Partition strategies

[1031982]

I was thinking about this for a while, and it finally came to me. I figured that others could gain from it as well, so I decided to post my theory/plan.

To start out, this would be for 2 physical separate HDD's. One for the OS and Programs, and one for data. Obviously, the plan could be done with one large HDD, but as most know, it's better to have 2 separate HDD's instead of just multiple partitions. Also, the partition sizes can be altered for whatever environment you are using.
The main HDD would be smaller, but also only have and need one partition.
The secondary HDD would be much larger. So, the properly partition it to help prevent pre-mature failing, I decided that the first partition would need to be created last. Already Partition Magic, or another application like it, comes into play. What I plan to do is create 2 relatively small partitions at the end of the drive. One for music files and one for downloaded software and system updates. Well, because I have a Dell DJ limited with 20GB of space, I figured that I would create a 20.5GB partition at the end of the drive. the extra .5GB is for any info that I might want to add and play-lists. It's only 500MB, so I am set. Now, I would create a 5GB partition for all the downloaded software and updates I want to keep. I am currently only using about 2.5GB, so I have a lot of head room. That partition would be right next to the music partition. I don't do a lot of adding or updating to those areas. The only ones I do access a lot are the music files and when I do access my music files, none of them are wave files so they don't need a quick access time. As for the rest of the drive, it gets partitioned as a large drive. All the rest of my files will go there. Downloads, images, video clips, documents, ect. They will get the best access time as they will be used more often then anything else on the drive.

What do people think about that?!

EDIT : All moderators are free to use this strategy as an official guide for the site if they feel it would be worth wile to do so.

[zy]

i think i messed up my partitions.. my hard disk tends to lag now

[PsYkHoTiK]

Hmm. I kinda do that too... I partition my RAID array to be programs and documents (same size of 30gb) and a gaming partition of 90GB...

I put my paging files off my array and onto a 250GB hdd that I partitioned into three parts.

[peaz]

Hmmm documents on a RAID array sounds dangerous

I'd put the OS, swap files and programs on a RAID 0 array and data either plain jane non-raided partition or a mirror RAID 1 array.

unless of course if it's all in a RAID 5 array.

[1031982]

Seriously, doesn't that make since. Think about it, all the things you don't alter much are kept in the back, where they will (as the as the HDD doesn't fail) will be safe and kept all tidy! Everything else will be in the front, where even if a virus gets onto the system, any good AV will find it and be able to remove it before it got to the data on the other partitions.

[Adrian Wong]

When it comes to partitioning my notebook hard disk, I just set a small first partition for the OS and software. Then everything else goes into the second, large partition.

This way, any crashes that corrupts the first partition will still leave the second partition safe. Of course, this is with a small notebook hard disk.

For desktop hard disks, it would be better to keep another partition for lots of write traffic. For example, files downloaded by your P2P software. This further protects data that are not frequently modified (in another partition).