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Recommended partition size for Windows 7 and Vista Ultimate?
- Thread starter J87X
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YeOldeStonecat
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Depends what else you plan on installing on your computer. And if you have any other partitions or drives you wish to use for storage. And how much stuff you usually store/download, like in your Documents folder..and if you ever redirect that to another partition/drive. And if you move your virtual memory to another spindle. I could be fine with under 50 gigs....because I know how I use my system....probably more like 30 gigs.
DeaconFrost
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There's no reason to separate out your installed apps from the OS. The old K.I.S.S. saying applies. Just make sure the partition size is plenty large enough to hold the OS and your apps. You didn't bother to mention the hard drive size, so we can't really give specifics. Let's say you have two physical drives. I'd cut the primary in half...one primary partition for each OS. Then, I'd use the second drive to store all of my user data, such as downloads, pictures, music, etc. I despise multi-boot systems, so I'd be more inclined to use a VM, but that's a separate topic.
But your programs will be all screwed up. Many of them will probably need to be reinstalled to work properly. Really, I prefer to make a Ghost image of the OS and smaller apps, then I prefer to reinstall everything else. Data is kept on my RAID 1 array which is larger than my OS drive anyway.
Most cases these days just separate things by drives, not partitions.
I usually have an OS drive, Files/Documents Drive, and Media Drive. Plus an extra backup drive to have 2 copies of important things within the machine a long with external backup.
I usually have an OS drive, Files/Documents Drive, and Media Drive. Plus an extra backup drive to have 2 copies of important things within the machine a long with external backup.
Redshirt #24
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I'm in the single-partition-for-Windows-and-strictly-apps camp, and based on my last Vista x64/Office 2007 install I would at least give it 50-60GB all to itself. Believing in overkill, though, I gave it 85GB (and I have about 24GB free, even with WoW installed--normally, though, all games go on a separate partition).
Almost all games run perfectly fine if they are installed on a different partition after an OS restore.
I cannot imagine installing all games on the same partition as the OS.
There are a few programs that need to be re-installed, like Microsoft Office.
All you have to do in such cases is to create your image of the OS partition after you have installed Office on the programs partition. Then, if you restore the OS using that image, Office works fine even though it is installed on a separate partition.
How do you guys who say "install everything on a single-partition HD" restore a 500GB hard drive anyway?
I cannot imagine installing all games on the same partition as the OS.
There are a few programs that need to be re-installed, like Microsoft Office.
All you have to do in such cases is to create your image of the OS partition after you have installed Office on the programs partition. Then, if you restore the OS using that image, Office works fine even though it is installed on a separate partition.
How do you guys who say "install everything on a single-partition HD" restore a 500GB hard drive anyway?
DeaconFrost
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1. You wouldn't fill a 500GB hard drive anyway, as that wouldn't be good for performance.
2. Hard drives are dirt cheap now, so a large external drive, secondary drive, or drive in a "server" would be a cheap, easy way to store an image.
3. If you reinstall that often, that install a handful of games is too much work, then you should be looking at other solutions.
4. If you have that many games installed, you should be finding a job, girlfriend, hobbies, etc instead. Who has time for that many games anymore?
These days, it makes much more sense to just install the apps and games where the defaults are, and then use something like SyncToy to keep your saved game files backed up to a secondary drive. If you are truly worried about how much time it takes to reinstall those precious games, and you do it that often, you should be using something like Acronis TrueImage and an external drive, so you can keep regular backups of the system.
Even if your drive (500GB) is only half full, its image takes about 125GB of space.
Creating or restoring a 125GB image takes a long time.
I prefer my 4GB image. It takes me 2 minutes to restore an image.
I don't have to restore my OS often. But, I can if I want to.
When I wanted to give Windows 7 a try, I only replaced Vista on the OS partition with Windows 7.
All my data (bookmarks, pictures, music, ...) and programs were intact.
I can go back to Vista in 2 minutes if I want to.
That is flexibility.
There are pros and cons to anything. I am not trying to convince anybody to do what I do. I just want them to know the pros and cons instead of believing the "one size fits all" mentality that some like to promote.
Creating or restoring a 125GB image takes a long time.
I prefer my 4GB image. It takes me 2 minutes to restore an image.
I don't have to restore my OS often. But, I can if I want to.
When I wanted to give Windows 7 a try, I only replaced Vista on the OS partition with Windows 7.
All my data (bookmarks, pictures, music, ...) and programs were intact.
I can go back to Vista in 2 minutes if I want to.
That is flexibility.
There are pros and cons to anything. I am not trying to convince anybody to do what I do. I just want them to know the pros and cons instead of believing the "one size fits all" mentality that some like to promote.
What's hard to imagine? I mean unless their are performance benefits to having an OS on one HDD and apps/games on another HDD, what's the point (if there are performance benefits, let's see some benches)?
Your method sounds like the whole "upgrade" mentality. Replace the OS but not the apps/games? Why not just start over with a fresh installation so you know there won't be any program/driver problems? It doesn't take much time at all unless you suck at it.
You could but it would probably offer little performance benefit. I mean I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but please let's see some benches/proof, not just "I did and it's faster".
What's hard to imagine? I mean unless their are performance benefits to having an OS on one HDD and apps/games on another HDD, what's the point (if there are performance benefits, let's see some benches)?
Your method sounds like the whole "upgrade" mentality. Replace the OS but not the apps/games? Why not just start over with a fresh installation so you know there won't be any program/driver problems? It doesn't take much time at all unless you suck at it.
You could but it would probably offer little performance benefit. I mean I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but please let's see some benches/proof, not just "I did and it's faster".
Just did it.. didn't notice any difference, I thought it would free up about 8gb on my current 30gb partition but it seems to have only freed 2gb which I don't understand because there seems to be over 8gb of invisible storage taken up . I guess I'll reformat and make a new 60gb partition, that should be enough, thanks for the help everyone.
If you have a second hard drive, you can move the pagefile to the second hard drive to free up space if you need it.
Moving the pagefile to a different partition on the same hard drive is not recommended if your applications require paging.
No one in this thread claimed that there were any performance benefits.