Installing Win 7 Pro - Should I make partitions?

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Flogger23m

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I am going to be installing Win 7 Pro soon. In the past I never used partitions, just my main drive and a data backup drive. But I am thinking of making a partition on my main drive. What advantages does a partition have? And how do you typically allocate the size for each partition?
 
Normally, the reason for creating different volumes is if you have data that you want to keep separate from your OS installation so that you don't lose said data in case of having to reinstall.

I normally create one partition for OS and programs and then another for games, etc. For you, your setup would depend on your needs.
 
Flogger23m said:
Thanks for the reply. I am thinking of making a partition for Win 7 and a partition for everything else. How much space should I allocate for Win 7? 20-30GB?

And for changing partition sizes at a later date, does anyone have any experience using this feature?:
http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/05/12/how-to-resize-disk-partition-in-windows-7/
Click to expand...

I'd put 100-160 gigs on the windows partition, this way you can install Windows + most programs on that partition. The other partition you can put data, games (well, Steam + its downloads), etc - stuff that doesn't require reinstalling when redoing the OS
 
Are you installing on an SSD or hard drive? If it's an SSD then the partitions for performance/clutter/fragmentation reasons is null. If you're installing on a hard drive, there could be a performance advantage to having the OS on it's own partition then applications and user data on a second and third, respectively.

I would give Windows 7 itself a 50GB partition, then a second 1-200GB for applications, then the rest for user data. Move the page-file to the application partition.

Keep in mind Windows 7 also automatically creates a 100MB system partition to store the boot loader. I would suggest keeping that rather than making a partition to install to. If you outright create partitions during install, you prevent it from creating the 100MB parition. In order to do this, install Windows 7 to the drive allowing the OS to partition the entire drive. Once your in Windows, use Disk Management to shrink the C:\ partition down to 25-50 GB, then partition the rest from there for the remaining items. You'll note two existing partitions. Shrink the second and make two more from there.
 
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Just a single 1TB HDD (aside from a backup 750GB HDD, only plugged in when backing up data).

So you are suggesting not setting any partitions until after Win 7 is installed? Then add a partition or two once in Windows? I am guessing this is done by accessing the Disk Management options (where I linked to in my previous post). I had no idea you could create partitions once Windows was installed. :D Am I also able to delete partitions when Windows is installed?

When everything is set up, I should have the following partitions:

1) 100MB Boot Loader
2) Windows/Programs
3) Data/files

Does this sound logical?

And thanks for the replies.

Edit:

In order to save time I thought of the following. If this is possible or recommended let me know:

Currently my Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM is installed on Drive C, along with everything else. Programs, data, ect. I have no partitions.

I plan on doing a clean install of Win 7 - I will format Drive C and start from scratch. However, is it possible for me to create a partition right now within Vista? I have 300GB of spare space, and if this is possible I can place my data on this new partition. If possible, my partition will be called Drive D.

Can I then install Win 7 Pro, format Drive/Partition C but retain Partition D with my data on it? This would save me a lot of time if I can just wipe Vista/programs, install Windows 7 and already have my data on my hard drive in partition D.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Flogger23m said:
Just a single 1TB HDD (aside from a backup 750GB HDD, only plugged in when backing up data).

So you are suggesting not setting any partitions until after Win 7 is installed? Then add a partition or two once in Windows? I am guessing this is done by accessing the Disk Management options (where I linked to in my previous post). I had no idea you could create partitions once Windows was installed. :D Am I also able to delete partitions when Windows is installed?

When everything is set up, I should have the following partitions:

1) 100MB Boot Loader
2) Windows/Programs
3) Data/files

Does this sound logical?

And thanks for the replies.

Edit:

In order to save time I thought of the following. If this is possible or recommended let me know:

Currently my Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM is installed on Drive C, along with everything else. Programs, data, ect. I have no partitions.

I plan on doing a clean install of Win 7 - I will format Drive C and start from scratch. However, is it possible for me to create a partition right now within Vista? I have 300GB of spare space, and if this is possible I can place my data on this new partition. If possible, my partition will be called Drive D.

Can I then install Win 7 Pro, format Drive/Partition C but retain Partition D with my data on it? This would save me a lot of time if I can just wipe Vista/programs, install Windows 7 and already have my data on my hard drive in partition D.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I don't think there is a boot loader partition that you can configure with windows, so you'll just have C: and D:

Yes, but you should defrag your HDD first. Then go to Control Panel -> Administative Tools -> Computer Management. On the left panel expand storage, then disk Management. Select the drive, right click, then Shrink Volume. It won't let you shrink more than the minimum amount of data on the drive (which is why you ran defrag first). Once you set that volume, you should see unpartitioned space on the drive. Right click and Create new partition. Now you have 2 partitions.

From there you can move your My Documents etc over to the new partition, and have windows place items on that drive by default. Then you can later reinstall windows on the C drive, format the C drive, or whatever, and all of your data will remain on the second partition.

I wouldn't install programs on D: and expect them to work during a windows reinstall. A lot of them write to the registry when the software is installed, which will be wiped if windows is reinstalled. So I would only keep documents/pictures/movies etc on the second partition.
 
Well if your going to be partitioning the hard drive, then you might as well have a separate partition for applications. You have 1TB of space. Give Windows 50GB, applications 200GB's, and the rest to your user data.

When your at the screen to choose your hard drive, click advanced and make sure you have deleted all partitions. When you click the drive it should be unallocated space (about 900GB available). Click it, then press install. This will allow Windows to automatically create the 100MB boot partition. Once in Windows, open up disk management. There you will see the 100MB and the large partition. Shrink the large one to 50GB, then add the second and third partitions.
 
Personally, I don't see the huge advantage on setting up partitions. The reason everyone gives is that it makes it easier to re-install the OS, but if you do that you'll have to reinstall the apps anyway, so what's the advantage? I agree that it makes it easier to create an image and restore from that - but assuming the reason you have to restore from an image is because you lost the hard drive, then you won't have an image of the apps and user data anyway, so again, what's the benefit? Only time I can see that it makes sense is if you have to restore an OS image because the OS got corrupted (in a way that didn't affect the other partitions on the disk) - but how often does that happen?
 
Flogger23m said:
Thanks for the reply. I am thinking of making a partition for Win 7 and a partition for everything else. How much space should I allocate for Win 7? 20-30GB?

And for changing partition sizes at a later date, does anyone have any experience using this feature?:
http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/05/12/how-to-resize-disk-partition-in-windows-7/
Click to expand...

you could make separate partition for your own needs. usually we have several partitions for several storing needs. Windows Disk Management could help you shrink and then create the new partition. for the change partition size, it also could assist but with some limitation, check the following free partition manager could help you or not download through:
http://download.cnet.com/Aomei-Part...-75118871.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1d
and here is an article about change partition size for Windows 7 for reference:
http://www.extend-partition.com/resource/change-partition-size-in-windows.html
:)
 
Forceman said:
Personally, I don't see the huge advantage on setting up partitions. The reason everyone gives is that it makes it easier to re-install the OS, but if you do that you'll have to reinstall the apps anyway, so what's the advantage? I agree that it makes it easier to create an image and restore from that - but assuming the reason you have to restore from an image is because you lost the hard drive, then you won't have an image of the apps and user data anyway, so again, what's the benefit? Only time I can see that it makes sense is if you have to restore an OS image because the OS got corrupted (in a way that didn't affect the other partitions on the disk) - but how often does that happen?
Click to expand...

My steam folder is almost 300 gigs. Zune is another 35. I have another 20 or so gigs of downloads for programs + patches to install. That's way more than the monthly cap from comcast, not to mention the time it takes to re download. Steam will automatically fix itself upon reinstall of the OS. Zune can be reinstalled and pointed to the media folder.

Additionally, it means I can nuke the entire OS + programs that have to be installed with the OS partition with a format, and not worry about taking out any (well, too much) of my personal data. About the only thing I'm at risk of losing is stuff stored in AppSettings\Local or similar, though generally that's just program preferences.

On top of all that (though this is a somewhat unique to our developers scenario), I tend to install a new version of Windows every week or two. Even if doing build to build upgrade, it's nice to have the rest of the stuff on a secondary drive so I don't have to worry about losing everything if the build is bad.
 
On a single drive I see no reason for partitions, these are soft partitions and many times if things get corrupt you usually end up losing all partitions. It's kind of like beating your head on a wall, while at the time it made sense but when you realize what you have done you feel really stupid.
 
Tawnos said:
My steam folder is almost 300 gigs. Zune is another 35. I have another 20 or so gigs of downloads for programs + patches to install. That's way more than the monthly cap from comcast, not to mention the time it takes to re download. Steam will automatically fix itself upon reinstall of the OS. Zune can be reinstalled and pointed to the media folder.

Additionally, it means I can nuke the entire OS + programs that have to be installed with the OS partition with a format, and not worry about taking out any (well, too much) of my personal data. About the only thing I'm at risk of losing is stuff stored in AppSettings\Local or similar, though generally that's just program preferences.
Click to expand...

That all makes sense, but I guess in my mind, the chance of needing to do that is slim enough that the extra hassle of managing multiple partitions isn't worth it. I can count on a duck's fingers how many times I've had to re-install an OS because of problems with it - so maybe that has made me complacent. Of course now I have an SSD, which is the same result as having a separate partition, but I never bothered with a single drive.
 
woodscomp said:
On a single drive I see no reason for partitions, these are soft partitions and many times if things get corrupt you usually end up losing all partitions. It's kind of like beating your head on a wall, while at the time it made sense but when you realize what you have done you feel really stupid.
Click to expand...

Did you miss my post immediately preceding yours? ;)

Other reasons, beyond habitually installing Windows for selfhost, include "viruses tend to only infect the OS/partition, nuking it is easier than trying to remove".
 
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