Using a partitioned drive

Resident_Evil

My daughter has had a new laptop for Christmas which has a hard drive of 160gb partitioned into 2 x 80gb drives. One of the partitions is completely empty and the other has the OS and some programs she has installed (office etc).

My question is what is the best way to use the drives to maintain optimum performance from the machine. Should she fill one drive up first before using the other or should she install any further programs on the the empty drive? I did think that may be she should save any files eg pics, music, word docs etc to the empty drive because it is named 'Data' but her 'My Documents' folder seems to be on the drive already in use.

Sorry if this is a stupid query but on all the machines I've had before they have never been partitioned except to hold a backup of the system.

Thanks

Little_John

It annoys me that companies partition drives in this way. Most users just want a PC that they can put their stuff on no need to mess about where files are stored.

But going against this, my personal preference is to have a small partition for the OS and main programs and keep about 50% free space on there for performance. Then the 2nd partition is used to store applications used less often and the my documents folder. The advantage is that if windows goes wrong then you can wipe the first partition and install windows again without loosing your documents as the 2nd partition is untouched.

To transfer your docs right click my documents and properties and change the path to \my documents assuming that is the drive letter of the 2nd partition. you will be asked if you want to move everything so you say yes and it moves everything over and the my documents will now be on the 2nd partition.

Your other option is to use some software like partition magic which will allow you to merge the 2 partitions together.

bob_a_builder

We did this one the other day

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1385975

If you need a 'free' partition tool - used this one the other day - worked fine for me
http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

bob_a_builder

it is just a directory

But its a bit more than just a directory, because it is tied into lots of default windows operations, hence the earlier sensible suggestion to "'move" the "my documents" folder.

Unstoppable_2

bob_a_builder wrote: »

If you need a 'free' partition tool - used this one the other day - worked fine for me
http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

I doubt you do. It's Vista, the tools are already there to delete, create, shrink and extend partitions.

Resident_Evil

Thanks Little John for the advice which I found very helpful and easy to understand. It seems sensible to move the My Documents folder as lots of programs seem to use it as a default when saving as Bob points out.

Thanks again.:T

sei1925

Hi i agree with other posts i just thought i would mention dont forget to make your recovery discs if you havent already done so i brought a Toshiba laptop back in september and had to make them myself. Although i cheated and got comet to make them for me for £15. I know its not really the money saving thing to do but for peace of mind it was easier. These discs really can be useful if you ever have a bad computer disaster. Obviously if you have something that is really important always back up externally