what to put on partition?

[mick]

I am the only user of this computer. In the past I have always
partitioned the main hard drive into C: & D:
Putting the operating system/programs on C: and personal folders/files
on D: i.e., downloads, documents, music, pictures, video.
Having just acquired a replacement drive onto which I am about to do a
new complete install I was wondering if it would be better to put the
complete Users folder from C: onto the D: partition instead of just the
selected folders which I have done previously.
What do you knowledgeable people out there do?

 

[Char Jackson]

I am the only user of this computer. In the past I have always
partitioned the main hard drive into C: & D:
Putting the operating system/programs on C: and personal folders/files
on D: i.e., downloads, documents, music, pictures, video.
Having just acquired a replacement drive onto which I am about to do a
new complete install I was wondering if it would be better to put the
complete Users folder from C: onto the D: partition instead of just the
selected folders which I have done previously.
What do you knowledgeable people out there do?

I try to avoid multiple partitions whenever possible. In the case of a
new Win 7 install, my recommendation is to go with the defaults.

 

[Dave-UK]

I am the only user of this computer. In the past I have always
partitioned the main hard drive into C: & D:
Putting the operating system/programs on C: and personal folders/files
on D: i.e., downloads, documents, music, pictures, video.
Having just acquired a replacement drive onto which I am about to do a
new complete install I was wondering if it would be better to put the
complete Users folder from C: onto the D: partition instead of just the
selected folders which I have done previously.
What do you knowledgeable people out there do?

I use all the disk as the C: drive and use a separate disk to
store images of C: . I don't mess about changing the location
of my Documents or Pictures etc.

 

[Philip Herlihy]

I use all the disk as the C: drive and use a separate disk to
store images of C: . I don't mess about changing the location
of my Documents or Pictures etc.

The disadvantage of that is that if you have juggabytes of data in C:
then the images must all contain it unless you're persnickety-careful
about excluding folders. A separate data partition does make it easier
to manage frequent data backups differently from occasional images.

 

[Dave-UK]

The disadvantage of that is that if you have juggabytes of data in C:
then the images must all contain it unless you're persnickety-careful
about excluding folders. A separate data partition does make it easier
to manage frequent data backups differently from occasional images.

I don't have juggabytes of data.
My images are about 30 G/B.

 

[mick]

I use all the disk as the C: drive and use a separate disk to
store images of C: . I don't mess about changing the location of my
Documents or Pictures etc.

I've got about 100gb of system/programs on C: partition and about 600gb
of personal stuff on D: partition, both separately imaged on an
external drive. IMO much better and faster for re-installing should
just the system go tits up.

 

[s|b]

Having just acquired a replacement drive onto which I am about to do a
new complete install I was wondering if it would be better to put the
complete Users folder from C: onto the D: partition instead of just the
selected folders which I have done previously.
What do you knowledgeable people out there do?

From what I remember, moving the complete Users directory can be quite
an undertaking. I've got W7 installed on an SSD, so I use it only for
the OS (19,3 GiB used) and not for data. I've got a SATA (500 GB, 211
GiB used) for that. So I still use C: and D: .

I did not move the complete Users directory, only some folders. I
created those folders on D:\[username]\My Documents, My Music, My
Videos, My Pictures and then moved them.

Here's how to move them:
<http://www.w7forums.com/change-location-my-documents-folder-t338.html>

 

[charlie]

I am the only user of this computer. In the past I have always
partitioned the main hard drive into C: & D:
Putting the operating system/programs on C: and personal folders/files
on D: i.e., downloads, documents, music, pictures, video.
Having just acquired a replacement drive onto which I am about to do a
new complete install I was wondering if it would be better to put the
complete Users folder from C: onto the D: partition instead of just the
selected folders which I have done previously.
What do you knowledgeable people out there do?

If an SSD might be in your future, the less you have on C: (or the boot
partition) the better.

 

[mick]

Having just acquired a replacement drive onto which I am about to do a
new complete install I was wondering if it would be better to put the
complete Users folder from C: onto the D: partition instead of just the
selected folders which I have done previously.
What do you knowledgeable people out there do?

From what I remember, moving the complete Users directory can be quite
an undertaking. I've got W7 installed on an SSD, so I use it only for
the OS (19,3 GiB used) and not for data. I've got a SATA (500 GB, 211
GiB used) for that. So I still use C: and D: .

I did not move the complete Users directory, only some folders. I
created those folders on D:\[username]\My Documents, My Music, My
Videos, My Pictures and then moved them.

Here's how to move them:
<http://www.w7forums.com/change-location-my-documents-folder-t338.html>

That is exactly what I have done in the past. I guess I will stick
with that as I am used to it.
There is actually a more in depth description here on moving the
folders:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

 

[mick]

If an SSD might be in your future, the less you have on C: (or the boot
partition) the better.

Had not thought about an SSD just yet, but a good tip nethertheless.
Perhaps by the time I need one they will hold terabytes of data and be
as cheap as chips

 

[Dave-UK]

If an SSD might be in your future, the less you have on C: (or the boot
partition) the better.

What's the reasoning behind that ?

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

The disadvantage of that is that if you have juggabytes of data in C:
then the images must all contain it unless you're persnickety-careful
about excluding folders. A separate data partition does make it easier
to manage frequent data backups differently from occasional images.

Or use a program that can do incremental backups. Easy peezy.

And as an extra, you might even have access to older versions of some
files.

 

[Jeff Layman]

I've got about 100gb of system/programs on C: partition and about 600gb
of personal stuff on D: partition, both separately imaged on an
external drive. IMO much better and faster for re-installing should
just the system go tits up.

Out of interest, how do you restore separate partition images to the
same drive? If you had a completely new HD and had restored the C:
partition, is there an option to restore the D: partition without
overwriting the C: partition? What imaging program do you use?

 

[BillW50]

In Dave-UK typed on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:03:48 +0100:

What's the reasoning behind that ?

SSD lifespan is greatly extended by limiting the amount of writes to an
SSD. For example MLC SSD can be written to 10,000 or less per cell. And
SLC SSD can be written 100,000+ per cell. Windows normally writes a lot
to the drive. For example, Hard Disk Sentinel is reporting that this
machine, XP is writing on average 36GB per day. But there are things you
can do to cut this down tremendously.

1) Don't use SSD for a swapfile.

2) Don't use SSD for the hibernation file.

3) Don't use SSD for Internet temp files

4) Turn off last used date and time stamping in registry.

5) Etc.

These and more tricks greatly reduce the amount of writing to a SSD. On
one of my machines I eliminated all writes except about 300MB a day. And
I guess I went to far on that one. As that SLC SSD won't hit 100,000
writes per cell until about 8,000 years later. ;-)

 

[BillW50]

In Philip Herlihy typed on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:04:27 +0100:

The disadvantage of that is that if you have juggabytes of data in C:
then the images must all contain it unless you're persnickety-careful
about excluding folders. A separate data partition does make it
easier to manage frequent data backups differently from occasional
images.

I never understood the fascination about multiple partitions for
Windows? I understand there were reasons for doing so in the past. But
virtually all of the reasons are gone nowadays. And using partitions I
always found as a PIA. And as you mentioned, most imaging software can
image just the folders and files you select. So you can image them
separately if you would like even if everything were on C. And you only
have to select this once and most imaging software can be set to
remember so you never have to select them ever again.

If some reason you can't wrap your head around that idea. You can still
do this all on C. Want a drive D? Just create a folder on C called drive
D. You can even tell Windows to call this folder as drive D. Want more
partitions without actually making them? Just add more folders and do
the same.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

What's the reasoning behind that ?

The drive firmware's wear leveling has more space to work with the less
you store on the drive. That said, the less you store on the drive the
less benefit you get from the faster access times. It is a balancing
act.

 

[Char Jackson]

The drive firmware's wear leveling has more space to work with the less
you store on the drive. That said, the less you store on the drive the
less benefit you get from the faster access times. It is a balancing
act.

Thanks, Z. Finally, someone points out the obvious other side of the
coin. Adding an SSD and then configuring Windows to avoid using it
seems counterproductive. I don't have an SSD in any of my personal
systems, but when I do, I won't be trying to get thousands of years of
life out of it. My personal balancing act will lean more towards using
it than preserving it.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Thanks, Z. Finally, someone points out the obvious other side of the
coin. Adding an SSD and then configuring Windows to avoid using it
seems counterproductive. I don't have an SSD in any of my personal
systems, but when I do, I won't be trying to get thousands of years of
life out of it. My personal balancing act will lean more towards using
it than preserving it.

+1

I don't store huge (mostly) static files on mine (like virtual hard
drives for VMWare / Virtual PC, etc.) so that I have a fair amount of
free space to work with, and I have a spinning disk that I use to store
those files plus documents & downloads, but Windows itself is all on
the SSD as are my program files and I don't do any tweaks to
"optimize" it. We use Intel drives, and we have a 5 year warranty
through them. If they feel confident enough to do that, I have no
problem relying on one in that configuration.

--
Zaphod

"So [Trillian], two heads is what does it for a girl?"
"...Anything else [Zaphod]'s got two of?"
- Arthur Dent

 

[Dave-UK]

Thanks, Z. Finally, someone points out the obvious other side of the
coin. Adding an SSD and then configuring Windows to avoid using it
seems counterproductive. I don't have an SSD in any of my personal
systems, but when I do, I won't be trying to get thousands of years of
life out of it. My personal balancing act will lean more towards using
it than preserving it.

I agree. I buy a product to use, not to be forever worrying about wearing it out.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Out of interest, how do you restore separate partition images to the
same drive? If you had a completely new HD and had restored the C:
partition, is there an option to restore the D: partition without
overwriting the C: partition? What imaging program do you use?

All the imaging programs do the right thing and they make it fairly
easy.

You do have to avoid telling the program to restore the D: image to C:.