Recommended Windows Drive Space/Partition Allocation Windows drives space allocation - my experience

	Recommended Windows Drive Space/Partition Allocation - Windows drives space allocation - my experience
	Discussion by amitbhandari with 10 Replies. Last Update: December 8, 2006, 6:49 am

amitbhandari

I use 40 GB of internal hard disk to store all my data and I do think that this is somewhat optimistic as having such a space allocation organization will optmize the speed of windows because then Windows will be having enough space for itself, temp files/folders and more...

So, this is the way I have organized my hard disk

Windows XP - 4GB
This drive can be used for re-installing operating system. No data backup required for re-installing since everything else will be on different drives

Program Files - 3GB

Move the program files to another drive (or partition).
To do this run regedit.
Start->Run. Type regedit.

CODE

Set
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version
KEY: ProgramFilesDir
VALUE: D:\Program Files
Type: Reg_SZ

Remember, don't delete key with value C:\Program Files as it is required by Windows XP.

Swap - 1GB

The 1GB is reserved for storing pagefil.sys of Windows XP. The advantage is two-fold. First, it takes some load off from poor C:\ and other the software like Adobe Photoshop CS works perfect as they can have their temporary files either in C:\ or D:\.

Games - 5GB

I play some two-or-three 3D games for which 5 GB is suffice.

Downloads - 5GB

It stores all my downloads which are automatically categorized by FlashGet 1.7 for me.

Music - 16GB
Not to mention, it is the place where all music is stored and what I need is Windows Media Player 10 and selection of my songs to play.

Personal Files - 5GB
Well, here is the place where I store my personal files and documents.

Backup - 1GB
Any sort of backups for my maintenance work are stored here.

So, you see this makes my hard-disk somewhat organized and moreover, because of this, now-a-days, I need very few re-installation of operating system (in case of some problematic software only) as previously when every I got my personal file or music file lost somewhere on my PC and hit search and wait for long time until some success.

:lol:

Mon Apr 17, 2006 Reply New Discussion

Chesso

For a general user I would swap your space for music with the space for games lol.

4gb partition for an Operating System is fine, software applications with that much space is fine too.

I usually have on partition or drive that has the Operating System and Program files. The other drive or partition has my games, music and the Windows swap file. I have recently created some new partitions for Kororra.

Tue Apr 18, 2006 Reply New Discussion

xboxrulz

that's way too many partitions imo. For me this is how I split my "drives" or in UNIX speak "partitions".

DISC 1 - 120 GB Maxtor 7200RPM w/ 8MB cache
71.0 GB - Linux partition
2.4 GB - swap partition
40 GB - Windows

DISC 2 - 80 GB WDD 7200 RPM w/ 8MB cache
73.9 GB - Data Disc/Backup

It does almost the same thing as your setup, but I think the less partitions = cleaner hard drive.

xboxrulz

Tue Apr 18, 2006 Reply New Discussion

Chesso

Your'e a Linux fan aren't you though? Most distros require you to have a minmum of 3 partitionts.....

And if you had Windows as well, I think I have about 5 partitions across 2 drives.

Tue Apr 18, 2006 Reply New Discussion

evought

QUOTE (xboxrulz)

that's way too many partitions imo. For me this is how I split my "drives" or in UNIX speak "partitions".

DISC 1 - 120 GB Maxtor 7200RPM w/ 8MB cache
80.4 GB - Linux partition
500 MB - swap partition
30 GB - Windows

DISC 2 - 80 GB WDD 7200 RPM w/ 8MB cache
79.5 GB - Data Disc/Backup
500 MB - swap partition

It does almost the same thing as your setup, but I think the less partitions = cleaner hard drive.

xboxrulz

Link: view Post: 75748

Yep. of course, having logical volume management means you can start out with:

120 GB
- 500 MB Boot
- 500 MB Swap
- 119.5 GB Logical Volume
a) 4 GB Linux

1 GB Music
c) 1 GB Games
d) etcetera

And add space where you need it when you need it, so you can have both organization *and* flexibility.

QUOTE (evought)

Yep. of course, having logical volume management means you can start out with:

120 GB
- 500 MB Boot
- 500 MB Swap
- 119.5 GB Logical Volume
a) 4 GB Linux

1 GB Music
c) 1 GB Games
d) etcetera

And add space where you need it when you need it, so you can have both organization *and* flexibility.

Link: view Post: 75769

Hmmm... my "b" came out as a smiley. I will have to start using smileys as bullets

Wed Apr 19, 2006 Reply New Discussion

xboxrulz

Chesso, if you choose to customize your partition table while installing your preferred Linux distribution, then you can keep everything on one partition. Although, some say it's not recommended, but I like it in an all in one package since I already have a drive dedicated to data.

xboxrulz

Thu Apr 20, 2006 Reply New Discussion

wutske

That's kinda a complex hdd organization

Overhere it's a bit more simple

1) D:\ (1,91Gb) -> swap file and temp folders ; reason: first partition and fastest sectors on the disk, no fragmentation of the swap file or other files (temp folders)
2) C:\ (78Gb) -> Windows/Program Files/Documents/... All-in-one; no limits on space or losing space (that's why I prefer to have 1 partition for linux and 1 partition for linux swap)
3) E:\ (31Gb) -> uhm, leftovers from other installations

. Need to clear it so I can install linux on it.

Sun Apr 23, 2006 Reply New Discussion

miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

QUOTE (xboxrulz)

Not really

You guys would pop your eyes if you saw my partitioning.
80GB Seagate SATA ST380817AS
4GB - WinXP
20GB - Programs Files and My Documents
20GB - Software Development Tools / Project Workspace
10GB - Graphics / Web Development Tools & Workspace
10GB - Backups
12GB - Dowloads Stash

And another,
80GB Seagate IDE ST340018A
70GB - Dedicated entirely to my music collection
06GB - For incoming music (downloads)

I go crazy if there are too many folders in one drive. This allows for fast cleaner housekeeping - and I NEVER loose any data/downloads/backups, in case I've to reinstall windows. Everything's safely stashed away on other partitions.. I never have the patience of hunting among millions of folders - thus I came up with such an organization. Also, if you notice, my My Documents is located on a different partition that Windows. This too, lets me reformat my OS partition without even thinking twice, coz all my important stuff are elsewhere. That's the reason of having Program Files on a separate partition too - you don't loose out on the program settings when you reinstall all your appz.

As for my massive music collection - which I can't live without - I've got a whole HDD dedicated to it

Even for Linux - for home use, a single partition is fine. But when you're talking enterprise level servers, this allocation scheme is deemed totally worthless. For each of /etc, /usr, /home, /boot, /tmp, /var etc - you've to create a separate partition and mount that folder in it. Take it from me - thats the one and only way a corporate server is setup. Imagine suffering a nasty crash (somehow) - and having to reformat your boot partition.. What would happen to ALL THE USER FILES in the [/b]/home[/b] folder ?? You've to go for a very lengthy backup-reinstall os-restore cycle or else you loose out on all those files stashed by the users on your network. But if they're on a separate partition, you simply reformat /boot without thinking twice and reinstall the core OS files

I learnt this while working on my university network.. the Asst. Sys Admin was a cool guy and taught me a whole bunch of the tricks of the trade.. These are simple foresight, which makes your future life a hell lot easier. The initial setup is a bitch, but who cares !!!

Sun Apr 23, 2006 Reply New Discussion

Quatrux

I like to have different Partitions too, here is the way I have done it.

1st HDD 80 GB Samsung

Windows XP - 4 GB
Swap - 1 GB
Software - 4GB (aka Program Files)
Multimedia - 40 GB
Backup - 10 GB

and for Linux on the same HDD

Boot - 32 MB
Swap - 512 MB
Main - 12 GB

and for Amithlon on the same HDD

Workbench - 4 GB

and all the left space I have left free in case for something I could need. I use the Multimedia drive for Downloads, Documents, Games, Photos/Pictures and so on.

2nd HDD 160 GB Seagate

Music - 80 GB
Films - 80 GB

By the way, when I were mainly using an Amiga computer, it had a 4 GB HDD which also was partitioned into 6 partitions, 1 for the OS, other for software, the third for multimedia, 4th for games and some needed files and 5th for all the downloads backups and stuff. Oh yea, and 6th was only 32 MB which was using a compression to store different files, something like Swap/Temp.

Sun Apr 23, 2006 Reply New Discussion

kirkifer

QUOTE (amitbhandari)

To do this run regedit.
Start->Run. Type regedit.

CODE

Set
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version
KEY: ProgramFilesDir
VALUE: D:\Program Files
Type: Reg_SZ

Remember, don't delete key with value C:\Program Files as it is required by Windows XP.

Link: view Post: 75613

Cool partitioning !!! Can someone please tell me a little bit more about that registry edit before I go and screw something up?

Do I simply modify "ProgramFilesDir" key and change the value to D: instead of a C: or do I need to create a new key?

Thanks and sorry if this sounds a little trivial.

Thu Dec 7, 2006 Reply New Discussion

wutske

You can simply rename it to d:\... , because otherwise, windows would be pointing to a non-existing folder (if you'd MOVE c:\program files to d:\program files).

But you should be carefull, first COPY program files to d:\ , then change the registry, reboot, try installing something (normally it should ask you to install in d:\program files\program) and then it's prety safe to delete c:\program files .

Fri Dec 8, 2006 Reply New Discussion