Partitions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Philip K.
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Philip K.

Hi Everybody,
Other than convenience, are there pros and cons for creating three
partitions for the hard disk.
1. Windows
2. Applications
3. Data
Phil
 
Cons.
Limited disk space (but with large hard disk at throw away prices not much
to quarrel about).
The entire drive can still fail and you lose all the data

Pros:
Personal data backed up safely to separate partitions, so if the OS fails
all you have to do is reinstall it without affecting your data. Apps might
need to be reinstalled to function properly.
 
On 4/7/2007 6:26 PM On a whim, Philip K. pounded out on the keyboard
Hi Everybody,
Other than convenience, are there pros and cons for creating three
partitions for the hard disk.
1. Windows
2. Applications
3. Data
Phil
Click to expand...

Hi Phil,

I have my OS's, data, and programs all on separate drives, not
partitions. Big con for one drive; if the hard drive goes bad you lose
everything (without a backup of course).

I keep redundant copies of the 3 on each drive so if one fails (and they
have each failed in the last 2 years), it's a quick process to copy the
partitions to a new drive.

I have my pagefile on the data drive, so performance can also be faster
since I can have 3 drives accessing OS code, data, and program code, as
opposed to only one drive reading everything.

It's easier to back up one drive than three. As previously mentioned,
you can format the OS drive and reinstall and keep your data safe.
Applications will still need to be reinstalled, because of registry
settings, dll's in system folder, etc.

--
Terry

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Hi Andre
Thanks for your reply.
Phil

Andre Da Costa said:
Cons.
Limited disk space (but with large hard disk at throw away prices not much
to quarrel about).
The entire drive can still fail and you lose all the data

Pros:
Personal data backed up safely to separate partitions, so if the OS fails
all you have to do is reinstall it without affecting your data. Apps might
need to be reinstalled to function properly.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry
Click to expand...
 
Hi Terry,
Thanks for your reply. I must admit that I never thought of using three
drives.
Phil
 
On 4/7/2007 7:37 PM On a whim, Philip K. pounded out on the keyboard
Hi Terry,
Thanks for your reply. I must admit that I never thought of using three
drives.
Phil
Click to expand...

You're welcome Phil. Hope it gave you some choices to consider.

--
Terry

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Philip K. said:
Hi Everybody,
Other than convenience, are there pros and cons for creating three
partitions for the hard disk.
1. Windows
2. Applications
3. Data
Phil
Click to expand...



Placing data files on a partition or physical hard drive separate from
the operating system and applications can greatly simplify operating system
repairs/recoveries/reinstallations and data back-up/restoration.

There's very little point, however, in having a separate partition for
just applications. Should you have to reinstall the OS, you'll still also
have to reinstall each and every application anyway, in order to recreate
the hundreds (possibly thousands) of registry entries and to replace the
dozens (possibly hundreds) of essential system files back into the
appropriate Windows folders and sub-folders.


--
Bruce Chambers

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deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

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Terry said:
On 4/7/2007 6:26 PM On a whim, Philip K. pounded out on the keyboard


Hi Phil,

I have my OS's, data, and programs all on separate drives, not
partitions. Big con for one drive; if the hard drive goes bad you lose
everything (without a backup of course).

I keep redundant copies of the 3 on each drive so if one fails (and they
have each failed in the last 2 years), it's a quick process to copy the
partitions to a new drive.

I have my pagefile on the data drive, so performance can also be faster
since I can have 3 drives accessing OS code, data, and program code, as
opposed to only one drive reading everything.

It's easier to back up one drive than three. As previously mentioned,
you can format the OS drive and reinstall and keep your data safe.
Applications will still need to be reinstalled, because of registry
settings, dll's in system folder, etc.
Click to expand...

If you lost the drive that held your OS, your drive holding the programs
is pretty useless. After replacing the drive and reinstalling the OS you
would need to re-install all of your programs to establish the registry
entries.

gls858
 
On 4/7/2007 6:26 PM On a whim, Philip K. pounded out on the keyboard

Hi Phil,

I have my OS's, data, and programs all on separate drives, not
partitions. Big con for one drive; if the hard drive goes bad you lose
everything (without a backup of course).

I keep redundant copies of the 3 on each drive so if one fails (and they
have each failed in the last 2 years), it's a quick process to copy the
partitions to a new drive.

I have my pagefile on the data drive, so performance can also be faster
since I can have 3 drives accessing OS code, data, and program code, as
opposed to only one drive reading everything.

It's easier to back up one drive than three. As previously mentioned,
you can format the OS drive and reinstall and keep your data safe.
Applications will still need to be reinstalled, because of registry
settings, dll's in system folder, etc.
Click to expand...

If you lost the drive that held your OS, your drive holding the programs
is pretty useless. After replacing the drive and reinstalling the OS you
would need to re-install all of your programs to establish the registry
entries.

gls858[/QUOTE]

If you're commenting on my post, I don't worry about losing the drive
with my OS's on it. As I stated, I have redundant copies of each
partition on each of the drives, so if the OS drive failed, I install a
new drive, copy the OS partition back over to the new drive (from one of
the other drives) and I'm back in business. No reinstalling of programs
is necessary.

Really it all comes down to having good backups of however you configure
your machine as to how much time it will take to get back up and running.

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
 
Terry said:
If you lost the drive that held your OS, your drive holding the programs
is pretty useless. After replacing the drive and reinstalling the OS you
would need to re-install all of your programs to establish the
registry entries.

gls858
Click to expand...

If you're commenting on my post, I don't worry about losing the drive
with my OS's on it. As I stated, I have redundant copies of each
partition on each of the drives, so if the OS drive failed, I install a
new drive, copy the OS partition back over to the new drive (from one of
the other drives) and I'm back in business. No reinstalling of programs
is necessary.

Really it all comes down to having good backups of however you configure
your machine as to how much time it will take to get back up and running.
[/QUOTE]

I missed the part about the redundant backups. My mistake. I typically
keep the OS and the programs on one drive. After I have things set up
the way I want them then I just image that drive, programs and all.


gls858
 
On 4/9/2007 11:41 AM On a whim, gls858 pounded out on the keyboard

If you're commenting on my post, I don't worry about losing the drive
with my OS's on it. As I stated, I have redundant copies of each
partition on each of the drives, so if the OS drive failed, I install a
new drive, copy the OS partition back over to the new drive (from one of
the other drives) and I'm back in business. No reinstalling of programs
is necessary.

Really it all comes down to having good backups of however you configure
your machine as to how much time it will take to get back up and running.
Click to expand...

I missed the part about the redundant backups. My mistake. I typically
keep the OS and the programs on one drive. After I have things set up
the way I want them then I just image that drive, programs and all.


gls858[/QUOTE]

I think most users do (use only one drive). I have multiple OS's on my
machine and I didn't want to have each one using a large portion of the
drive, so I made each OS partition small (4 to 8 gig) and then installed
each OS's programs to the same program drive. That way only one copy of
each program was installed, and the proper registry settings and DLL's
were placed into each OS. So even my program drive is small, as there
is only one copy of each program on it.

I started doing this when drives were about 40 gig, so having 5 OS's
could have taken up a lot of space. Now that drives are huge in
comparison, it probably isn't necessary to split the OS & programs
apart, except for the quick backup time. Copying an OS partition only
takes about 5 minutes since they are so small, a big time saver for me.

--
Terry

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