To partition, or not to partition?

Hi!

I'll be getting a T61p I ordered with XP pro around the end of this month hopefully... it has a 200gb 7200rpm hard drive.

Will partitioning the drive in 2-3 drives help improve system performance? or is it not worth going through all the trouble from a performance point of view?

I'm not really worried about the backup aspect since I plan to buy an external drive to save all the work and files on...

Thanks!

Carthik

 

Defragmenting helps HDD performance a lot; and having smaller partitions means faster defrag times (so you can do it quickly and regularly). It will also be easier to format and reinstall windows (if the need ever occurs) without worrying too much about backing up data. I normally don’t keep my data files on the same partition as Windows or Program files.

EDIT : What I meant by faster defarg times is if you have a smaller partition for the OS and programs (since thats the partition which will reflect mostly on the system performance, other partitions need not be defragged as frequent). Other than the defrag times, there wont be a noticeable performance difference (if at all).

 

You won't see any magical performance advantages under normal use.

A better reason would be separating your data from the OS/applications. This would allow you to quickly image/restore the OS/apps partition without affecting your data on the separate partition and not having your data bloat up the OS/apps image size (think media files...).

 

i always like to go ahead and partition mine...... then I don't worry about losing data if I decide to later.

performance is not enhanced that much, if even measurable....

I like to do it to separate my os/data and have it prepared for a dual boot if you decide to try a linux ,etc.

As stated it also speeds up defrag your os partition quite a bit-- depending- on the partition size you create for the OS.

 

it will not increase your performance at all. of course, there are still other reasons that you might want to do it.

 

1 partition for OS, another for stuff.
Best way ,in case of OS failure,wipe it off and keep the stuff.

 

Yeah, in my case this is a very good way to circumvent HP recovery manager.
Instead of having to back up all my data on another computer or wasting flash drives and CD's, I can just copy and paste on another Volume and run it.

 

The smaller the partition and the closer it is to the front of the disk, the faster it will be accessing data from that partition, which includes speed increases for you. Sometimes it's noticeable and other times it's not. It will not decrease your performance at all though. If you have some time and want to experiment you should fool around with Ubuntu, if you don't know what that is or want to know more then go here.

 

My understanding is that Vista is designed to seameless deal whith the whole HDD. To create partition "might" deterioate performance IMHO.

 

As far as i know, Vista is a dynamic partition, which i've heard uses extra space when it needs it regardless of whether it was allocated to it or not. Take this info with a grain of salt.

 

The OP seems to be asking about XP, not Vista.

Either way, partitioning shouldn't make any significant performance difference in either OS. The advantages and disadvantages of partitioning are related to organization, backup, and flexibility... not performance.

 

FWIW, just a couple of days ago, I reinstalled XP on a cheap (ok, extremely cheap eMachines desktop). With Ubuntu/GParted, I downsized the Windows partition to about 40 Gig, and then finished the Ubuntu install using the remaining disk space - about 40 gig (hdd is an old 80Gig Raptor).

As swarmer mentioned, performance wasn't affected in any way, but organizing in order to install a second OS (or for whatever reason you may have), was convenient and very easy.

 

partition!!!!!!!!

 

I always partition. 1 for OS, 1 for Progs. Music etc.

Don't see any difference in performance...

 

All right! thanks a ton guys... I'm definitely going to partition it. What's a good partition for XP? 20gb for OS-180gb for other stuff ok? Cos on my desktop, xp is on an 18 gig partition... Will keeping the c drive cramped have any effect on system performance?

And also, will there be any need to update bios or install display driver at a certain point with this system being a laptop? I know there shouldn't be a diff, but i want to make sure...

And now just a quick run through- are these steps, that i use for a desktop install enough? Download all the drivers onto a dvd --- Then using an XP cd, I boot from it --- then format drive, select partitioning and begin xp installation.

Also any idea if i can download win XP PRO safely from somewhere? i need to use it to boot up... and will install it with my laptop's key.

 

You don't need to reinstall to partition. You just need a partitioning too such as GParted, although i recommend you use a Linux LiveCD like Ubuntu to do your partitioning so you have access to an OS while you do it so you can write papers or go on the internet if you need to when partitioning because it can take a long time.

 

oh nice! could u please elaborate or give me a link to help partition without reinstalling the os?

and can i use the linux tool to partition it while I'm running XP??

and also, i don't mind waiting a while to finish the partitioning.... but how long would it take for a 200gb drive into C (30gb) and D (170gb) drives??

 

GParted here.

 

@Carthikv12 , it won`t take that much,especially if you said you're pacient.
You'll love GParted, fixed and helped a # of issues for me...well,vista that is

 

What's the best program to partition a hard drive?

 

Partitioning is very easy, just click on the partition you want to edit and click the Resize/Move button to change your partitions. In your case you just either move the slider to decrease the XP partition and then make a new media partition to fit in the new space by moving the slider. Here's a note of warning though, do not format your partitions and if you accidentally click the button you can just click "Undo". Here is where you download the ISO to burn. To burn the ISO use a program such as BurnCDCC to burn it. Just point to the ISO and set the speed to something very slow and burn it. You can put it on a USB flash drive if you want, instructions are here. You'll need to set your BIOS to boot the CD Drive (or if you choose to use USB the USB drive) which can usually be done by pressing ESC or F2. Ubuntu is very similar to GParted and i even recommend it over GParted because you can aces the internet to come here and ask for help if you get stuck. A word of warning DO NOT STOP THE PARTITIONING PROCESS FOR ANY REASON NO MATTER WHAT, OTHERWISE BE PREPARED TO LOSE DATA. Here are some screen shots of GParted so you get used to the interface.

GParted by far.

 

Thank you, Calvin.

 

Don't forget to backup your data, before you begin to modify the partition table.
Also, I suggest more than one partition:

1 for OS
1 for alternative OS (just in case the main one fails)
1 for OS data (the files that need frequent defragging)
1 for programs (so they are separate from OS and data)
1 for your data (this one you will backup everyday, in a jiffy)
1 for media (this one will be a big partition, you don't want to back it up every day)

 

I have to burn gparted on cd and boot from it cos the HD will be inaccessible right? Then, do i just follow the screenshots? I am clueless about what 'disklabel' i have to choose or the 'features' or 'manage flags' dialog mean!!!! will i need to understand what all that means first? or are the default settings fine? ntfs file system is best right? will it change any of this or just partition them with the already existing file system?

Now if I boot from the gparted cd and partition the whole hard drive into 2-3 partitions, then I shouldn't lose any of the OS data right? and is this in anyway a compromise of the usual drive creating process (formatting and selecting partition size)? or is it identical at the end?

Thanks!!!!

PS: just to confirm - I won't lose any of my OS data after partitioning right? and also how safe is it? any chance of rendering my HDD unusable?

 

Before you boot into anything, you have to defarg your drive with something like Auslogics Disk defrag, don't follow the screenshots, they're just there to let you know what to expect. Don't worry about Disk label, it's what your "C" and "D" drive names are, it's the disk label. Don't worry about flags, everything will work just fine as long as you leave the flags alone. When you go to format the new space for your media use NTFS, DO NOT FORMAT ANYTHING BUT THE EMPTY SPACE YOU'VE MADE BY SHRINKING YOUR XP PARTITION OR PREPARE TO LOSE ALL THE DATA ON THAT PARTITION. You won't lose any data, MAKE SURE TO DEFRAG THOUGH and you'll be fine. This is no rip off partitioning tool, it's powerful and does exactly what the PC manufacturer does when they make your partitions. Again, you won't lose any data, it's totally safe. JUST MAKE SURE TO DEFRAG. Also, if you see a yellow exclamation icon next to any of your partitions DO NOT TOUCH A THING, COME OUT OF THE LIVECD AND POST HERE ABOUT WHAT YOU SAW. That simple yellow exclamation icon shows that there is a problem with your drive and you need to CHKDSK -f but it's best if you came back here and asked before you go ahead and try anything.

 

I'm sorry I'm getting a lil confused with all this, just to confirm - are these steps going to help me partition the 200gb drive into a 30gb c drive for the XP partition and a 50gb d drive for work and the remaining120gb for everything else?? here they are --

1. Back up everything I might need.
2. Defrag using Auslogics disk defrag (just out of curiosity, is there a big difference between this and the standard windows defrag?)

From here, I'm not entirely sure what i have to do... please put up with me..

3. I run gparted and i select the XP partition by resizing it? about 30 gb ok? and how do i split the remaining portion (170 gb) into 2 partitions (50 + 120)?
4. Then, I format the empty partition(s) when it requires me too...? i just partion them seperately right?

Is it ok to split the 170gb remaining after the 30 gb XP partition into 50 gb +120 gb partitions in the begining or is it going to complicate the formatting process? (or can i just format them individually when i finish partitioning?)


THANKS!!!

PS: Calvin, is it ok if i pm you or something while i'm doing it for real?

 

You use Auslogics disk defrag because it's a lot faster and more efficient than the built in Windows defrag. When you run GParted you have to shrink your XP partition down to a size that fits what it needs. If you install a lot of apps regularly then you'll need a bigger partition that minimal, if you won't be installing a ton of different apps then just make your XP partition about 2 or 3GB more than what it's using. If it's using 15GB now and you want to do it minimally just resize it to 17GB and you'll be fine. If you want a bigger install then if it's 15GB then you can resize it to 30GB. With the empty partition space that is made from shrinking it click on the gray space and then click "New" to create a partition there. Select NTFS and shrink it to about 50GB to hold your work, then in the remaining gray space click it and create another NTFS partition for your media. DO NOT FORMAT YOUR XP DRIVE, IF YOU ACCIDENTALLY CLICK ON IT TO FORMAT IT IT'S NOT TOO LATE, JUST CLICK UNDO.

 

Partitioning, creating new partitions or resizing existing partitions is a potentially dangerous operation!
You have to back up your data before you even think to start doing such a thing.

If your disk is already half full you won't be able to automatically split its content into separate partitions. If I were you I would:

1) Back up my data
2) Verify the backup
3) delete all data and leave only the OS, in order to reduce the occupied space on disk
4) defrag (with a program capable of defragging the MTF files)
5) resize the existing C: partition to 20 GB (or whatever size you choose it to be)
6) create the other partition (another one or two primary partitions, one extended partition with one or more logical partition within it, as you see fit)
7) format the new partitions
8) put the previously backed up data on the newly formatted partitions

But, for the sake of Chtuhulu, don't forget to backup your data.

 

Thanks a TON CALVIN!!!! I wish I could give u more than just the 1 rep!!! but anyway, do let me know if it's ok to bother you again when it actually comes...

thanks!

 

haha... yea thanks Sredni! but i plan to do this on a new laptop i'll be getting soon... :-D so it's going to be clean... but i do plan to backup the swtools folder which has all the thinkvantage software...

 

Yeah it's just fine, i'm here to help.

 

you can also use the trial versions of paragon PM or Acronis Disk director--they are both excellent..... and if you like them, PM me

but of course, use GParted for Ubuntu

 

wait i'm a lil confused again - gparted is only for ubuntu? My system is going to be coming with windows XP... does that mean theres a better solution than gparted?

 

I'm pretty sure nobscot6 meant "but of course, use GParted or Ubuntu".

 

ohk... thanks! I'll pm you when i get to work! thanks again guys!

 

ooppss

it should have said OR

thanks calvin

and +1 for helping them so much!!

 

On my old laptop I had a seperate partition for the OS and it came in incredibly handy. Now I backup everything to an external HD, so if I ever want to reformat/reinstall I dont have to worry. If you dont backup your files externally I would definately recommend it

 

Vista uses a fixed size partition. A dynamic partition is where the volume information is stored in a special database and it was introduce in Server 2000.

Most people here will use a simple partition. This is your basic partition type when you format a harddrive. If you dual boot, you'll have two simple partitions. A harddrive can have up to four partitions.

A dynamic partition is what makes software RAID possible. Striping is a dynamic partition. Mirroring is also. You can also expand a partition (technically, the volume) onto two harddrives (partitions) . Basically, you can have a drive letter refer to a volume that consumes two harddrive.

Keep in mind, if you dual boot to XP or anything else, you cannot take advantage of Window's dynamic partition. Well, you'll just be limited to seeing simple partitions.

 

THIS!

My previous laptop had two partitions. One was supposed to be the backup, but I used it as My Documents. I could restore to factory settings and get all of my stuff working in a few hours. It also seemed virus-proof too.

So yes, not for performance but for safety.