Hi all,

I am looking to try something out with my PC. And am just wondering if someone could help out with a little question.

I am wondering if i format my Hard Drive, and create a C: and D: partition on a 80GB drive, and install windows on C: and leave the rest of the storage to D: for files etc, would windows keep a constant running speed and not slow down becasue files are not stored on the C: partition?

If this is the case or if there are any performance increases in doing it this way... how much space would you recommend for the C: partition, i also assume i could install other software on this partition also!

If anyone could help it would be great!!

Thanks all

As to operating speed I would say no. No difference.

I would set XP on a minimum partition of 20GB. However with an 80GB drive I would not partition. If you start using 160GB plus drives then I would consider it. As to the back up options of partitions I would use separate drives for backups.

These are of course my own opinions and this is one of those topics where most everyone will have a different opinion.

Thanks for the reply...

So generally you feel that there is no performance advantages in partitioning the drive as described.

I was hoping that if all my software was installed on C: and all my documents and other files were on D: because they were seperated i would only ever need to defragment D: if files became cluttered etc.

I suppose the only advantage really is the organisational aspect

Originally Posted by jephree

......this is one of those topics where most everyone will have a different opinion.

Yep, that's right! I always partition a hard disk if there's enough room (e.g. 20GB or more). My theory is that, if your hard disk is small, it's an old PC and you won't be installing much software so you won't need a big C:\ drive anyway. The benefit that this gives me is that, if Windows totally screws up (which it has been known to do on occasions!), then I can format the C:\ drive and start again, safe in the knowledge that all of my data (including my email store) is safely separated on another partition. Furthermore, on PCs where I've created a Norton Ghost backup image, I can boot from CD and restore the image from the D:\ drive to completely rebuild a trashed C:\ drive partition.

Originally Posted by Glen_Innit

So generally you feel that there is no performance advantages in partitioning the drive as described.

With regards to performance, the reason that there is no benefit is that Windows is still spending the same amount of time looking for data on the same hard disk. You may be thinking that it's better for performance because you've heard that elsewhere but that is only the case when C:\ and D:\ are on separate physical drives - then Windows can look at both of them simultaneously. This is one of the reasons why network servers tend to have multiple hard disks.

I always partition a hard disk if there's enough room (e.g. 20GB or more).

Oh well thanks for this guys really appreciate it!!! But i am still undecided if i should partition or not...

Here is the set up - I work in Architecture, so i am thinking it would be good to partition, as Nafey said if windows screws up you only have to do a fresh install on C:. So rather than lose all my work also (which is backed up anyway) i can just save it all on D:

The only real thing i am uncertain about is the space i should put aside for C: There is Windows which is 3GB roughly, then office, my CAD program, photo editing software, i'm just wondering if 20GB is enough...

and am now really regretting my 250gb external HDD purchase when i should have bought another internal lol

When I set up new programmers' PCs for one of my customers, they have Windows XP with SP2 and all updates, AutoCAD, 2 x SQL Server installs, 2 x Visual Studio development suites and a full-on Office 2003 Enterprise Edition. Still fits on a 20GB C:\ drive as long as all of your data is elsewhere.

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