78 replies to this topic

[Eldmannen]

Hello!

This post is about disk partitions and why they are so great!
They are so great, that in fact everyone should have one!

A good idea is to partition your harddisk to have 2 partitions.
This way you can have your operating system and system files on one partition (the primary partition) which usually is C:

Then you can have another secondary partition which is D:
where you store any other data such as media files (music, movies) and all sorts of stuff.

Maybe you have a 100 gb harddisk. Then you can allocate for example 20 gb to have on a system/primary partition (C:) where you have for example Windows XP. Then the rest (80 gb) you have on your secondary partition (D:).

This can help you keep stuff categorized and prevent you from accidently deleting something on the system partition when you are handling your files.

Now imagine if your operating system didnt work so well, you needed to reinstall it, and you thought it would be a good idea to reformat the harddisk. Now if you only had one partition on the harddisk you wouldnt be able to format the disk without all your files get deleted.

But because you have partitioned your harddisk to two or more partitions you can format the system partition, reinstall your operating system and still have all your files left intact since you cleverly stored them on the other disk partition.

So now you know!

[Eldmannen]

It also has other benefits. Lets say you move around files, copy files, delete files, download files, etc to your harddisk. This will lead your files gets defragmented and your computer will be slower.

But if you mainly use the secondary partition for your files, then it will take much longer time for your primary system partition to get fragmented which means your computer will work optimally for a longer period of time before you need to defragment the partitions.

Want a deeper insight into disk partitions?
See the Wikipedia article on disk partitions!

[Vanguard382]

Good post.
Even if I knew this stuff, would really help others out!

[rridgely]

Did you just get bored or something?
Anyway you made some good points. Althought I would just rather keep my files on an external hd and be completely worry free about loosing my files.

Nice post.

[Andavari]

Very good post Eldmannen, more folks should know about partitioning to keep there collection of music, movies, pictures, etc., off the primary partition of C: which is subject to all sorts of problems. Having a separate partition is also ideal for keeping downloaded programs, it negates having to grab tons of CD-R's just to find the installer(s).

[Eldmannen]

Thanks for the replies!

I wrote it because I thought I should educate some people about computers and stuff. Sad thing is that maybe this thread will disappear soon, maybe I or someone should put it on a website or something.
If anyone has a website and thought it was useful, feel free to put it on your website or something.

Partition their drives is something everybody should do, it can save them alot of hassle and provide them with much convenience.

As rridgely having two harddrives is also a good idea, unfortunately that makes more noise, cost more, eats more electricity, etc. But it can be good.

Two hard drives can also be runned in something called RAID, which there are different modes to. You can mirror the content of the harddrive in real-time or provide reading from two disks which can provide fast performance. This is not so common for home users, but it is common for servers.
Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) on Wikipedia

[rridgely]

I'll pin it for you in hardware if you would like.

[Andavari]

Eldmannen, on Dec 23 2005, 10:17 PM, said:

As rridgely having two harddrives is also a good idea, unfortunately that makes more noise, cost more, eats more electricity, etc. But it can be good.

I have two internal hdd's on my XP system. The reason I haven't got around to partitioning them is because currently they're too small 80GB for me to even bother with, if/when I get a series of 250GB or larger then I'd partition them for my music collection -- that is if I don't just build a unit (series of insane capacity hdd's) solely for music and perhaps movies that runs via a moderate priced or perhaps used laptop with XP.

[Vanguard382]

I think saving this topic would be a vwery good idea

[Mike Rochip]

If you have 2 hard drives moving the pagefile to the 2nd hard drive will reduce the time the computer needs to read and write to it. This can be helpfull on ram challenged computers such as mine .

[Eldmannen]

rridgely, on Dec 24 2005, 05:50 AM, said:

I'll pin it for you in hardware if you would like.

That would be great!

Andavari, on Dec 24 2005, 05:55 AM, said:

I have two internal hdd's on my XP system. The reason I haven't got around to partitioning them is because currently they're too small 80GB for me to even bother with, if/when I get a series of 250GB or larger then I'd partition them for my music collection -- that is if I don't just build a unit (series of insane capacity hdd's) solely for music and perhaps movies that runs via a moderate priced or perhaps used laptop with XP.

80 gb isnt too small (imho), creating two partitions 20 and 60 gb wouldnt be all too bad. However I see why you dont partition them as you have 2 disks anyways.

Dont see why anyone would need a system disk bigger than 20 gb though.

[kobrakommander56]

yeah i should really partition my harddrive becuz defragging games, is ridiculous.

[krit86lr]

Mike Rochip, on Dec 28 2005, 03:52 AM, said:

If you have 2 hard drives moving the pagefile to the 2nd hard drive will reduce the time the computer needs to read and write to it. This can be helpfull on ram challenged computers such as mine .

Have you considered adding more memory to your computer? About 6 weeks ago I added memory cards to my computer, and it is AWESOME!!! Definitely worth checking in to. It's so easy that a novice like myself accomplished the task in 10 minutes.

I hope that you try it!!
K

[lokoike]

I think he just needs to quit kicking his system!

And I just built a new system with 2 GB of Corsair RAM (dual channel). Speedy little booger! You can never have too much memory.

[Tarun]

Mike Rochip, on Dec 28 2005, 04:52 AM, said:

If you have 2 hard drives moving the pagefile to the 2nd hard drive will reduce the time the computer needs to read and write to it. This can be helpfull on ram challenged computers such as mine .

That's actually a false rumor. The speeds of hard drives are a lot faster than what they used to be. The same with RAM. It's best to (if you have a pagefile) keep it on the same drive/partition as your Windows install.

[lokoike]

Tarun, on Jan 11 2006, 10:30 AM, said:

That's actually a false rumor. The speeds of hard drives are a lot faster than what they used to be. The same with RAM. It's best to (if you have a pagefile) keep it on the same drive/partition as your Windows install.

I'm not sure I agree with you. You said that drives are a lot faster than they used to be, so it seems like you're saying that in the past it was faster to have Windows and the pagefile on separate disks. Whether or not that was what you were implying, it is true; if I took two old HDs and split up my OS and pagefile between them, it would be faster than having both on one old HD.

If disks have gotten faster, than sure a pagefile and OS on a single new HD would be faster than the pagefile and OS split up on two old disks. Disk speeds and caches have more than doubled and octupled, respectively, so there would be no contest, even though having both on the same drive is a less logical setup.

But, what if you had the pagefile and OS on two separate new HDs? Obviouly, it would be faster than having both on one new HD, because the OS drive could totally dedicate its rotations and cache to the OS, while the pagefile HD could totally dedicate its rotations and cache to the pagefile.

Even if you had both the pagefile and OS on an HD with NCQ (native command queueing), it would still be a slower setup than having two new non-NCQ HDs dedicated solely to either the OS or pagefile.

[cuggie]

[size=6] Greetings to all. I am a new member. Just wanted to say thank you for this topic. I have just stared to build my first computer and was think I should plan on patition the new H/D.
For a newbie there are so many thing to consider. Already had to return the new motherboard because it was socket 478 and the CPU was socket -LGA775. Live and learn.
Just wanted to join in and say Thanks for the info. on partitions. Now I will have to study up on how to do it.

Cugie

[kobrakommander56]

BAD cuggie! BAD! INTEL BAD!

[cuggie]

kobrakommander56, on Jan 19 2006, 01:25 PM, said:

BAD cuggie! BAD! INTEL BAD!

Oh, I know it, I even have AMD on the HP computer I am using now. Butt {always the big but}
I received the Intel P4 as a gift and it is hard to hurt their feelings. Anyway as this is my first building attempt ; if I messed it up and it will not work I will start over with AMD. Life is just a learning experiance.
I will find out if Intel runs cooler than AMD. I hope it is ok if I post my buildf list here to see what you folks think? If not some one just let me know I should post it in a differant place. I am most interested in what video card I should have as I have no experiance with that. Just starting to play games on here.
Thanks to Any and All for any input. " Smile alot - Makes people wounder what you're up too"
Cuggie

MoBo - MSI P4N SLI-FI Socket T[LGA 775] ATX Intel -$119.00
CPU - Intel P4 Processor 521 800MHz FSB - Free
Case - Rosewill 114 A - 59.99
Keyboard/m Logitech LX 700 - 40.00 [on sale]
Dell Moniter - 289.00
RAM Corsair 1GB(2 x 512 MB) 240 pin SDRM DDR2
533 (PC2 4200) - 73.00
Hard Drive WD Caviar SE 160GB Serial ATA 150 87.00
DVD Burner Plextor PX-740A 60.99 [rebate]
Video Card eVAG 128-P2-N352 TX GeForce 6600LE
128MB PCI Express x 16 79.00

PS. forgive my typing

[lokoike]

cuggie, on Jan 19 2006, 01:10 PM, said:

I will find out if Intel runs cooler than AMD.

Definitely not! That is AMD's big selling point: less pipelines and a lower clock speed, which causes it to run much cooler and more efficiently. But by no means is AMD slower! AMD gets more processing done per cycle than Intel, so it effectively goes faster and still generates less heat.