Should i partition hdd

Still internally, I would have automatic back-ups to the original HD, which would also contain the usual programs, systems etc such as Windows. Generally those main systems such as Windows have some form of Recovery such as CDs, without a need to backup. Externally, as I am actually running, I have been forced to use the internal HD for all of my personal requirements including the Downloads Folder; and as supplied, it has a D: Partition with the general Systems, Windows etc.

Whilst it is fairly easy to find out the range of standard programs such as Windows, required to do a Recovery, it is more difficult to keep track of all those miscellaneous programs, routines etc garnered over the years.

This is where the Downloads Folder comes in to play, being an inherent Aide-Memoire of those programs. I have four hard disks in my computer. Partitioning just the first one 1TB as C: and D: was advantegous for me because the system files and some software that insisted on C: were causing frequent fragmentation problems and if left as a whole, every defrag would have taken hours.

Now with C: sized as MB, defrag takes only about minutes. I found out that D: and other drives need defragging only once or twice a year which can be done overnight. Another advantage is the infections and searches are usually in C: and scans are much quicker this way.

It is also easy to back up all the drive to a fraction of one of the 1. I used to have several partions but now have the same 3 on each of 3 hard drives in 2 removable caddies:- C for OS and programs. D for downloaded Program installation files and E for all my data. I regularly clone the whole of drive 1 to drive 2 using Paragon Drive Copy. Then remove it and insert the drive 3 to which I copy the following week or so. All 3 drives are fully bootable.

I also have a tendency to forget which partition I put a particular file, picture, or whatever in. This is also a very easy way when you install a program, yet make it accessible from either desktop.

Hope this helps some of you. I have been doing this for years, and as I have my own company with quite a bit of work, I can honestly say, that this is very good! The last partition is ONLY for back-up purposes. Hope this helps! As Leo pointed out, multiple partitions in a single physical drive do not protect you against hard disk failure and, yes, since it may cause files you need concurrently to be physically distant from each other on the hard disk, due to partitioning, it will slow down the computer being that hard disk reading is one of the slowest things a computer does.

Certainly, Windows files are being used almost constantly. If you place your data files in another partition, the reading mechanism will be jumping all over if you happen to need to scan a large database. What would be the reason for supplying new computers with partitioned hard disks?

At present, the disk with GB can be seen everywhere with the expansion of computer disk space, so to partition a hard drive with a large amount of space become more and more urgent. How to partition a hard drive? Maybe use 3rd-party partition utility. So kind of you! The more useful information I have found throuth the article—Guidelines on how to partition a hard drive by Creating, Deleting, Formatting and Resizing Partition.

Share with you all. Hi,I deleted the partition on my hard drive,i deleted the D drive and i was left with the drive labelled C. So far so good!! I thought if i deleted the D drive,the capacity i was deleteing would be transferred to the C drive,so doubling the C drive. Why has this happened,i have restarted the Samsung NC10 but still no gain in the C drive. Thanks Alan. Is a partition useful against virus attack? I think to duplicate data in D and E disk-partition so if one is attacked, I have the back-up here in the same hard drive.

Is it OK? Hi Leo — good article. In context of size of hard drives these days, is this a reason not to partition? In fact, it would tend to decrease usable space. If one drive fills up to almost full, some of the free space in the drive might become unusable.

I find partitioning very useful in organising major types of data such as: documents, software, movies, recovery, projects. Its also very useful because when the system goes down, only c: drive is affected none of the data.

I also have a second internal hard drive for backup of the first drive. External hard drives are useless, two of them went down with mechanical failure. Hi Leo, Thanks for nice explanation. My new laptop is configured with a single partition having window7 installed in it. What you suggest? Rgds, Bhupender. Hi Leo, Thanks for your prompt reply. My system is also having a one key recovery feature, changing the partition size will also make the recovery feature useless, as it will not work. So I will go with you and not planning to go for hardisk partitioning any more.

Also i have already purchased a good licensed antivirus software to make the system secure. Just one more query, I have heard about system restore application of windows, i just wanted to know how effective it is in case of some malware attack. Although i can any time revert to the factory setting using one key recovery feature, but this will make me loose many of the installed applications.

Best Regards, Bhupender. Bhupender System restore can do very little in helping to recover from a virus. You might find these articles useful Can I get rid of spyware using system restore? Hi, i download a lot of movies and regularly change what games im playing, which means im constantly moving watched movies to a portable hard-drive and sometimes back again to watch. On an average month i would transfer gig of data between my main drive and my portable drives.

Is this data transfer high enough that i would be better off partitioning my hard drive into system plus main programs and data files? Since installing Win 8, the backup image would be quickly outdated due to updated versions of software i regularly use. Although i still have a small encrypted partition and a large one for big, rarely accessed PDF files.

I have opted for partitioning in order to be able to install the main OS on the C drive but then install all other programs on the D drive the partition. That way if I ever need to format the C drive alone as part of some sort of maintenance I will not have to lose precious time reinstalling all the programs.

However I have never come to this point until now…and although I am about to reinstall my precious C drive with the main OS as it has slowed considerably, I have no clue whatsoever how to recall he programs installed on the D drive. Can you help me with this, please? Dan Installing your programs on the D: drive is an interesting idea, but unfortunately, if you reinstall the OS, the installed programs will no longer work.

When a program is installed, it makes changes to the registry and usually installs files in various places on the c: drive. So when you reinstall Windows, the programs will look for these files, and not finding them will cause the program to error out. I have always had OS et al on C: and data on D: mainly for backup but it also faciltates uncomplicated copying of a whole partition over to a new computer, and allows me to reinstall OS image without worrying about the data.

In addition, I use substitute drives using the subst DOS command. I heave a sigh of relief each time subst still works when I upgrade to a new OS, particularly to Win8. I have a new HP Laptop with Windows 8. C is for everything, but recovery, which is handled by D, In the past I have partitioned my HD into several partitions for data, photos, etc. As to backing up my data, I stumbled upon a unique way of handling it. You plug it into your computer and forget about it.

The first time you use it you check off what you want backed up- data, pictures, etc. The first backup takes a little time that depends on the amount of data you have on your computer, but from that point on whenever you turn on your computer the USB drive scans your internal drive and just adds any new data, photos, etc.

I find it to be the perfect solution to backing up your data, the USB Drive, as long as you leave it plugged in you can take it out after it does its back-up at start-up, but I have enough USB slots to leave it in automatically backs up your data without you having to remember to do anything. If you have a crash, loss of data. It is most annoying to fill your data partition and find you have lots of spare space on your OS partition!

Each to his own, I guess. I used to set up multiple partitions in the old days, but there is little value for it now, with NTFS. I find that speeds things up a lot. It also allows you to keep an image of your OS and Programs separately from your data, which can come in handy.

Duplicated files on the same partition just require the system to update the metadata, but on separate partitions you will need to copy the entirety of the file, essentially doubling the space used. Depending on how you allocate space among each partition, you might also prevent yourself from using your whole disk capacity. If you are accessing data from multiple partitions, this will also reduce system performance since you will have to move back and forth on the disk to access, maintain and update data on each partition.

Primary partitions contain a single file system. With Windows, this partition includes all of the boot files. In contrast, extended partitions can be further divided into multiple logical partitions LPARs. Then, select the partition that you want to defrag, and choose the Optimize button in Windows After that, this tool will do its job automatically. For more details, please see Disk Defragmentation. Cluster size is also called allocation unit size in Windows.

To change it, you can make use of the format command, but formatting will undoubtedly cause data loss. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free is not allowed to change cluster size, so you need to purchase Professional or more advanced editions. Purchase here with enjoying discounts. However, before buying, you can download the demo version to have a try.

Free Download Buy Now. Step 1: Firstly, please start the program to get its main interface. Then, select the partition whose cluster size is unreasonable and choose Change Cluster Size function from the left side. Step 2: Next, choose a reasonable cluster size from the drop-down menu and click Yes. Though partitions created under recent Windows OS will be aligned automatically, previously aligned partitions might become misaligned due to later partitioning operations like resize and copy.

Therefore, it is also very necessary to align partitions of SSD. Nevertheless, Windows doesn't provide users with features to do such an operation, so you have to use a third-party program. MiniTool Partition Wizard is a freeware for Windows non-server users.

Start the program and you can see the main window below. To align a partition, please select it and choose Align Partition from the left side. If the partition is already aligned, this partition manager will say " The specified partition does not need to change partitions alignment.

It is already aligned ". At this time, just click the Apply button to make this pending operation finally performed. After doing these partitioning operations, you can make a benchmark test to see whether your computer performance is increased or not. Just find a free testing program from the internet. Does partitioning affect performance? You must know the answer after reading this post, as well as how to partition a hard drive reasonably in Windows.

To optimize computer performance, just follow the instructions mentioned above. Right-click this entry, select New Simple Volume, and let the resulting wizard guide you through the remaiing steps of the process. If you decide to enable compression later, you can do it easily enough: In the Disk Management tool, right-click the partition and select Properties, Compress this drive to save space.

Now you have a squeaky-clean hard drive partition that you can use to dual-boot Windows 7 or to keep your data safe. Have other ideas about uses for a partitioned drive?