Partitioning: OS , programs, data

I am setting up partitions on my new system. I was thinking about the following two methods:

1) O/S and programs C: My documents data D: ( Moved DVD.Cd to X: Z

2) O/S C: programs D: My documents data E:

My question is one better than the other? Will XP get cranky or slow with the programs on different partition?

Any pros and cons of both will be greatly appreciated.

PS; whats with putting "page file" , what is Page file?, on a separate partition? From what I read it sounds way above my pay grade, just looking for some incite


Thanks

RWG

 

More than you want to know about the Page File:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

For your 2 versus 3 partition question, I would think about why you de-fragment your disk. Less head flying around. When you load a Windows program, parts are in the OS and parts in the program folders.

 

Thanks, So programs, OS on same partition will be less wear and tear??

 

Some thoughts:

About the pagefile: Best to have a dedicated partition formatted to FAT32 for the pagefile, on a separate physical disk, and as the first partition on that disk. That way Windows can write to pagefile and perform processes more in unison. I have 4GB of actual memory, so I made a 10GB partition on my D: drive. The FAT32 formatting is a bit quicker for small files. Having this discrete partition prevents any defragmentation from occuring on your pagefile; you will never need to, nor should you, defrag this partition. Just leave it alone. The general rule of thumb is 1.5 times your physical memory for the pagefile. If you want to retain a resident pagefile on your C: partition with Windows in addition to the one you created on your second disk (and you have the room to spare), it can be 512MB, or can be equal to the amount of your physical memory if you want to enable a complete kernal dump for debugging in the case of OS failure. The D: drive partition is to speed things up.

Windows & Program Files: First partition of the C: drive. Move 'My Documents' to a separate partition on the D: drive. That way your backup images are smaller and more manageable. Use a more traditional backup program (not imaging) for the 'My Documents'. There's some debate about the relative virtues of all of this; if you just had one big partition for everything, then data would write from the outside of the cylinder towards the middle as the drive fills up and there's a shorter physical distance for the heads to travel. So if you create a partition for Data ('My Documents') then the head has to travel past the blank space in your Windows partition to reach the beginning of the Data partition. But -- catastrophic hardware failure is my main worry, not a couple of probably imperceptable miliseconds of seek, so I want my stuff partitioned so it is more manageable.

Print Spool: Don't bother moving it off your C: Windows partition unless you do a lot of big-job color graphics work. If you need that, then it belongs in another discrete partition on the D: drive, placed right after the pagefile partition. A big Photoshop file can be half a Gig, so get out the calculator.

Also on the D: drive: if you do work with large graphics files, or do DVD authoring, then consider another partition on the D: drive, maybe 10-20GB, just for Swap files. Put this one on the end of the second physical disk.

Don't forget a partition for your backup disc images, and label it NODefrag so you won't ever defragment it, right?

And speaking of defragmentation, be sure to use a good program, not the XP thing, like Raxco Perfect Disk, Diskkeeper, or O&O before you undertake repartitioning of any drive that already has data.

Well, that's about my 2 cents. Have I muddied the water enough for ya?

Lots of luck, and have fun!