Partition Your Hard Drive? (my advice...) - Comments Page 2

I have a second hard drive that I partitioned just to see if I could do it, but I don't see any advantage to doing so. I take an image file every two weeks on an external drive.

What about fragmentation?
Surely if everything is in one partition then the whole drive becomes fragmented and slows the whole thing down, also takes a lot longer to de-fragment.

I am a little apprehensive about not being fullin accord with Bob, especially as I know Leo Notenboom fully agrees with him!
Nevertheless, I am with those who believe in using two physical drives, one for the system and one for the data. This is faster than a single drive (unless SSD) as both can be accessed simultaneously; furthermore, in the event of a system failure requiring a reformat the data remains intact. I use a Rollback program to protect the system drive in the event of problems, but I don't wish it to be continually backing up my data, so I would separate the two even if I only had one physical drive.
I also have a swap drive positioned at the beginning of the D drive, which I am told speeds access, but wouldn't bother if my C drive were SSD.

Miger: You ask why, here's why: SSDs are great, but relatively small and expensive. HDDs are huge and cheap, but relatively slow. Current modern computers will have both a SSD and a HDD.

Windows and all program go on the SSD (the C: drive) as usual. User data will go on the HDD (the D: drive). As Mike in Colorado notes, Windows has the ability to redirect the user folders to other locations than the C drive - and if done, the user seldom even notices it. Documents, Pictures, Downloads, etc. all reside on the huge HDD and Windows and Program run from the fast SSD. Win-Win!

(The newest SSDs don't even look like HDDs - they look more like RAM sticks in a dedicated motherboard slot than a big boxy block. That's both smaller and faster, another win-win.

On my 2011 W7 desktop I have 3 physical drives:
C=200gb SSD;
D=500gb HD (data, emails etc);
E=1tb HD(backups).
I also have a 500gb external HD which I do not use as frequently as I should for off-site backups...

Back in the day, when I fooled around with partitions, I placed Win10 & Win7 on separate partitions. Win10 got hungry one day and ate it's older sibling....good ol' partitions ;}

Seems like some commenters are getting confused between partitioning one drive, and having more than one drive.

Miger wrote "Few actually provide a valid reason WHY they still do it!"
Here's why I partition my computer's single hard drive. Backups/images are stored on an external hard drive.
1) I put Windows and programs on C:, and data on D:.
2) Why D: on a separate partition? I regularly backup the D partition: it's small and fast.
3) Why C: on a separate partition? I make an image of the C: partition once a month, or after significant additions or changes to the software. If the system has a issue I can't resolve, I can restore it to a perfectly working system in twenty minutes. And I don't lose any data by reformatting the C: partition.

I agree with several of the comments.

I have a 498 MB SSD as a primary C: drive where Windows and all software are installed. I have a 750 GB conventional HDD as a secondary drive where I store all data files. I don't use the Win library folders like My Pictures and My Documents for anything except temporary junk. So, if I have a failure or corruption on C:, I'll just re-install or revert to a previous configuration. Data on D: is mostly cloned in the cloud, so now I care less and less if my laptop gets stolen or has catastrophic HDD failure.

In the past, I would always partition my single physical hard drive to match the two physical drives I have described above. If I ever have a new PC with a big enough single SSD, I'll probably still partition it into C and D drives as described. I don't want to wade through the stupid Windows named folders/libraries on C: - I know exactly where I put my stuff on D:

I admit to being a geezer.
And one who likes to try new things.

I have always and will always partitioned my drive into a C:\ OS and programs and a D:\ data partition.

I have been known to reload Windows (less now than in the past) at least once a year to clean up leftover bits and pieces of things I have tried and played with. Very simple when all the DATA is never touched on a separate partition!

You didn't answer the question on how to partition a hard drive just your reasons not to.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The answer was in today's article: https://askbobrankin.com/heres_how_to_partition_your_hard_drive_.html

Mr Brankin, a most excellent article. I was planning on partitioning my HDD for my new Mint 19.3 installation, however, after reading your piece I decided it was not necessary.

I also read several article are this issue and all of them said there were pros and cons in partitioning.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.