the norm.

I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde

I was thinking of three partitions. The old machine had one at 80GB with the OS, and two 320GB with data (one for me and one for the better half).

It's a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P.

Cheers

Grim

one for me and one for the better half

That makes sense! (We have separate computers - and separate bank balances. Life's easier that way.)

I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde

In reply to a post by AnotherExPipex:

We have separate computers - and separate bank balances. Life's easier that way.)

Agreed, there are time when I suggest seperate lives full stop, and who knows one day she may even take me up on the offer!!

Cheers

Grim

100Gig for an OS? 20Gig is the maximum needed fror XP whilst 30Gig will be ample for Vista/7. All that should be on that partition is the OS, programs and support files. Everything else such as documents, email, bookmarks etc etc should live elsewhere.

Never underestimate the size to which an OS might grow. 30G would certainly not be enough for Windows 7 plus all the programs that I have installed (I've got over 15G in scenery files for Flight Sim alone.) Plus your swap partition, plus the notorious growth of then WinSxS folder, and remember that you should always have at least 20% free space on an NTFS partition. I once made the mistake of making the OS partition for an NT Server installation too small - never again.

10% of the available disc space for the OS partition sounds reasonable to me.

I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde

I never underestimate!
FlightSim would be in a games folder on a secondary drive/partition along with all other games.
The WinSxS folder on this XP laptop currently stands at 12.2M. On the XP desktop, which probably has hundreds of programs installed, it's 34.3M. I've never seen it exceed a Gig on any system of mine, be it Vista or XP.

Edited by Deadbeat (Fri 03-Jul-09 16:07:22)