Hard Drive Partitioning
Hardware & Technology SIG
Doug Willoughby
April 17, 2007
Agenda
Not a how-to-do presentation
Definition & Some overall observations
Current Hard Drive situation
Hard Drive Contents
Advantages
Programs
Sample partitions
Summary
What is Partitioning?
Splitting one physical hard drive into multiple logical drives which operate the same as physical drives
Some Observations
When a single HD crashes, multiple partitions do you no good
There is no right or wrong way to partition
Setup is based on individual situations
Drive maintenance is much easier with partitioning
Advantages of Partitioning
Lower drive effective access time
Can reformat and reinstall partitions
Defrag partitions quickly
Easily create & restore images
Multi-boot different operating systems
Increased security by splitting content
Enhance recovery of lost files
Current Situation
My first Hard Drive was 10 MB, NOT GB
Double in size every 18 months (?)
Current demo 1 Terrabyte HD
1000 GB @ Cost of $1200
Generally available: 500 GB for $120
What is on a Hard Drive?
Windows Operating System
Page file (Swap) Extends RAM
Installed programs/ applications
Documents & Settings
Pictures, Music & Video
Temporary Files - Temp Internet, recent
Favorite CDs like Win XP or Office, etc
Download files
Types of Content
Programs to Partition
FDISK wipes out data in partitions
Manage function in Windows XP
Partition Magic
System Commander
Diskeeper
Acronis
Sample Partitioning
Drive 0: 40 GB (15 GB Unused)
C: Operating System 5 GB
E: Documents & Settings 5 GB
F: Programs & Applications 10 GB
G: Downloads 5 GB
Drive 1: 120 GB
D: Page File (Swap) 1 GB
H: Temp Files 1 GB
J: Video, Music, Pictures 50 GB
K: Backup Drive 0 40 GB
I: Program CDs 10 GB
Summary
With Hard Drives getting so big, more creative ways of partitioning them is required.
Cost of the large hard drive is small, but the impact on performance and operation can be large if not used efficiently