To partition or not, my new 2nd hard drive?

[gillesd]

I have window 98, a first hard drive of 12 gig
and just bought a second hard drive of 80 gig

I have been asked if I want to partition that 2nd drive

Should I do it? What is recommended?

My use is simple: some pictures, some mp3, few games etc

Any recommendations please? Thank you

Gilles

 

[philo]

I have window 98, a first hard drive of 12 gig
and just bought a second hard drive of 80 gig

I have been asked if I want to partition that 2nd drive

Should I do it? What is recommended?

My use is simple: some pictures, some mp3, few games etc

Any recommendations please? Thank you

Gilles

Fat32 is highly wasteful (due to large cluster size) on partitions over 32
gigs
so if it were my drive I'd make 3 roughly equal partitions

 

[Norm]

If it were mine I would leave it as a single 80 gig partition.

 

[Mike Walsh]

If the drive is to be used just for data one large partition is good. If you are going to install an OS and applications they should be on a separate partition (5 to 10 GB) at the beginning of the drive.

 

[~misfit~]

Fat32 is highly wasteful (due to large cluster size) on partitions
over 32 gigs
so if it were my drive I'd make 3 roughly equal partitions

I agree. Three patitions of roughly 25GB each. Then I'd get my existing C:
drive cloned to the first partition. (There are tools for this downloadable
from the manufacturers site) Keep the 12GB drive for storage. After all, the
new 80GB is going to me a shit-load faster than the old 12GB so you might as
well have your operating system and games (not to mention pagefile/swapfile)
on the fastest drive.

Even if your motherboard can't take advantage of the faster ATA rating it
sure can take advantage of the faster rotational speed and the larger cache.
Also, that old 12GB is getting close to the end of it's (reliable) life. I
know where I'd rather have my important files. You could even take the
opportunity to re-install 98 from scratch on the first partition. 98 goes
sooo much better when you do a fresh install, especially if its already an
old install. Keep the 12GB for your mp3s. Or use it to upgrade an older
machine.

 

[jeremy]

there will be a noticable difference with the OS on the faster drive

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[Jack]

If the drive is to be used just for data one large partition is good. If you are going to install an OS and applications they should be on a separate partition (5 to 10 GB) at the beginning of the drive.

I agree. I just replaced my primary HD with a 120 GB drive. I
partitioned it as a 20 GB C: cdive for Windows and applications, and a
large 100 GB drive for my data, which consists primarily of larger
size multimedia files (MPG, MP3, etc.)

Rule of thumb is that if majority of the files you store on the
partition are smaller than a megabyte, partition the drive into
partitions that are smaller than 32 GB to save on cluster slack. If
the majority are over a meg or two, cluster slack waste becomes
negligible.

 

[Mike Walsh]

What you say about cluster size is true. Also, keeping system and application files on a relatively small area at the beginning of the disk will considerable improve access time. The size needed for the application partition will vary greatly. For me 3 GB is enough, if you install a lot of new games 20 GB might not be enough.

 

[kony]

What you say about cluster size is true.

True, but pretty much irrelevant on today's larger drives... most
users have a finite number of smaller files, would benefit more from
the speed increase seen by going with larger clusters.


Dave

 

[~misfit~]

What you say about cluster size is true. Also, keeping system and
application files on a relatively small area at the beginning of the
disk will considerable improve access time. The size needed for the
application partition will vary greatly. For me 3 GB is enough, if
you install a lot of new games 20 GB might not be enough.

That's why I partitioned my 80BG as 25Gb for OS and apps and 50MB (roughly)
for storage. Both NTFS. Games take a lot of space these days when some of
them come on three CDs, most have 2. I'm begining to worry that 25GB isn't
actually big enough.