Best utilization of two separate Hard Drives

Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:

Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive

My question:
How best could I split data, files and programs for max efficiency? or does
it even make a noticeable difference?

"Artreid" <> wrote in
news:iujg4r$gv1$:

> Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:
>
> Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
> Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive
>
> My question:
> How best could I split data, files and programs for max
> efficiency? or does it even make a noticeable difference?

Well, I'd suggest going back to where you bought these and
changing the Gg drives for GB ones.

Seriously, partition C:\ into like 4 partitions, and f into 5-10
depending on whether you store entire DVD movies and stuff.

I know I am going to get blasted for even suggesting
partitioning, but those who don't partition are idiots. There
are SO many advantages it's not even funny.

On 30/06/2011 11:52 PM, Artreid wrote:
> Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:
>
> Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
> Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive
>
> My question:
> How best could I split data, files and programs for max efficiency? or
> does it even make a noticeable difference?

Partition the first drive into a boot and a data partitions. You could
go half and half, with two 80 Gig partitions. But it depends on how many
programs you plan to install into the drive, as they all go into the
boot partition by default. For your boot partition I'd suggest a minimum
of 64GB but a maximum of 128GB. You adjust the data partition adjust up
and down accordingly, of course. It would be probably best if you stored
your "Users" folder in the data partition of this drive rather than the
boot partition of it.

It's best to keep the boot partition as minimal as you dare, because it
makes it much easier to image for recovery when the drive fails or a
virus wipes out the boot partition. Imaging is slightly different from
normal backups. You need to image a boot partition, because otherwise
you can't boot from it again after restoration. However, run of the mill
data partitions can be simply backed up, you don't need to image them.
Imaging has a much higher proportional storage overhead than backups.

As for your 750GB drive, just partition that as a single partition, it
keeps it simpler, you can just use folders on it to keep things
organized. You'll be using that to store all kinds of large data such as
music, videos, pictures. You will also need to store the backup images
from the boot partition on this drive, so you should create a backups
folder for that purpose.

Another thing you should consider is moving the swap file to this
partition. There are two avenues of thought about this. First avenue is
that it's best to keep the swap file on the fastest available drive,
which in this case is your 160GB boot drive. The second avenue is that
it's best to separate out the swapping function from the boot drive, as
usually that's the busiest drive of all, and you'll just be bogging down
your fastest drive and turning it into your slowest drive. My preference
is that a swapping file is a highly intensive operation that occurs
continuously on a your machine, so it's best to put it on a less busy drive.

Yousuf Khan

I have been using 2 drives in my desktop for years.

The first drive has 3 partitions C - Windows 7
P - pictures
v - videos


The second drive has D - Backup
E - Software

I use Acronis True Image to to image C ot D once a week

I have once daily scheduled backup of selected items to D
(in my case at home 2 email folders- at work a biling program files)

The sofware partition has all the original CDs of programs in their own
folders example Office 2000, Word Perfect, Motherboard, Personal collection
of software, Web cam etc

I also have external USB drive where do some backups and copying. This comes
handy when a linux program that I am playing with mucks up by second hard
disk

I make periodic bacup of videos and pictures on external USB drive

Hi, Art.

To keep the terminology straight, run Disk Management and study its screen
for a while. There are several ways to run DM; my favorite is to just click
Start, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter. Not only is this quicker than
following the click path, but it also goes directly to DM, rather than
through the MMC (Microsoft Management Console). The MMC takes up a third of
the screen, making us see DM through a laparoscopic keyhole. You'll need to
furnish Administrator credentials either way because this program is
powerful enough to do harm, as well as good.

In DM, the Volume List at the top shows "drives" or "volumes"; you should
see your Drive C: and Drive F: there. But have a look at the Graphical
Display below. It should show Disk 0 and Disk 1. Drive C: occupies only a
portion of Disk 0, although that portion (the partition) might be 100% of
the disk. Depending on the history of that disk, Drive C: might start at
the beginning of the disk, or there may be a small partition (with no drive
letter) before it. Some OEMs also add a "recovery" partition of some kind,
which DM will show if it is there. Likewise, Disk 1 may be completely
included in Drive F:, or there may be unused space before or after that
drive.

A "drive" letter is never assigned to a hard disk drive (HDD). It is
assigned only to a partition on that HDD, even if the partition includes all
the space on the HDD. So we cannot subdivide Drive C:, but we can subdivide
Disk 0 into multiple partitions, often called "drives". HDDs are never
lettered; they are numbered starting with zero. The file system numbers the
partitions, starting with one on each disk, but we seldom see or use those
numbers; we just refer to the partitions by the Drive letters assigned by
the operating system.

Make DM full-screen and widen the Status column in the Volume List so that
you can see all the information in it. You should see labels for Boot,
System, Page File and others. Your Drive C: and Drive F: should both be
"Primary Partitions", which does not mean "of first importance" in this
case; each disk can have up to 4 primary partitions. One primary partition
on each disk may be coded "Active"; this is the one that can be used to
start the computer when that disk is designated in the BIOS as the boot
device.

Since your Drives C: and F: cover all of their respective disks, you'll have
to shrink those partitions if you want to create new, smaller partitions
using parts of that freed space. Depending on how YOU use your computer,
you might want to leave all of Disk 0 in Drive C:. (My Drive C: partition
is 70 GB and is running out of room. :>( Luckily, I can move the 20 GB
partition following it to another disk and Extend C: to include that space.)

"How many partitions" is a topic that can quickly become a "religious war".
Listen to some opinions, think about how YOU use your computer, and then
decide for yourself. Yes, it can make a big difference - for some users,
but not for others. With DM, you can almost always change your mind later -
if you are willing to learn how to use it effectively.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Artreid" wrote in message news:iujg4r$gv1$...

Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:

Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive

My question:
How best could I split data, files and programs for max efficiency? or does
it even make a noticeable difference?

On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:52:29 -0400, "Artreid" <>
wrote:

> Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:
>
> Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
> Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive
>
> My question:
> How best could I split data, files and programs for max efficiency? or does
> it even make a noticeable difference?


Efficiency isn't really an issue here. The issue is what kinds of
files you have and how much of each type you have.

If it were me, I would use C: for the operating system and programs,
and F: for all my data (all types of data: word processing,
spreadsheets, photographs, videos, music, etc.), but your needs might
be different from mine.

Also, your question, at least in part, is related to one like "how
should I partition my hard drive?" So I recommend that you read this
article I've written: "Understanding Disk Partitioning" at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:25:32 GMT, (Student) wrote:

>
>
> I have been using 2 drives in my desktop for years.
>
> The first drive has 3 partitions C - Windows 7
> P - pictures
> v - videos
>
>
> The second drive has D - Backup
> E - Software
>
> I use Acronis True Image to to image C ot D once a week
>
> I have once daily scheduled backup of selected items to D
> (in my case at home 2 email folders- at work a biling program files)


Two comments:

1. Pictures and videos are simply two different kinds of data files.
For almost everyone there's no real advantage to putting them in
separate partitions; separate folders in the same partition is just as
good from an organizational standpoint, and greatly preferable,
because partitions are static, with fixed sizes, and folders are
dynamic, with sizes that automatically expand or contract as needed.

2. Putting your backups on a second internal drive is better than no
backup at all, but just barely. I don't recommend backup to a second
non-removable hard drive because it leaves you susceptible to
simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the most
common dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus
attacks, even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept
in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple
generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be
stored off-site.

On 7/1/2011 9:56 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:52:29 -0400, "Artreid"<>
> wrote:
>
>> Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:
>>
>> Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
>> Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive
>>
>> My question:
>> How best could I split data, files and programs for max efficiency? or does
>> it even make a noticeable difference?
>
>
> Efficiency isn't really an issue here. The issue is what kinds of
> files you have and how much of each type you have.
>
> If it were me, I would use C: for the operating system and programs,
> and F: for all my data (all types of data: word processing,
> spreadsheets, photographs, videos, music, etc.), but your needs might
> be different from mine.
>
> Also, your question, at least in part, is related to one like "how
> should I partition my hard drive?" So I recommend that you read this
> article I've written: "Understanding Disk Partitioning" at
> http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

I'm with you on this, Ken. My computer has:
C: 320GB Operating system and all programs. I clone this drive about
every 2 weeks.
D: 500GB All data, organized into folders.
H: 750GB External backup drive, automatic backup every 12 hours.

C: Still has a recovery partition, but it's not much use because I now
have W-7 and the recovery is XP.

A few months ago my D: drive crashed. I bought a new drive, did a
restore from the backup and was back in business in about 30 minutes.

When I moved from XP to W-7 my data wasn't touched or vulnerable. I've
been using this setup for over 15 years. :-)


--
I respect that you have an opinion. Don't confuse that
respect with really giving a crap what it is.
"Anon"
http://www.bobhatch.com
http://www.tdsrvresort.com

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:04:32 -0700, Bob Hatch <>
wrote:

> On 7/1/2011 9:56 AM, Ken Blake wrote:
> > On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:52:29 -0400, "Artreid"<>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:
> >>
> >> Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
> >> Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive
> >>
> >> My question:
> >> How best could I split data, files and programs for max efficiency? or does
> >> it even make a noticeable difference?
> >
> >
> > Efficiency isn't really an issue here. The issue is what kinds of
> > files you have and how much of each type you have.
> >
> > If it were me, I would use C: for the operating system and programs,
> > and F: for all my data (all types of data: word processing,
> > spreadsheets, photographs, videos, music, etc.), but your needs might
> > be different from mine.
> >
> > Also, your question, at least in part, is related to one like "how
> > should I partition my hard drive?" So I recommend that you read this
> > article I've written: "Understanding Disk Partitioning" at
> > http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326
>
> I'm with you on this, Ken. My computer has:
> C: 320GB Operating system and all programs. I clone this drive about
> every 2 weeks.
> D: 500GB All data, organized into folders.
> H: 750GB External backup drive, automatic backup every 12 hours.


Well, you're *almost* with me. But if you have an automatic backup
every twelve hours, that means you keep that external drive connected
all the time. If that's the case, it's really no different from an
internal drive. I don't recommend backup to a second internal hard
drive because it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the
original and backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power
glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the
computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept
in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple
generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be
stored off-site.

On Fri, 1 Jul 2011 04:35:15 +0000 (UTC), thanatoid wrote:

> "Artreid" <> wrote in
> news:iujg4r$gv1$:
>
>> Running Win 7 Ultimate X64 and the following HDD setup:
>>
>> Drive C: 160Gg 10Krpm SATA primary drive
>> Drive F: 750Gg SATA 7200rpm secondary drive
>>
>> My question:
>> How best could I split data, files and programs for max
>> efficiency? or does it even make a noticeable difference?
>
> Well, I'd suggest going back to where you bought these and
> changing the Gg drives for GB ones.
>
> Seriously, partition C:\ into like 4 partitions, and f into 5-10
> depending on whether you store entire DVD movies and stuff.
>
> I know I am going to get blasted for even suggesting
> partitioning, but those who don't partition are idiots. There
> are SO many advantages it's not even funny.

Here's one idiot blasting you :-)

Or to put it more sanely, I disagree. For me, folders do everything that
partitions do, and they don't preempt drive letters.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)