HDD partitioning suggestion

[Cool Buddy]

I bought a new 1TB HDD today. My HDD currently is very unorganised and I would like to organise it in a new way. So I have 2 questions

1. Is it OK to have a single partition of 650GB? Is suspect only problem that can arise is it will take a long time to defragment.

2. I'll have 2 HDDs inside my cabinet now, one Seagate 1TB 7200.12 and another WD Green 500GB. So do you guys have any suggestions for me about how to partition it so that I can keep it organised. I'm looking for suggestions like keep the music in the HDD other than the system HDD or the movies in the same HDD and games in the Other HDD, things like that.

Let me tell you my usage pattern. Half of my HDD is filled with TV shows and it will only increase. I have a lot of movies in Hi-Def. A few game ISOs (10-15), around 30GB of music and 60GB of software. Apart from that I have around 15GB of documents total for all family members and 5 GB of photos (this I would keep in both HDDs).

[thetechfreak]

Originally Posted by Cool Buddy

1. Is it OK to have a single partition of
650GB? Is suspect only problem that
can arise is it will take a long time to
defragment.

Yup. That is only problem. Dont install Windows on that partion. Keep files there only.

Originally Posted by Cool Buddy

Let me tell you my usage pattern. Half
of my HDD is filled with TV shows and
it will only increase. I have a lot of
movies in Hi-Def. A few game ISOs
(10-15), around 30GB of music and
60GB of software. Apart from that I have around 15GB of documents total
for all family members and 5 GB of
photos (this I would keep in both
HDDs)

Keep Hd vids in new Hard drive. Music can be kept in older disc. Same case with iso's. For pics keep them in same partition.

Originally Posted by Cool Buddy

. I'll have 2 HDDs inside my cabinet
now, one Seagate 1TB 7200.12 and
another WD Green 500GB. So do you
guys have any suggestions for me
about how to partition it so that I can
keep it organised. I'm looking for suggestions like keep the music in the
HDD other than the system HDD or the
movies in the same HDD and games in
the Other HDD, things like that.

Keep Os in a safe, separate place.

[Cool Buddy]

Thanks, now going to create the partitions

So there's a new problem. When I setup windows XP in the new drive, my old HDD's drive letters were taken as C, D ... and no the OS resides in J:. Is there a way to change the drive letter of system partitions?

[thetechfreak]

Try doing as mentioned at this link-
How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP

[tkin]

I partition my drives like this: 100GB for OS, 100GB for downloads(I write down anything that finishes downloading asap), 300GB for music and videos, 300GB for games, the rest for storage which I break into 300GB chunks.

[Cool Buddy]

@tkin How much Storage do you have!!!
I don't have unclassified videos like youtube videos or music videos, so don't need that space. Anyways, this is how I partitioned:

60GB for Windows XP
80GB for Windows 7
130GB for software and documents
631GB for TV Shows
30GB for Linux installation

that was 1 TB, the following will be on the 500GB drive
300GB for Movies
165GB for games and some miscellaneous content that may not fit anywhere else

Apart from that I will use my oldest 250GB one for backup and as a portable disk as it is now set in a caddy.

Thanks for your suggestions friends

[tkin]

Originally Posted by Cool Buddy

@tkin How much Storage do you have!!!
I don't have unclassified videos like youtube videos or music videos, so don't need that space. Anyways, this is how I partitioned:

60GB for Windows XP
80GB for Windows 7
130GB for software and documents
631GB for TV Shows
30GB for Linux installation

that was 1 TB, the following will be on the 500GB drive
300GB for Movies
165GB for games and some miscellaneous content that may not fit anywhere else

Apart from that I will use my oldest 250GB one for backup and as a portable disk as it is now set in a caddy.

Thanks for your suggestions friends

I have 1.5TB storage(500GB+1TB), your partitioning is good.

[Cool Buddy]

Oh, that's same as me. And I forgot to mention, music goes in the games partition. I don't play too many games so don't have many either. 100GB would be enough for me

[ax3]

try partion magic if u are confused with doing with xp cd .... its easy & tension free

[xtremevicky]

The partition will entirely depend on how many drives you want . Plan and Partition accordingly !

[gameranand]

Well here is how I have organized my PC.
70GB for OS -> I don't need more space because its enough to have all my softwares and a couple of really big games.

900GB for Movies -> I have a lot and lot of movies so this much space it depends on you how much do you have.

28GB for personal -> My docs here and my important files which only I use and this much space is quite honestly enough for me.

200GB for Songs and Wallpapers -> This also includes all the audio and video music collection and of course my wallpaper collection.

963GB for games -> Again I have a lot of games so I have created this large partition for this purpose. It entirely depends on you how much space you need for this.

I have 2TB+320GB HDD.

[Cool Buddy]

For me games can be replaced with TV. I'm not much of a gamer but watch a lot of TV

[agyaat]

Okay, a related query. There's the OS partition atleast with almost all required programs/suites installed. What amount of space over and above it will be suggested as good enough so that it need not change for a long time. Lets say there's X of space now occupied. Say 1.15X is the minimum requirement for defragmentation to happen. So let's carry it as 1.30X being sensible/generous. Now, the programs may update/upgrade/bloat, all is bloatware nowadays - plugins, new service packs etc for each of the suites and of course for the OS - so is 1.6X to 1.8X/2.0X a sensible number or is it an overstep on the safe side? Kind of... where is the sweet spot .

[agyaat]

Originally Posted by Cool Buddy

@tkin How much Storage do you have!!!
I don't have unclassified videos like youtube videos or music videos, so don't need that space. Anyways, this is how I partitioned:

60GB for Windows XP
80GB for Windows 7
130GB for software and documents
631GB for TV Shows
30GB for Linux installation

that was 1 TB, the following will be on the 500GB drive
300GB for Movies
165GB for games and some miscellaneous content that may not fit anywhere else

Apart from that I will use my oldest 250GB one for backup and as a portable disk as it is now set in a caddy.

Thanks for your suggestions friends

Hmm.. by
80 GB for Windows 7
130 GB for Software and Documents

you mean that the installed Softwares(Program Files folders) are in the 130 GB?

[Cool Buddy]

Nope. Installed software on Windows 7 drive itself. 130GB one's for setup files. And before you think it's too much, Disc ISO's of Linux and Windows 7 take 10 GB. And there are more ISO files of that type. Plus, I have way too many softwares stacked on my HDD including some large ones. Even my documents folder is a large one. includes my photos too. It has around 45 GB free at this time