Partitioning hard drive, useful ?

[Vaios]

Hello
I am in the process of building a new desktop pc and I have a question about the hard drive. I have read in this forum that for video work is better to have two hard drives, one read and the other write.
But, if for money shortness reasons or perhaps waiting for future larger fastest drives, lets say I only put one hard drive. ( I am thinking a seagate 320GB SATA2 ). It will be useful when installing windows to create two partitions for video work? My way of thinking is this. A hard drive has more than one surfaces and reading needles. If I split the hard drive in two equal parts by partitioning, it will read and write in two different surfaces (assuming of course I work from one partition to the other). ?
My question could be like this. When partitioning the hard drive, from that moment, two different physical surfaces are defined or writing is still random , just have the max space limitation??
Sorry if this is a stupid thinking, I`m just not very experienced in partitioning.
And something else. Considering that files of photos, of home videos, of movies keep getting bigger, you think 320GBs are sufficient for a new system or you would prefer getting one bigger hard drive of 400 or 500 GBs, or perhaps two drives of 320 GBs?
Thanks a lot

[berdman]

320 Seagate Hd

I recently got 2 of these HD's for around $80 ea, I think they are the best deal out there.They come with a 5 yr warranty.
When I installed them I just let the computer format them. Each one will hold approx 70 movies or zillion pics .

[Chewy]

You want to partition your system drive(one with the OS installed).
Make the first partition smaller(say 15-30 gigs), here's where the OS and main programs will be installed. Any large data should be stored on the second partition. You will see no performance improvement when writting
files from one partition to another, but by keeping the system partition small you will be able to defrag it regularly and quickly as larger data will be on the data partition. A second reason and just as important, your data will be safe
when you have to do a clean install of the OS.

If you want performance there's nothing that beats a second hard drive on a seperate cable, any operation that needs to move large files from one loaction to another will be much faster between different physical drives.
Using just one drive can take 3 to 4 times or more as long for the part where
the actual transfer takes place.

[Vaios]

Thanks for the reply, guys.
I`ll do what you suggest. Only thing is , if I make a small OS partition, I won`t be able to store files of photos or videos etc. in the My Documents folder that is created by Windows. So I guess I should create folders My photos, My videos, My texts etc in the big partition. It`s the same thing? There is nothing special about that My Documents folder ?
And just to understand the theory of partitioning, how does it work? It splits the disk in separate physical sectors from the start?

[Chewy]

if you right click on your my documents folder on the desktop, select properties you have the option to move it to another partition, making it safer

I just leave it alone and create my own data folders manually



partitioning just splits up the volume

[katzdvd]

It splits the disk in separate physical sectors from the start?

Hopefully not physical, we don't want to do any damage here.
Partition info.

[jm1647]

Like Chewy I keep a small OS partition and keep all my data in separate partitions and backed up to another drive. In the event of having to reformat the OS partition you won't then hafta try to find stuff and move it.

I have My documents, mp3s, different data and my mail folders and other stuff in different partitions. I use Ghost so I make images of all the things seperately.

[Chewy]

jm,
spoken like a man who has lost a few hard drives in his day

[jm1647]

jm,
spoken like a man who has lost a few hard drives in his day

I must be lucky. Had a Maxtor I dropped (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) start ticking real bad so I replaced it. And recently I had a OS partition hang up with that verifying thing when booting on my PIII box. I haven't be able to get around to playing with that one yet. Still got 2 other boxes and a laptop to play with

But all important stuff (except the stuff I occasionally save on the desktop...doh!!! to me) is on different drives/partitions. So loss should be at a minimum from the last ghosting I did.

[craig_rt]

I agree with the 2 partition practice. I used to have multiple partitions but have merged many of them to maximise my free space for working with video. Also having a small system partition does make it easy to revert to an earlier image if you have a problem or want to roll back to an earlier "fresh" version without doing a complete reinstall.

(I use BING by TeraByte Unlimited, BTW)

Craig

[katzdvd]

I must be lucky. Had a Maxtor I dropped (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) start ticking real bad so I replaced it

I bumped a Seagate off the kitchen table once while building a new pc, it has never made a sound or missed a beat in 5 years of use! A testament to Seagate Quality!

[NightTran]

I went to Raleigh last weekend when I come back I lost a whole HD 465/ 500 GB with DVD ISO, close to 100 movies that I save to be burn, the HD is still fine after I reformat it, I dont know if if is a sign for a new one, I know it was a click electrical during that windy monday before I got home

any ideas?

Thanks

[jm1647]

I bumped a Seagate off the kitchen table once while building a new pc, it has never made a sound or missed a beat in 5 years of use! A testament to Seagate Quality!

I'm 5'11" tall and the Maxtor fell from about shoulder height to a concrete floor. Was still working but ticking...ah well, still have about 5 Maxtors running like bears. I also have 4 Segate SATA II drives from 200 to 500GB. The 500GB was a 400GB which died within the first month I had it. Seagate replaced the 400GB with the a 500GB sealed in a retail box with no problems.

Most present day drives are dependable when treated right and will last a long time if not abused and kept cool. But said to say eventually all will go some day.

I do like the Seagate 5 year warranty though!

[three_jeeps]

Partitioning Philosphy

I personally use 3 partitions:
1: os - about 30-40 GB
2: Apps: depends how many applications programs you have, about 100 is suggested, and I usually locate my swapspace here
3. Data - whre I store my data

Logic:
3 partitions smaller backups, although os and apps should be backed up at the same time to keep them in synch.

backup of data can be done often

Easy to seperate out drives if using networked drives.

[jblitz277]

Is it imperative to either have two hd or partition ? I didn't do either and have 100+GB dvd and avi on my HD with my os and all applications