Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

Should I get my new laptop with hard drive partitioned?

(1/7) > >>

jdd:
I could use some advice regarding hard drive configuration for a new laptop:

1. Will it boot up faster than a non-partitioned drive, all else being equal?  Note that I have a lot of programs (crap) that open on boot up.

2. What are advantages/disadvantages to partitioning?

3. What is preferred, NTFS or FAT32?

System will be:
Windows XP, sp2
120 gig HD, 5400 rpm
2 gig ram
processor= Intel Core2 Duo Processor ULV U7600 (1.20GHz, 533Mhz
running mostly MS applications
no gaming

mouser:
for sure ntfs, no one would format a new pc with fat32 these days.

as for partitioning.. some people love to make lots of partitions, some people like having only one.

personally if i had one 120gb hd i would definitely partition it into 2 partitions:

* one partition for the operation system and installed programs.
* one partition for my data files.
with modern partition management software you should be able to change the size of the partitions or merge and split them even after you've been using it for a while, so don't feel like you have to make a decision now and forever live with it.  if it were me i might split it like 40gb C: drive and 80gb D: drive.

far more important than this decision is to make sure you buy an external usb drive so that you can back up an image of your computer after you get it. that will make it easier to always go back to factory clean state if you need to, etc.

jdd:
Thanks, mouser, but will it boot faster?  What are the advantages?

mouser:
some people saying having multiple partitions can be faster, though i've never seen any good hard data on it.
personally i think it makes it cleaner and easier to organize things, and a little easier to back up data:

* so you can make a drive image of your C drive to backup your operating system.
* and a backup of your D drive whenever you want to backup your data.

tinjaw:
Thanks, mouser, but will it boot faster?  What are the advantages?
-jdd (February 18, 2008, 06:35 PM)
--- End quote ---

It won't boot any faster. That is solely determined by the amount of stuff that you have to start up. You can inspect and changed these things with a tool like Microsoft/Sysinternals Autoruns.

There are a few advantages to having multiple partitions. If you have three partitions you can use one to boot Windows, one to boot Linux, and the third should be FAT32 with your data. The FAT32 will allow both operating systems to read and write to the data partition. The Windows partition should be NTFS and the Linux partitions should at least be EFS2 but EFS3 is better.

It is also easier to back up whole partitions than trying to make sure you are grabbing the correct files for each backup. For example, with the above example, you would be able to back up each of the three partitions individually and restore each of them individually.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page