OK to have 500GB hard drive as one partition?

[Jon D]

I use XP Pro/SP2 at home. The PC hardware is a bit slow.

I have got a 500GB hard drive mainly to use as a backup for my main
data.

Is there anything (perhaps in XP or in NTFS or from good sense) which
suggests that I'm wiser not to make the whole 500 GB into one partition?

 

[meerkat]

I use XP Pro/SP2 at home. The PC hardware is a bit slow.

I have got a 500GB hard drive mainly to use as a backup for my main
data.

Is there anything (perhaps in XP or in NTFS or from good sense) which
suggests that I'm wiser not to make the whole 500 GB into one partition?

It`s all a matter of personal choice.
Personally I`d split it into at least 3. ie. 2x200 + 1x100.
If your storing, say, videos, you might adjust sizes.

The reason I suggest this is `cos, if you got a bit of a
file or partition problem, you would still have stuff safe
on the other partitions (unless of course the whole drive
went pouff.)
YMMV.

 

[JAD]

I use XP Pro/SP2 at home. The PC hardware is a bit slow.

I have got a 500GB hard drive mainly to use as a backup for my main
data.

this is an external drive?

Is there anything (perhaps in XP or in NTFS or from good sense) which
suggests that I'm wiser not to make the whole 500 GB into one partition?

I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to this stuff. 500 gigs is over kill for most
situations and a b*tch to back up (if its internal).
I cannot see where anybody needs to have 500 gigs on one physical drive. At home anyway. I
do video and graphics quite often. Huge files on a temporary basis. This is done on 1 x
160, 1 x 250 Hitachi internals. With OS/software backup on an external 160 WD. Most of my
production software runs from my server so its not installed on my production rig. All my
'work' and 'work in progress' go unto DVD/CD, and on the external, on a temporary basis so
its easy to get to.


I digress, I would partition it into 2x 250's , but that's based on nothing but 'I' would
be more comfortable with it.

 

[Rod Speed]

this is an external drive?


I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to this stuff. 500 gigs is
over kill for most situations and a b*tch to back up (if its internal).

I cannot see where anybody needs to have 500 gigs on one physical drive. At home anyway.

More fool you. It isnt hard to fill one of those when used in a
PVR with 2-3GB/hour/channel and that isnt even high definition.

I do video and graphics quite often. Huge files on a temporary basis.

Some choose to keep quite a bit of stuff on their PVR so they have something worth watching.

This is done on 1 x 160, 1 x 250 Hitachi internals. With OS/software backup on an external 160 WD.
Most of my production software runs from my server so its not installed on my production rig. All
my 'work' and 'work in progress' go unto DVD/CD, and on the external, on a temporary basis so its
easy to get to.

I digress, I would partition it into 2x 250's , but that's based on nothing but 'I' would be more
comfortable with it.

More fool you.

 

[johannes]

this is an external drive?


I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to this stuff. 500 gigs is over kill for most
situations and a b*tch to back up (if its internal).
I cannot see where anybody needs to have 500 gigs on one physical drive. At home anyway. I
do video and graphics quite often. Huge files on a temporary basis. This is done on 1 x
160, 1 x 250 Hitachi internals. With OS/software backup on an external 160 WD. Most of my
production software runs from my server so its not installed on my production rig. All my
'work' and 'work in progress' go unto DVD/CD, and on the external, on a temporary basis so
its easy to get to.

I digress, I would partition it into 2x 250's , but that's based on nothing but 'I' would
be more comfortable with it.

Think of jobs which cover the whole partition, such as e.g. defrag and backups. It may take
a long time to do 500GB, on the other hand it's only one job.

 

[JAD]

More fool you. It isnt hard to fill one of those when used in a
PVR with 2-3GB/hour/channel and that isnt even high definition.

ahhh I can always count on you coming up with an obscure example..however keeping some
stupid movie or TV show on a hard drive hardly constitutes 'needed data'. Besides all that
porn is bad fer ya.

Some choose to keep quite a bit of stuff on their PVR so they have something worth
watching.

PVR PVR PVR PVR what else?

More fool you.

uhhuh .... kinda strange that 'you' would know what 'I' am 'comfortable' with, and
because I am comfortable, that in some way makes me fool.

New cliche' is in order.

 

[Michael C]

I use XP Pro/SP2 at home. The PC hardware is a bit slow.

I have got a 500GB hard drive mainly to use as a backup for my main
data.

Is there anything (perhaps in XP or in NTFS or from good sense) which
suggests that I'm wiser not to make the whole 500 GB into one partition?

I always go with a single partition. Having multiple smaller partitions just
makes things more difficult, *especially* if the drive gets near full.

 

[Tim S]

ahhh I can always count on you coming up with an obscure example..however
keeping some stupid movie or TV show on a hard drive hardly constitutes
'needed data'. Besides all that porn is bad fer ya.

Pah, 500GB... Amateurs...

13TB on one logical drive spanned by a single XFS filesystem - that's a real
man's data volume...


n0b longitudinal comparisons aside, I have in the past tried to be "neat"
with larger disks and partion everything up on my home system. It usually
turns out to be a pain IME - I always end up overflowing one filesystem,
with loads of space left on another, so I gave up and spanned the entire
disk instead.

Backing up is a valid concern if one were limited to backing up at the block
device level, but I find rsync is good for my needs, backing up at the file
level it is easy to divide the data into manageable chucks if required.

This is an area where there is no right and wrong - merely the optimal for
the situation at hand, so this is just my 2p's worth....

Cheers

Tim

 

[philo]

I use XP Pro/SP2 at home. The PC hardware is a bit slow.

I have got a 500GB hard drive mainly to use as a backup for my main
data.

Is there anything (perhaps in XP or in NTFS or from good sense) which
suggests that I'm wiser not to make the whole 500 GB into one partition?

Hey...why not...
no need to divide it up unless you have a specific reason to do so...

it'll probably take you all day to fill it though...

might as well order another one right away!

 

[Rod Speed]

ahhh I can always count on you coming up with an obscure example..

Nothing obscure about it, you pathetic excuse for a bullshit artist.

Its actually by far the most common reason that 500G
drives are used with personal home desktop systems.

however keeping some stupid movie or TV show on a hard drive hardly constitutes 'needed data'.

You're the only one who even mentioned 'needed data', you pathetic excuse for a bullshit artist.

Besides all that porn is bad fer ya.

Just because thats all you're obsessed with doesnt mean anything about anyone else, child.

PVR PVR PVR PVR what else?

Doesnt need to be anything else, you pathetic excuse for a bullshit artist.

uhhuh .... kinda strange that 'you' would know what 'I' am 'comfortable' with,

Never ever said I was, you pathetic excuse for a bullshit artist.

and because I am comfortable, that in some way makes me fool.

Corse it does in that case.

New cliche' is in order.

You dont qualify, you pathetic excuse for a bullshit artist.

 

[JAD]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<snore>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

use it on someone else

 

[Rod Speed]

Some gutless ****wit desperately cowering behind
JAD <[email protected]>
wrote just what you'd expect from that desperately
cowering gutless ****wit that never ever could
bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

 

[Michael C]

PVR PVR PVR PVR what else?

Anything to do with video really. Plenty of people are downloading movies.

Michael

 

[JAD]

Anything to do with video really. Plenty of people are downloading movies.

Michael

yeah i get it ..movies on the hard drive, 500 gigs of movies left on the hard drive.
Never used mine to 'store' movies.

 

[Michael C]

yeah i get it ..movies on the hard drive, 500 gigs of movies left on
the hard drive. Never used mine to 'store' movies.

Neither have I much but *many* people do.

Michael

 

[John Doe]

Neither have I much but *many* people do.

Michael

And no doubt the number is growing fast. I think my ISP is
advertising movie downloads. Media makers are dying to make money
off of something many already do illegally for free. And of course
they go to the hard drive. He's just afraid of any such thought...
if his wife caught him downloading porn she'd make him wear a dress
to bed too.

 

[Rod Speed]

Anything to do with video really. Plenty of people are downloading movies.

They're not so bad since they are normally only about 1G per movie.

 

[johannes]

Some gutless ****wit desperately cowering behind
JAD <[email protected]>
wrote just what you'd expect from that desperately
cowering gutless ****wit that never ever could
bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

Bwadr! The same old gramophone track from rod speed. Can't even come up
with new insults, poor guy.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Bwadr! The same old gramophone track from rod speed.
Can't even come up with new insults, poor guy.

How odd that no one has ever seen anything
but this sort of puerile sniping from you, child.

 

[Vic Smith]

I use XP Pro/SP2 at home. The PC hardware is a bit slow.

I have got a 500GB hard drive mainly to use as a backup for my main
data.

Is there anything (perhaps in XP or in NTFS or from good sense) which
suggests that I'm wiser not to make the whole 500 GB into one partition?

First off, what is your "main data?" Do you mean your C: partition,
which contains your OS?
If you intend to image the C: partition with Ghost or equivalent to
the new drive and make a mistake, you can hammer the entire
500GB. See recent thread "please help : partition gone"
There are other ways to damage a partition, most often done by
making a simple mistake when using a utility.
Ideally, you should have at least 2 backup hard drives duplicating,
the data, and in that case there is no need to partition them.
There are many good backup schemes, but none will rely on a single
repository of backed up data.
In your case I recommend 2 250GB partitions for the backup drive,
with your backed up data duplicated in each partition.
Duplication won't help if the drive fails, but will give you some
safety against data loss should a partition be corrupted.

--Vic