Create multiple partitions on hard drive = better performance?

BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
edited April 2008 in Hardware
I got this new SATA 3.0Gbs Seagate barracuda, 750 GB hard drive space and 16 mb cache.

I already partioned the drive and didn't create multiple partions

I heard that if you make one for your games then one for your music and so on it gives better performance?

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited April 2008
    Partitioning a drive into a couple partitions has a couple advantages especially on larger drives. A good run of the mill rule is to create 2 partitions (for windows I'm talking here linux and other os's have their own rules). The first partition should be your system partition your second partition should be your storage partition.

    The system partition is where you install the OS, all your programs and essentially runs your computer. The storage partition is where you keep your large amounts of static data, all your mp3's, your movies, pictures, downloads you want to keet etc... Anything that isn't something you are running on a regular basis.

    The reason this is a good idea from a speed standpoint is that it'll keep all your system files in the first partition which is closer to the center of the drive so it'll read faster (this is debatable though if you'll actually notice it). The real advantage, in terms of speed. Is that by making 2 partitions when it comes to defragging your drives you are working with only a portion of your disk so you'll cut those times in half. Also your systems partition will usually become fragmented more often then the storage partition, so you are isolating the problem areas.

    Further more if you need to wipe your OS out you can easily format that partition and not have to worry about backing up your storage data.
  • rapturerapture
    edited April 2008
    Partitioning won't increase performance. If anything forcing data to the end of a platter will slow things down.

    That said, these days the difference is probably negligable and for most people partitioning tends to be a lot more practical than just having one huge drive so it's worth doing anyway.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited April 2008
    If I already partitioned for one huge drive already is it to late to make a seperate one?

    I also did a chkdsk with DOS and it can up with 0kb in bad sectors, not sure if that totally means I'm clean of those.

    Thanks
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    As to chkdsk finding 0KB in errors: the drive is not telling chkdsk about any bad sectors or places that are bad. While this is good, it does not necessarily mean the drive is perfect, as drives these days can handle certain small amounts of media errors internal to themselves without reporting them to any software (including chkdsk).

    Repartitioning is always doable, but you might not like reloading your data on the HD to do that. There ARE programs that can shrink partitions and then create more in the freed-up space, though-- Partition Magic is one of these programs, and is a good one. Last I heard it was at version 8.0 and could handle Windows file systems through the file system (NTFS) used for XP and earlier Windows versions. I know of no such program for Vista's file system, yet.
  • rapturerapture
    edited April 2008
    Vista uses NTFS, they scrapped the other one (WINFS?) when they ran out of time developing it.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited April 2008
    If you've set up your machine already I wouldn't recommend repartitioning it. Repartitioning is pretty reliable and more so if your drive is 50+% empty, but it's still not 100% guaranteed to work. There are some good reason to partition it, but it's not needed.

    Personally I never bother myself, but then again I'm of the school to always have a seperate drive for your 'system' and 'storage' when possible.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited April 2008
    Yeah thanks anyway, good knowledge to know. This ill just leave it as is.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited April 2008
    Straight_Man wrote:
    I know of no such program for Vista's file system, yet.

    the Disk Managment Console in Vista is one thing Microsoft actually got right with Vista. It is capable of resizing even the system partition on the fly and makes 3rd party programs unnecessary for most situations.
  • BubblemanBubbleman A Desert
    edited April 2008
    Hmm.. Kinda wish I did make a seperate partition for my games, got tons...

    Oh well. I think I'll be ok ... ? Lol

    How many of you partition your drives (like mutiple ones for videos, games, ect)
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited April 2008
    It's pretty much pointless to make a seperate application for games. Almost everything you install has files that are dropped into the main windows system so that even if you format your windows partition many of your games would have to be reinstalled anyway.
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