Partition size for Windows 7

[Binaryx]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

Thanks.

 

[SC Tom]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

Thanks.

I can't remember ever seeing a "recommended" partition size for Windows. I have a 320GB drive in my laptop also, and use
the full thing as a single partition. No problems yet (4 year old machine). You'll get a number of replies about doing
it/not doing it, but in the end, it's up to you.

 

[Wolf K]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

Thanks.

Split the drive into two or more partitions. Use one for OS and
applications, the other(s) for data. FWIW, I have 125GB for W7 Pro, of
which about about 52GB is used. I also have far too many programs
installed for "testing." ;-) So if you won't go much beyond the basics,
60-80GB will be ample I think.

Caveat: the majority of applications dump data into "libraries" by
default. I've set them to use the data partitions and folders devised by
me. It's much easier to find what you want in data folder tree with
names that make sense to you.

Although many people say there's nothing wrong with a single partition,
I disagree. IMO, you should never have data on the same partition as the
OS. This is one of several defences against data loss. The most
important one is additional HDDs (internal and external), and good
backup habits.

HTH,
Wolf K.

 

[pjp]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

Thanks.

Two schools of thought.

If you partition the drive you can keep "data" on the 2nd partition. You
can also install programs that are "stand-alone" (portable is another
description) on the drive also as they don't require auxiliary installed
files in places other than their own folder. That allows you to
relatively easily reinstall the OS from scratch on the first partition
if need be. This appears to be the only advantage given if the hard disk
goes down it's all gone anyway.

There may be more head trashing/wear and tear though as the drive works
back and forth from one section of the disk to another, e.g. front and
back.

Most people been around awhile I suspect feel that if you go that route
do it right and put a second hard disk in. Partitioning really adds
little, a proper backup is only real protection. Partitioning stems more
from days when hard disks were bigger than BIOS could handle at the time
so had to "bust them up" into smaller pieces to use properly.

Only reason I'd personally do it is if I needed a dual-boot system that
only had room for one hard disk in it.

 

[XS11E]

Most people been around awhile I suspect feel that if you go that
route do it right and put a second hard disk in.

Second hard disk? It's a laptop according to OP.

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for
Windows, or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

Thanks.

Opinions are like...well, you get the idea. Everybody has one. My own
opinion is to put the OS on one partition, and everything else on other
partitions. With the exception of portable applications and passive
data, that is not really possible, but I try. I have Windows 7
Ultimate x64 installed in a 100 GB partition, and it it is only using
23.3 GB. (I keep virtual memory on a different partition.)

 

[Wolf K]

Second hard disk? It's a laptop according to OP.

I suppose it has a USB port.

Wolf K.

 

[Paul]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

Thanks.

I have a 320GB drive in the laptop. The partitions are:

1) Hidden recovery partition.
2) SYSTEM RESERVED 100MB (installed by Acer)
3) Windows C: 40GB (originally much larger, resized by me)
(at 40GB, System Restore is turned off to save space)
4) Junk Partition (all the rest of the space)

Doing it that way, makes maintenance on the 40GB slightly easier.
(This is for when I make a sector-by-sector backup, instead of file by file.)
I made no attempt to put a whole bunch of stuff in the junk partition.
I use the junk partition to store the search index for C:, not knowing how
big it would be, and not wanting to take space on C: for it.

Right now, around 26GB of the 40GB is used (SP1 included). I don't have many
programs that I've added myself in there. The printer and webcam packages I installed,
might be the biggest pieces of cruft added (several hundred megabytes total).
A lot of the rest of it, is crap put there by Acer.

I had hoped to be able to leave System Restore turned on, and store the
necessary content into the Junk Partition, but Windows 7 desktop is missing
the necessary transport code for VSS to do that. So I just turned System
Restore off instead.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

Second hard disk? It's a laptop according to OP.

Some laptops accommodate two internal hard drives, but I suspect the
model being discussed doesn't.

 

[Ken Blake]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.

"Need"? What makes you think you need to? It's very rarely necessary
and it's usually a bad mistake.

What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

You might want to read this article I've written: "Understanding Disk
Partitioning" at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

 

[Binaryx]

"Need"? What makes you think you need to? It's very rarely necessary
and it's usually a bad mistake.





You might want to read this article I've written: "Understanding Disk
Partitioning" at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

----------

New laptop come with DOS, no OS installed. Just wanted to clarify what
would be right partition size for Windows 7 if set two partitions. No dual-
boot system, just Windows only. Laptop HDD seems will be 320Gb (or maybe
500Gb)

 

[Wolf K]

New laptop come with DOS, no OS installed.

DOS is an OS. Still pretty good, actually, in single-purpose,
stand-alone, dedicated machines.

Wolf K.

 

[Ken Blake]

Ah, OK (although DOS *is* an operating system; the "OS" in "dOS"
stands for operating system,). I thought you were planning on doing a
clean *re*-installation.

By the way, it's very rare to get a new laptop these days that comes
with DOS and no version of Windows. What is the brand and model
number?

Just wanted to clarify what
would be right partition size for Windows 7 if set two partitions.

As I think others have told you, there is no *right* size. What's best
for one person isn't necessarily best for others. It depends on how
you install it. And if you would read my article, you would see that I
also suggest that having two partitions rather than one is a poor
choice for many (maybe even most) people.

No dual-
boot system, just Windows only. Laptop HDD seems will be 320Gb (or maybe
500Gb)

You bought a new laptop and you don't know how big the hard drive in
it is? That's very odd.

 

[Binaryx]

Ah, OK (although DOS *is* an operating system; the "OS" in "dOS"
stands for operating system,). I thought you were planning on doing a
clean *re*-installation.

By the way, it's very rare to get a new laptop these days that comes
with DOS and no version of Windows. What is the brand and model
number?




As I think others have told you, there is no *right* size. What's best
for one person isn't necessarily best for others. It depends on how
you install it. And if you would read my article, you would see that I
also suggest that having two partitions rather than one is a poor
choice for many (maybe even most) people.




You bought a new laptop and you don't know how big the hard drive in
it is? That's very odd.

-----------

I've not bought anything yet but plan to buy something.
There is enough models with DOS or Linux, for example:

Lenovo B570, CMD-B800 15"/ 4GB RAM/ 320GB HDD/DOS
Celeron B800/1500 MHz, Intel HM65 Express,Vga: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Acer AS5349, Celeron B815, Chipset Intel HM65 Express/15"/ RAM 4GB/HDD
320GB/VGA:Intel HD Graphics/OS: Bootable Linux

HP COMPAQ CQ57, AMD E-300 2 x 1.3Ghz,Chipset AMD A50M FCH, 15.6"/ RAM 2Gb
DDR3/HDD 320Gb/Video:ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6310/DOS

 

[Paul]

-----------

I've not bought anything yet but plan to buy something.
There is enough models with DOS or Linux, for example:

Lenovo B570, CMD-B800 15"/ 4GB RAM/ 320GB HDD/DOS
Celeron B800/1500 MHz, Intel HM65 Express,Vga: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Acer AS5349, Celeron B815, Chipset Intel HM65 Express/15"/ RAM 4GB/HDD
320GB/VGA:Intel HD Graphics/OS: Bootable Linux

HP COMPAQ CQ57, AMD E-300 2 x 1.3Ghz,Chipset AMD A50M FCH, 15.6"/ RAM 2Gb
DDR3/HDD 320Gb/Video:ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6310/DOS

The E-300 would be a bit weak, but it also doesn't use a lot of power.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

CPU Name Passmark Rank CPU Value Price

AMD E-300 APU 590 884 NA NA
Intel Celeron B800 @ 1.50GHz 1411 580 NA NA
(B815 1.6GHz) (A bit more than B800)

The B800 is probably twice what my laptop has got, and would be
a better match for the job.

Based on the package it's in, the E-300 could be soldered to
the motherboard, so it cannot be removed. (In this photo is depicted
an E-350 soldered to the motherboard, with no CPU socket.)

http://img.clubic.com/04085418-photo-zacate-e-350.jpg

The Intel processor, probably sits in a screw-turn-release ZIF, similar to this.
Not that finding upgrade processors is all that easy, but it's fun to pretend.

http://techreport.com/r.x/asus-ct479/top.jpg

Paul

 

[Bob I]

Second hard disk? It's a laptop according to OP.

Shrug, my laptop has room for a second one.

 

[Steve Hayes]

New laptop come with DOS, no OS installed.

That's contradictory.

 

[VanguardLH]

What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium).

http://www.google.com/search?q=+"windows+7"+%2B"system+requirements"

You did say what ELSE you would be putting on this host, like
applications and data files.

 

[Ammammata]

Il giorno Mon 13 Feb 2012 02:58:10p, *Binaryx* inviava su
alt.windows7.general il messaggio
Vediamo cosa scrisse:

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for
Windows, or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

I frequently install Fujitsu computers for our customers.
The setup procedure halts asking if I want one or two partitions (system
and data)
If I choose 2, the stoopid automated setup procedure configures Users
folder on the same partition of the o.s., tipically the first one, so it
(the partition) quickly fills and suddenly I have a 30Gb disk C: full at
95% and an empty 290Gb partition

so, second partition is welcome if you put something on it (and this should
be done by setup, not tweaking the system at the end); and in addition, the
10%-90% relation suggested is a joke: keeping some restore points on the
disk as well as the pagefile and hibernation file will take the whole space
in a few months

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Need do a clean install Windows 7 Prof. on laptop, hard drive 320GB.
What is the recommended partition size for Windows 7 Prof? (or Home
Premium). Does it make sense to create a separate partition for Windows,
or better use one partition: an entire hard drive?

I tend to image my boot drive, so for me it makes sense to keep the boot
partition as small as possible, a good size is 200GB, but you might even
be able to get it into 128GB comfortably. The rest of the drive can be
used for a data partition. If you're not backing up your partition, then
it doesn't matter what size your partition is, eventually you'll be
screwed anyways, so in that case just use a single partition the entire
size of your hard disk.


Yousuf Khan