okay...OS installed

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 10:41 pm

so im back up and running (at least the OS is)
so now im planning my strategy for my partitions, one each for OS, Swap File, Apps, Games, Media and one for my ghosted clean OS install.

Should I be using only primary partitions? Is there a need for extended partitions as well, what issues and factors should I consider??

Thanks

wasn't sure what forum to put this in so i put it here.
J

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 11:19 pm

how many hard drives do you have?

if it's only one (and only one partition taking up it;s space), then you should have defined the partitions before you installed your OS. unless you are planning on using 3rd party software (like Partition Magic) to resize the one primary the OS is installed on.

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 11:23 pm

1 Hard-drive 60GB

I made a 5 GB partition for the OS and have it installed, now I'm in the process of making the pther partitions. Basically I'm wondering what partitions would be best for what i want on them, IE Games on a primary or Logical partition, etc.

J

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 7:13 am

I always make my primary partition (C-drive) when I'm running the OS install (during NTSetup)

Then once up to desktop, after my mobo drivers are installed, other important drivers like RAID, SCSI, etc..., I then go into Disk Administrator/Manager, and create my extended partition(s) (D-drive, E, etc)

HuNtEr DrAgOn · Post by **HuNtEr DrAgOn** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 11:52 am

How many partitions you have and what you use them for is entirely based on your own preference really.

I have 3 partitions

C: Main = 10 gigs
D: Games = 10 gigs
E: Music\Vids = 15 gigs
F: BackUp = 5 gigs

I use PartitionMagic 8.0

I suggest you listen to YeOldeStonecat and make sure all your drivers are loaded 1st

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 12:08 pm

Originally posted by Rhuurrr
1 Hard-drive 60GB

I made a 5 GB partition for the OS and have it installed, now I'm in the process of making the pther partitions. Basically I'm wondering what partitions would be best for what i want on them, IE Games on a primary or Logical partition, etc.

J

May have shot yourself in the foot a bit there. 5 gigs for the C drive, out of a whopping 60 giger...you'll find your C drive fills up very quickly. With 2K or XP and a few games, you'll find 5 gigs is too small. Normally I shoot for a 50/50 hard drive....something quite adequate for my C partition...so I can install it all there, and I keep my data on the D partition. That way, if the OS gets hosed, I simply format C, re-install, and I'm all set.

As for which partition to install stuff to...doesn't really matter...it's all one single HD...a partition is a partition, none perform better than others if all on a single HD.

I'd start from scratch again, make a 20 or so gig C...install the OS, programs, etc. Then create an extended partition with whatever is left over, assign a drive letter, format, and keep data/stuff/junk there.

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 1:27 pm

Originally posted by YeOldeStonecat
May have shot yourself in the foot a bit there. 5 gigs for the C drive, out of a whopping 60 giger...you'll find your C drive fills up very quickly. With 2K or XP and a few games, you'll find 5 gigs is too small. Normally I shoot for a 50/50 hard drive....something quite adequate for my C partition...so I can install it all there, and I keep my data on the D partition. That way, if the OS gets hosed, I simply format C, re-install, and I'm all set.

As for which partition to install stuff to...doesn't really matter...it's all one single HD...a partition is a partition, none perform better than others if all on a single HD.

I'd start from scratch again, make a 20 or so gig C...install the OS, programs, etc. Then create an extended partition with whatever is left over, assign a drive letter, format, and keep data/stuff/junk there.

shot myself in the foot how? 5 gigs seems like more than enough for an OS to me.
heres how I have it set up now:

c: OS 5GD
d: swap file 2 GB
e: Applications 15 GB
f: games 20 GB
g: media 15 GB
h: backup (Ghosted OS) 2GB

maybe im misunderstanding something???

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 1:56 pm

Except for an exercise in making this long and complicated, I don't see any advantage to having a partition to install your programs to, or having another partition for the swapfile, or having another partition for games (which themselves are really just applications).

Why the desire to make so many partitions? I can see having a partition perhaps for your media (whatever "media" may be...MP3's?), although I still just keep mine on my D partition with my other important data, I can perhaps see having a separate partition for a backup image (although again, I have that on my D partition also with my other important data).

I'd install the OS, applications, and games (which are again just applications) onto C, as well as the swap file. There's no need or gain or any reason to have an entire partition just for a swap file...it's all on the same physical hard drive. Sometimes you can gain performance if you have a fast, separate hard drive to keep the swap file on, but comparing how it runs on partitions on the same HD, all the same speed. Keep my important stuff on D...just organize D smartly. Learn to work with directories...folders, the days of having to have a drive letter (partition) for everything are pretty much long gone with DOS and Win 3.1.

I guess I just see your above setup...and wonder to myself..."Man, why make it all so complicated?"

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 6:30 pm

well, thats why i was asking in this thread.

as for the separate partitions, just comes from past habits learned by other friends (apps and games), as I have several video editing and digital imaging apps i like to keep em separate.
I figured having teh OS on its own partition would make reformatting/reinstalling easier down the line, and the swap on its own partition was on the advice of another friend.

so YOSC you see no reason to have the swap residing on its own part.?

I was also bascially wondering about performance of primary partitions vs logical drives.

thanks for bearing with me.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 7:57 pm

The "swapfile on another partition" is true if you have several physical hard drives...meaning you have say a 9.1 10krpm SCSI drive for your C and D partitions, and another 9.1 10krpm SCSI drive for your E and maybe F partitions....then that being the case, NT Servers are usually built with the pagefile.sys sitting on a totally separate hard drive......because that hard drive itself can perform better, since the first hard drive may be busier doing other things.

But having several partitions on the same hard drive.....I don't know of any performance difference across them.....it's the same hard drive. If it's busy doing some tasks....it's busy doing those tasks....nothing to do with the partitions. It's the same platters spinning.

SeedOfChaos · Post by **SeedOfChaos** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 3:00 am

Originally posted by YeOldeStonecat
But having several partitions on the same hard drive.....I don't know of any performance difference across them.....it's the same hard drive. If it's busy doing some tasks....it's busy doing those tasks....nothing to do with the partitions. It's the same platters spinning.

Ever heard of fragmentation?

Especially if you allow Windows to resize your swap file, it can get fragmented BADLY, and defrag doesn't even think about touching the swap file... so IMO there IS a fairly good reason to put it on its own partition. Also, especially when one is engaging in a lot of downloading (even more so when downloading multiple files at once), IMO it makes much sense to save those files to a separate partition first, so when you copy them to their intended location they won't be fragmented.

But then, if you got 512 mb of physical ram you can most likely set Windows to use 128 mb or so fixed size swap file, since it's hardly ever needed it doesn't matter all that much even if it gets fragmented on C.

The advantage of not installing your games to C is that you don't have to reinstall them or lose the savegames when C gets hosed...

My 2c,
Ronald

loop2kil · Post by **loop2kil** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 4:06 am

I have my 80 gig setup where c is 15gb and d is the rest. I install all my programs that require registry entries to c and the ones that will run without reg entries to d. this way if i have to reinstall the OS most of my apps will still work just fine by creating a new shortcut for it. d also hosts all my games and downloads. I havent reinstalled Q3 in nearly 2 years and the folder itself is nearly 1.5 gb's. I try to keep c as lean as possible, if it actually helps or not who knows...its just what i do.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:31 am

Originally posted by SeedOfChaos
Ever heard of fragmentation? The advantage of not installing your games to C is that you don't have to reinstall them or lose the savegames when C gets hosed...

My 2c,
Ronald

Yes, but NT and it's swapfile aren't as affected as much as 9X was. And you can defrag your swapfile by breaking it first, defragging, then re-creating. Fragmented swapfiles are an overly exaggerated thing anyways. Manage it will, have adequate system RAM, and it's a non-issue.

And you do have to re-install your games.....if you format C, re-install your OS, you have to re-install your applications to put in the proper system files, and register them with the OS (registry).
...Saved games, never a biggie to me, I finish games quickly, then exclusively play online.

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:34 am

well NeverWinter Nights isn't exactly a finish-quickly game tho..

wait a minute, I jacked my own thread!