One partition or Two???

It's a whole lot easier to backup data if they are all self-contained in a second partition. I'd also recommend using the second partition for temporary files and re-mapping windows.

It's not "necessary" -- but I do agree that it is still convenient.

I usually only setup the C: drive as an 8 gig partition and use the rest on the d: drive for apps and temp files.

Whenever I install a new app I specify it to install the the new drive.

I do this to keep the system drive as clean and as fast as possible.

I have found that many other people follow these same guidelines. It is not exactly neccessary but it is one less failure point.

A faster hard disk will not run any cleaner than a slower hard disk.

What messes up the file structure is the operating system, and software installation and removal.

I have my 60GB hard drive split up into 7 drives.
The operating system and some programs are on C:
Applications are installed on drive D:
Drive E: contains back up driver and OS files aliong with the paging file.
Drive F: contains a our user files.
Drive G: is where we install games.
Drive H: holds our digital images.Drive I: is where I store downloaded files and web pages.

I can back up selected content with ease.

I can virus scan downloaded files by scanning only 1 drive.

I got started with multiple partitions when I upgraded to a large drive under W95 and FAT16.

Another advantage of multiple partitions is reduced drive space waste.
The smallest file will take up a full cluster on any drive. If your cluster size is 32K, then each file uses a minimum of 32K of drive capacity.

It doesn't take a lot of 1K files to waste 1MB of drive space.

Chas

Yes, there will be a speed diference. If you bundle everything into one logical drive, it will take longer to search through the partition records to determine the location of the needed files.

If you divide these into multiple logical drives, then the searchable area for a single partition is smaller and because of that, you'll have quicker access.

Another decision you might want to make is which file system to use. NTFS is preferred over FAT in most cases. It's generally faster and more efficient. FAT stores the partition information in a flat file database whereas NTFS stores entries heirarchicaly for faster referencing.

The speed diference is negligable at first. But after a long time of building up large amounts of data,you'll see a huge diference.

Hope this helps,

Bus

I have to agree that partitioning a drive is still the best answer for a couple of reasons:

1. By seperating your data from your system files, it makes it easier to back up your data. Plus, in the even of a fatal non-recoverable system crash all you have to do is wipe the partition with the OS on it. Your data is not touched at all and is still there when you are done re-installing your OS.

2. By placing your swap file onto another partition you can increase your performance on your system.

I recently had my system crash and had no choice but to wipe andstart again. However, I only had to to that to my C: drive. All my data on the D: drive was untouched and was still there when I was done!!

Joel

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