Hard disk partitioning

[Admiral]

At last I'm getting a replacement for my ancient 4.3 GB Quantum
It will be ither a 30 or a 45 GB IBM Telesto.

Should I make just one partition or should I make three, four, five or six ?

With one partition I'm thinking how long it will take defragmenting it.

With more, I've heard people talk that it's not good to make too many partitions on large hard disks. False or true ?

I'm thinking of three or four partitions, what should I do ?

[xortam]

You should partition if you want to install different file systems (e.g. NTFS, FAT32 for multi-Windows PCs), or for convenience of separating data for backups. Performance issues will vary by OS, applications, and usage patterns. What OS('es) are you running? What type of applications? Video NLE?

[Admiral]

Win 98 first edition (with the updated Intel chipset patch).
Will want to try Win2k at some point.
Plan to use the 4.3 HD for backups although if I know my brother well he will fill at least a third of the new HD with mp3s and he will want to back them up when formating.
I'm using it for games, browsing the net, music (mp3s), Word docs, no video editing or programming... think most of it will be filled with games and mp3s.

[xortam]

Backup isn't much of an issue if you're simply dragging files/directories from one disk to another. I question the reliability and security of backing up data that way but there can be valid reasons for doing that. Don't you have a burner?
I'd split the disk up into two partitions. The first partition I'd format with FAT32 and install Win98 onto that. That way your data is protected if you blow out the primary partition or decide to reformat and reinstall the OS. The second partition I'd also format as FAT32 and install my apps and data onto it. Later, when you get Win2K, you can split the second partition into two and install Win2K onto a NTFS5 formatted partition. You could leave a large, empty third partition if you don't want to bother reinstalling your apps and data when you install Win2K. You'll most likely find that you simply want to buy another disk when it comes time to install Win2K because of its storage requirements. Breaking disks up into to too many partitions can be a pain when you start running out of space on a volume. You might want to look into buying a good partition manager utility which allows dynamic resizing of partitions.

[Admiral]

Nope, don't have a burner, would love one, all those mp3s on CDs instead of the HD.
I chose the HD and another 128 ram stick over a Plextor SCSI burner and controller.

Guess I'll do the two partitions and split the second later thing, thanks xortam

[xortam]

[Admiral]

Got the 45 GB version yesterday and split it in half

looking for the ram stick now:

http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003480.html

[Gurm]

I never recommend partitioning unless it's to install separate OS's.

The performance loss isn't worth the perceived convenience.

- Gurm

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