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10/31/2006 05:02:40 PM · #1 |
Is there any real good reasons to partition a hard drive?
Perhaps one could argue to keep things organized, but i manage to keep things organized in folders as well, so am i missing something?
Message edited by author 2006-10-31 17:02:51.
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10/31/2006 05:05:32 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by leaf:
Is there any real good reasons to partition a hard drive?
Perhaps one could argue to keep things organized, but i manage to keep things organized in folders as well, so am i missing something? |
It has to do with the amount of space you can get. It used to (and may still, not techy enough to know) be that the system could only recognize a certain amount of space on a disk so you needed to partion it to use all available space. I think I remember something to that had to do with the way data is stored on drives over a certain size that caused the file sizes to be larger (FAT - File Allocation Tables).
I apologize, but I'm going of vague memory of years ago, so all of the above may be off.
Nowadays, I don't think it really matters much if you partition or not. Many use it (partitions) for organizational purposes.
Edit: Here's a link that gives some reasons as to why may want to partition your drive:
Click Here
Message edited by author 2006-10-31 17:08:58.
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10/31/2006 05:05:59 PM · #3 |
| Assuming you are talking about a Windows box, no there isn't really any benefit to doing so outside of trying to organize your data. If you're happy with doing it within a directory structure on one drive, there's no reason to do it across multiple partitions. |
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10/31/2006 05:06:58 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by dallasdux:
I apologize, but I'm going of vague memory of years ago |
Correct, these issues are now something we can point at and say "I remember when you had to partition a disk" |
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10/31/2006 05:10:19 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by routerguy666:
Originally posted by dallasdux:
I apologize, but I'm going of vague memory of years ago |
Correct, these issues are now something we can point at and say "I remember when you had to partition a disk" |
And one day I can tell my grandkids how I used to play "Pong" long before video games came out, lol.
Thanks for confirming Routerguy. :-)
Have a good one.
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10/31/2006 05:15:16 PM · #6 |
There are still some reasons to partirtion a drive other than to save space by having a smaller minimum file size (allocation block), and to make organizing data more efficient (those are still good reasons). Among them ...
ΓΆ€ΒΆ Your system will run better if it's on a partition not cluttered with data files.
ΓΆ€ΒΆ Photoshop will run faster if you have an empty partition it can use as a "scratch disk" or virtual memory.
ΓΆ€ΒΆ If you have a crash it may be easier to recover data from an intact partition. |
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10/31/2006 05:23:47 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
ΓΆ€ΒΆ If you have a crash it may be easier to recover data from an intact partition. |
Exactly, I have two partitions on my hard drive so that in case the Windows partition crashes, I can still recover what's on the other one. I save all my files to my second partition (and my external just in case) and install all my programs and what not to my first partition. So if Windows crashes, all I have to do is format and reinstall windows on the first partition and all the files on the second should still be intact. This also works well if you create images for your hard drive to load on if/when you have a crash.
Edit to add: You don't have to partition it, I just do for the cases I wrote above. Windows can now read any size partition (assuming you're using NTFS), so it doesn't really matter.
Message edited by author 2006-10-31 17:25:14.
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10/31/2006 05:25:45 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
ΓΆ€ΒΆ Your system will run better if it's on a partition not cluttered with data files. |
Leaf: you didn't mention physical or virtual partitioning. A physical partition would yield better performance because the disk head(s) are not in contention with OS-level read/writes and application data reads/writes. By the way, my definition of phyiscal partitioning is having two physical drives. For example, the OS on one physical drive and your data on another.
Originally posted by GeneralE:
ΓΆ€ΒΆ Photoshop will run faster if you have an empty partition it can use as a "scratch disk" or virtual memory. |
Same as above. A second physical "spindle" eases the work of just one, but a virtual partition can help PS as well.
Originally posted by GeneralE:
ΓΆ€ΒΆ If you have a crash it may be easier to recover data from an intact partition. |
Not only that, with Windows you can wipe your previous OS and install a newer, clean version (e.g. going from XP to Vista), minimizing your effort to restore existing data.
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10/31/2006 05:28:36 PM · #9 |
These days, assuming that the partition is NTFS and not FAT16 or FAT32, the minimum allocation block size should not be a factor. On FAT-formatted drives, it is a factor. The OS, and specifically the space allocated for the system "virtual memory" should be unfragmented. The system files are normally unfragmented, but the virtual memrory space can become fragmented. I normally recommend setting a fixed virtual memory size upon installing the OS, which allocates the necessary space in one block and ensures that it remains unfragmented.
it is true that Photoshop will run faster if:
- It's scratch area is a contiguous file (not fragmented). Does not require a separate partition, but may be easier to maintain in a cleaner parttition.
- It's scratch area is on a separate disk from the program. In order to gain benefit from bign on a different disk, it needs ot be a separate physical drive, not just a different partition on the same physical disk drive.
It's very true that if one partition becomes corrupted, the other partitions on the same disk drive may remain readable, and thus ease data recovery (limit actual recovery to the damaged partition). On very large drives, this might be a reason to partition. I don't do it anymore, I just back up often to another physical drive, and maintain an off-site copy that's backed up less frequently. |
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10/31/2006 05:30:42 PM · #10 |
I used to have my hard drive partitioned to run multiple operating systems.
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10/31/2006 05:34:00 PM · #11 |
Since I only have 1 hard drive I partition it so I can assign one partition as the scratch disk for Photoshop.
edit: to fix terminology
Message edited by author 2006-10-31 17:34:38. |
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10/31/2006 05:49:19 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by jpeters:
I used to have my hard drive partitioned to run multiple operating systems. |
I remember those days. The bad thing was that you could only run one OS at a time.
These days, runing virtual machines is the way to go. You can run two, three, or more OSs at the same time with products such as the free Virtual PC. There is also another player in this space, VMWare.
On a project I was on, I ran four OS's at one time (one for a domain controller, one for an Exchange Server, one for a web server, and one emulating a client machine (XP)--all on my XP laptop!
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10/31/2006 06:00:04 PM · #13 |
| A big reason for partitioning is that if you fill up the partition containing your operating system, your computer may crash and not boot. If you have a seperate partition for you data and you fill it up, the only problem is that you can no longer put more stuff on your computer, but you will still be able to operate your computer. |
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10/31/2006 06:05:15 PM · #14 |
All hard drives need at least one partition. Partitioning assigns the drive letter.
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10/31/2006 06:11:20 PM · #15 |
ok thanks for the replys.
I have just bought a computer and it has one 250 gb hard drive in it and the guy partitioned it into 5 different partitions... a little overboard if you ask me... but i am not sure i feel like formating the drive and reinstalling everything... perhaps i will live with the 5 partitions. By the sounds of it, if i am only going to have one drive in the computer it might help photoshop run faster if i have at least two partitions on that drive.
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10/31/2006 06:20:58 PM · #16 |
A lot of people will use a partition as a "data" partition. They'll keep all user based things like documents etc on the data partition so that if they have something catrostrophic happen to the operating system they can blow it away without losing data. Its also a nice way of limiting how much space you can use on a physical drive. The problem I've always had with partitioning is deciding how much to give to things. If I have a 100 GB drive and I allocate 80 GB to user files that means I would have 20 GB for the operating system and programs. (Assuming only 2 partitions). If you were to go the other direction then the user files are only allowed 20 GB. If you go with one big partition (e.g. 100 GB in this case) you get to use the full drive but recovery of data is a little harder. You'll have to rely entirely on backups etc rather than having a copy on your system.
Then of course there is Linux where you have to multiple partitions but I won't go into that here. Thats what Linux forums are for :) |
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10/31/2006 06:23:42 PM · #17 |
| I know on some pre-built systems they will have an OS partition, a data partition (for user stuff) and a backup partition which has an unmarred image of your original installation. You could blow away the backup but if you don't have a Windows Install CD and need reinstall you are kinda borked. As for why he would setup 5 on a Windows Box? No idea. (Click happy in the disk manager I guess?) |
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10/31/2006 06:27:02 PM · #18 |
FYI. Having a scratch disk/page file/swap on the same physical drive, no matter which partition does not give you any benefits. You will only gain these benefits if these types of caching folders are located on another phyisical disk.
The other comments of previous posters re valid uses of partitioning a single drive.
Originally posted by leaf:
ok thanks for the replys.
I have just bought a computer and it has one 250 gb hard drive in it and the guy partitioned it into 5 different partitions... a little overboard if you ask me... but i am not sure i feel like formating the drive and reinstalling everything... perhaps i will live with the 5 partitions. By the sounds of it, if i am only going to have one drive in the computer it might help photoshop run faster if i have at least two partitions on that drive. |
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10/31/2006 07:28:31 PM · #19 |
| Five partitions is nuts. I used to partition my drives, but got more annoyed with that than the one contiguous block. I recently installed a couple of 500GB drives, and used only one partition on each. |
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11/01/2006 11:21:14 AM · #20 |
| If you're going to reinstall windows anyway and only have one disk, get aother hard drive even if its small (like 40 or 80 GB). Set that as your system (boot) drive and use it for windows and installed programs, and keep the 250GB drive for data. That way, if you ever have to reinstall windows you (hopefully) won't lose any data. |
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11/01/2006 11:29:06 AM · #21 |
is there an easy way in windows to say that you want all the 'my documents' files to be automatically save on drive X?
found the answer
answer
Message edited by author 2006-11-01 11:30:50.
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11/01/2006 03:00:09 PM · #22 |
Originally posted by hankk:
If you're going to reinstall windows anyway and only have one disk, get aother hard drive even if its small (like 40 or 80 GB). Set that as your system (boot) drive and use it for windows and installed programs, and keep the 250GB drive for data. That way, if you ever have to reinstall windows you (hopefully) won't lose any data. |
That's exactly what I do.. I install os/applications on one drive, all user data on a second drive. |
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11/01/2006 03:02:16 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by leaf:
ok thanks for the replys.
I have just bought a computer and it has one 250 gb hard drive in it and the guy partitioned it into 5 different partitions... a little overboard if you ask me... but i am not sure i feel like formating the drive and reinstalling everything... perhaps i will live with the 5 partitions. By the sounds of it, if i am only going to have one drive in the computer it might help photoshop run faster if i have at least two partitions on that drive. |
PartitionMagic - software to repartition on the fly so no need to reinstall anything. |
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11/01/2006 03:03:59 PM · #24 |
In the olden days you could get some value from partitioning because you could get errors on one partition that would render it unusable, whilst you could still acess others. Today's hard drives are somewhat more tolerant so I guess that doesn't apply any more.
These days I make a smallish partition to stick the OS in and then put everything else in another partition. That makes reinstalling windows easier when needs must.
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11/01/2006 04:07:18 PM · #25 |
Having recently bought a new pc (a Compaq) this came with a partioned disk. One for the main drive of 68.9gb the other 5.60gb which is set up as a 'recovery disk'.
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