Benefits of many HD partitions?

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.
Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented? Any other
advantages?

On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

How many?

yes, more than one can have benefits



On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.

yes, but how full will the disk ever get?
10 might be excessive, depends on what you're used to
though, and the reason for the subdivision.


Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

It rarely works out that well, how will you know ahead of
time exactly what you'll need later? Of course you could
resize 'em later but that could get to be a PITA.


OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented?

It's quite possible, how much depends on the uses.

Any other
advantages?

A few random ones, which may or may not be applicable to any
particular use;

- Putting OS on first partition keeps seeks shorter on most
used files and reduces fragmentation of further things
installed to same partition. Ideally this OS partition
would only be a little bigger than you ever expect to need
(plus a few GB, there is never enough space since data grows
with time).

- Putting static files on their own partition, since they
dont' need backed up as frequently (if ever, after the first
redundant backup copies).

- Putting user data on a different partition than the OS
partition if windows, since windows can be a rather fragile
OS under some situations and it's useful to be able to
restore the OS partition but keep user data, by wiping the
whole partition and restoring a partition image made by
software such as Ghost or DriveImage.

- Putting the OS installation files and patches on a
separate partition, for similar reason as previous
suggestion for user data.

- Multiboot scenarios, backup booting of same OS (copy),
same OS configured differently, or a different operating
system(s).

- Applications, if they don't change and store user
settings in their own subdirectory instead of the windows
registry or elsewhere, then they will be tweaked to the
user's preferences still if/when the OS partition needs
replaced. Most newer and larger apps won't work like this
anymore but some do, and those that do are often smaller and
faster, desirable to some people.

- Your uses may differ quite a bit from someone else, 'tis
the whole point of a configurable system like a PC so you
may have more or less need than others do.

Thanks Kony. Very informative.

kony wrote:

- Putting user data on a different partition than the OS
partition if windows, since windows can be a rather fragile
OS under some situations and it's useful to be able to
restore the OS partition but keep user data, by wiping the
whole partition and restoring a partition image made by
software such as Ghost or DriveImage.

You wouldn't believe how much of my valuable data (OK, porn) has been
spared from destruction with that simple precaution.

I also have a partition that's a copy of the boot partition.

On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.
Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

Advantages:
- it's easy to create (and keep) an image of your OS for spare.
- it's easy to create a 'data only backup' if all your data is on
a separate partition. (Compact and fast daily backup).
- sometimes it is also handy to have a 'do not backup' partition.
(I don't want movies and mp3 files to clutter my backup :-)

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok

On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.
Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented? Any other
advantages?

Just came accross another advantage:
Multiple partitions allow you to run / install recovery software
(on a different partition) if you accitentally deleted one or
more files and you want to recover them :-)

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok

Geeeeeesssshhhhh

You must be really bored.

On Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:39:03 GMT, kony wrote:

On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

How many?

yes, more than one can have benefits



On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.

yes, but how full will the disk ever get?
10 might be excessive, depends on what you're used to
though, and the reason for the subdivision.


Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

It rarely works out that well, how will you know ahead of
time exactly what you'll need later? Of course you could
resize 'em later but that could get to be a PITA.


OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented?

It's quite possible, how much depends on the uses.

Any other
advantages?

A few random ones, which may or may not be applicable to any
particular use;

- Putting OS on first partition keeps seeks shorter on most
used files and reduces fragmentation of further things
installed to same partition. Ideally this OS partition
would only be a little bigger than you ever expect to need
(plus a few GB, there is never enough space since data grows
with time).

- Putting static files on their own partition, since they
dont' need backed up as frequently (if ever, after the first
redundant backup copies).

- Putting user data on a different partition than the OS
partition if windows, since windows can be a rather fragile
OS under some situations and it's useful to be able to
restore the OS partition but keep user data, by wiping the
whole partition and restoring a partition image made by
software such as Ghost or DriveImage.

- Putting the OS installation files and patches on a
separate partition, for similar reason as previous
suggestion for user data.

- Multiboot scenarios, backup booting of same OS (copy),
same OS configured differently, or a different operating
system(s).

- Applications, if they don't change and store user
settings in their own subdirectory instead of the windows
registry or elsewhere, then they will be tweaked to the
user's preferences still if/when the OS partition needs
replaced. Most newer and larger apps won't work like this
anymore but some do, and those that do are often smaller and
faster, desirable to some people.

- Your uses may differ quite a bit from someone else, 'tis
the whole point of a configurable system like a PC so you
may have more or less need than others do.

Gerard Bok wrote:
On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.
Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented? Any other
advantages?

Just came accross another advantage:
Multiple partitions allow you to run / install recovery software
(on a different partition) if you accitentally deleted one or
more files and you want to recover them :-)

yes but good luck if the partition table becomes corrupt

On Wed, 05 Apr 2006 13:17:48 -0400, a
wrote:

Gerard Bok wrote:
On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.
Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented? Any other
advantages?

Just came accross another advantage:
Multiple partitions allow you to run / install recovery software
(on a different partition) if you accitentally deleted one or
more files and you want to recover them :-)

yes but good luck if the partition table becomes corrupt

Just fix the partition table. It's good practice to keep a copy
on a floppydisk :-)

Mind, that a corrupt partion table will make your disk
unreadable. Even if there is only a single partiton in use :-)

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok

On Wed, 05 Apr 2006 13:17:48 -0400, a
wrote:

Gerard Bok wrote:
On 3 Apr 2006 01:40:55 -0700, "AN O'Nymous"
wrote:

Are there any benefits of many HD partitions?

On one hand, the last couple of GB on a hard disk tends to be unused,
so having 10 40GB partitions would mean these last corners are wasted.
Of course this is a soft restriction as you can fill the partitions in
their entirety if you pick your file sizes carefully.

OTOH, would a partitioned hard disk be less fragmented? Any other
advantages?

Just came accross another advantage:
Multiple partitions allow you to run / install recovery software
(on a different partition) if you accitentally deleted one or
more files and you want to recover them :-)

yes but good luck if the partition table becomes corrupt


Why worry about worst case scenarios?
Worst case is you come home and the system was stolen, it's
just not there at all. Partition table corruption is not a
factor to focus on, it doesn't make removable media backups
any more necessary - they were already necessary for
important data.