One large partition

[Guest]

I've just stepped into an environment where all the servers are formated with
one large partition; AD controller, exchange, iis, etc. It has alway been my
perspective to have separate partitions for the OS and data files. Any links
etc where I can shop that one large "C" drive is no the best way for a server?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

The true application of separating OS from Data involves separate drives/raid
arrays for each. Partitions on the same drive does nothing for performance,
backup or recovery. Only downside along with no fault tolerance is longer
defrag times.

 

[Guest]

So, basically it make no difference? At least with two partitions on can
spread the paging file across the partitions. Should a single partition be
considered in the least to NOT BE a "best practice"?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Most system administrators adhere to a strict separation betwen
the system drive and the data drive(s). Probably the most important
reason is that it is quite fast and easy to save/restore a system
partition (e.g. prior to a major upgrade) whereas it becomes
much harder and slower (and riskier!) if you have to backup/restore
user data too.

After all, why restore 200 GBytes of user data if all you need is
10 GBytes for the System Partition?