Partitioning

[Sexy_Dave]

In another thread someone suggested to place the OS on a separate partion from your Data. Having just purchased a new system a month ago I am wondering if I should have done this when I installed my OS? Can I now a month down the road put a new partition on my HD and move the OS or the Data onto the new partition? If it is possible, which directories must I keep as part of the OS on the same partition? It is Vista 64bit.
Should I just bite the bullet and reinstall?
Thanks
PS I have a copy of Paragons Partition Manager Pro 2008.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Here's how I do it.

On a new drive I set up the partitions, format then install OS, apps/programs, AV, etc on a 20GB partition. For XP & linux it is a 20GB partition I select. Vista will require a larger partition. The remaining partition(s) are for storage. A buddy at work told me about this trick. He called it, the 20GB paritition, a work drive. This way when it's time to defrag XP, I only have to defrag the 'work drive' 20GB, instead of the whole HDD. The defrag then takes <1 hour to complete instead of taking hours. Linux never requires a defrag.

On my new laptop I installed linux a few months later. In this case you first have to defrag to move Vista and everything to the front on the drive then linux created a new separate 20GB partition at the end where linux was installed.

There are ways to resize existing old partitions like you want to do but I haven't done it that way. One tine I tried it and chopped off part of XP and XP wouldn't boot anymore. I ended up having to start all over again to correct the farkup.

Your Windows OS has to be on 'C' drive, you can't move that around but you can create another paritition but I haven't done it this way.

 

[Larry_Fyne]

Install VMWare on your machine. Create a new VM and install your OS and applications. Then move your data from the original install (may have to copy to CD or DVD) to the VM. Once you have done this, just use the VM version of the system and for backup/recovery you can save the VM to CD/DVD and if you ever need to, you can restore the entire VM OS and all.

 

[Horney_Senior]

Your Windows OS has to be on 'C' drive, you can't move that around but you can create another paritition but I haven't done it this way.

I've actually had Windows installed on the D: drive. When you are installing it asks where you want the OS placed.

You can partition a drive after setup by using a program like Partition Magic, but like WoodPeckr cautioned, make sure you leave the boot drive big enough for the OS and swap space, plus program if you intend to install them in that partition as well.

I like Partition Magic because you can always adjust the size of the partitions again later if you need to.

 

[Anynym]

If you're comfortable playing around with partitions on a "live" machine, or are comfortable with the risk that you may have to reinstall everything from scratch if something goes horribly wrong, I do think it's worth having your data and OS in separate partitions.

But I don't consider it so important that I would recommend risking your setup in order to achieve it: quite the contrary.

 

[Keebler Elf]

Bite the bullet and reinstall. It's not worth the hassle to do otherwise.

 

[oremo123]

Partitioning is definitely worth it. My comp just crashed couple days back, reinstalled windows, and 2 hrs later I was up and running with all my programs, data intact. As far as I remember, using paritition magic, there is a way to reallocate free space among partitions without destroying a partition if that's what you're worried about.

 

[Sexy_Dave]

Thanks for the input. I have found out that Partition Magic is not functional with Vista 64 bit. My copy of Partition Manager however is. I also found out that Vista has a partition tool in Disk management which should accomplish what I want to do.

 

[WoodPeckr]

You could give the free, Seagate DiscWizard a try.
I like it because it's easy to use and fast but have no idea if it works on Vista 64 bit.

 

[LadiesMan69]

Dave, you should go ahead and create the seperate partitions, but do not move the O/S as you will create a real mess for yourself. Moving the O/S should be done on a clean install.

What you can do is:

1. Move your DATA files to a seperate partition. I usually store the data to a FAT or FAT32 partition so if my PC crashes, I can access the data with a simple DOS or Win 9x boot disk. if you have very sensitive data where you want to password protect the files, then stick with the NTFS partition.
   Also, be careful of programs that write in the registry where their data files are as moving these files will cause you to have to possibly re-install this program.
2. Uninstall and install apps back into a new partition. These files once installed, will never really change unless you do an upgrade or update to the program. No sense to keep defragging them.
3. Move the swap file to a seperate partition so it was stays clean and never gets fragmented. This way when windows extends your swap file when you run out of room, it does not create a fragmented swap file.
4. Set the TEMP directories (windows, java, IE, Firefox) to a seperate partition. these files are the ones that cause the most fragmenting as they are always changing. Keep them seperate and you never have to worry about defragging this area of your drive.

If you do the above you will have your O/S on a seperate partition, with all other files on another partition. If you are novice on a PC, just stick with step 1 or possibly 2. Drives nowadays are gigantic and creating fairly large, seperate partions for each of the above should not cause a problem but make a decision with what is best for your PC usage and maintenance skills.