Partitioning a HDD

rmg1

Hi all

After reading some other threads on here I'm thinking about partitioning my HDD into 2 (one for the O/S and programs, the other for data.

3 (hopefully simple) questions:-
Is this the best way of doing it?
How long (roughly) will it take to do this on a 1TB drive? I've only used about 10(ish)% of it so thought it worth doing now before it gets any worse.
How will this affect my backups? I'm currently doing incremental backups of the entire system (probably overkill but at least I know I've got everything).

OGR

Is it your system disk, do you already have Windows installed and running on it?

I don't think even Windows 7 will let you chop up the system disk while it is running so you will have to use something like GParted. Google it and you can find it, I think you can run it from a CD but if not you can always create a Linux USB key with persistent storage (incase you need to install it) and run it from that OS.

If you want to go ahead and need any help with any of the above just ask but for now I would look at the GParted website or look on YouTube for some demo if you are unsure.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

It won't take very long to do at all and once back in Windows creating the file system on the disk will take seconds.

You will need to tell your backup software to backup stuff from 2 or more drives but apart from that it won't have any effect.

fenlander_uk

Easeus Partition Master (free version) will do it within Windows. I'd run something like CCleaner first, to clear away junk files, then you can use Easeus to shrink your C: drive to whatever size you want and create and format a new partition in the freed-up space. Any data files you've been storing on the C: drive can then be moved to .

I've never had a problem with doing this on a live disk, but I wouldn't do it without making a backup first, just in case something goes wrong.

It's a quick process - takes just a few minutes. As to backups, you should make regular backups of your system drive - which will now be smaller than before (I'd recommend Macrium Reflect). You'll be using the drive for storing data, so you'll need to decide what is the most effective way of backing that up. This will depend on what sort of data you're dealing with. In my case, much of my data is media files of one sort or another and I find the best way to back them up is to use Syncback to keep a synchonised copy on an external disk.

rmg1

Thanks for the info folks.
I did have a partition when I first built the machine and installed Windows 7 but got rid of it for reasons which currently escape me.
As for backing up, I've got Acronis installed so I'll just have to alter some of the options.

Is it better to have installed programs (Office and the like) on the same partition as the OS or the data partition (or a third programs partition)?

Figment

Many programs write info to the Windows registry, so would probably cease working in the event of a Windows reinstall. Therefore I would put them onto the C: drive and keep the new partition for data and downloaded installation files.

BTW In Windows 7 you cannot move the user's folders to a new drive without a lot of registry edits. Bizarrely though, you can move the individual folders (Documents, Music, Pictures etc) from within the user's folders to the new drive.

StuC75

partitioning for System & Data can be a false economy..

Granted its neater way of organising data , BUT if the drive fails then it is all lost..

1TB drives may be slower to access & read (rpm and seek times).. a more thoughtfull approach may be to buy a smaller (possible ssd drive) onto which the Operating system can be comfortable installed, then use all of the 1TB for storage, knowing that its held seperate in the case of failure...

jayme1

yes you can partition the drive within windows so don't bother with any useless bloat programs,
click start, and start typing 'disk management' select the 'create and format hard disk partitions' option.
in the box that opens you will see your hard drive with 2 partitions, 'system reserved' and 'C'
right click on 'C' and select 'shrink volume', type in how much you want to shrink it by (one GB is 1024MB).
after the new partition has been created right click on it and select 'format' and format it to NTFS.

although saying all that I personally don't bother partitioning a separate OS/storage partitions, the comment about buying an SSD for the OS and using the HDD just for storage is the best way to separate the two (all the programs on the SSD and all data on the HDD)

Kernel_Sanders

StuC75 wrote: »

a more thoughtfull approach may be to buy a smaller (possible ssd drive) onto which the Operating system can be comfortable installed, then use all of the 1TB for storage, knowing that its held seperate in the case of failure...

But that doesn't stop data loss due to the HDD failing.....or am I missing something here?

closed

If you do regular disk image backups, partitioning has few advantages (apart from being able to image the windows partition faster), could also stop factory restore partition working (if you have one).

differentials are better than incrementals imo

robmar0se

Figment wrote: »

BTW In Windows 7 you cannot move the user's folders to a new drive without a lot of registry edits. Bizarrely though, you can move the individual folders (Documents, Music, Pictures etc) from within the user's folders to the new drive.

To make this clearer, For Win 7 (similar to Vista) within the User individual folders there is the personal stuff, as well as the system folders such as Appdata, Application Data, Local Settings, etc which are not recommended to be moved. Personal folders which can be moved are: Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Saved Games, Searches; when moved should use a special procedure to ensure that the links are not lost

1. Create dummy folders on the new partition under the user name, making sure they are spelt in the same way, suggest you create all 11 dummy personal folders from Contacts to Searches.
2. Left click on the original personal folder, then properties, then the Location tab, then the Move tab.
3. Goto the dummy folder of the same name, and click select.
4. Click apply on the pop-up panel, at that time all existing sub-folders & files will be transferred.
5. Need to do this for all folders being moved.

Same or similar procedure for moving over any public folders.

Anyone got a better way, please post it.

Incidentally For drives of 500mb and above I would do this simply to make maintenance, re-installs simpler.

Figment

Thanks for embellishing my instructions, I didn't have a lot of time when I posted earlier.

Just to add to the above, I would first create a new "user" folder with the same name as the logged in user, then create the 11 new folders as outlined above inside this (or you could create each of these during the move process)

This keeps everything tidier, especially if there's more than one user account. One thing to remember is you would need to repeat the above for each user account, including any you add in future.