How To Partition A Hard Drive

How To Partition A Hard Drive

 Most of the time when you buy a new computer, it comes with the operating system, applications, and data all stored on one drive, which would be the C: drive. Everything is organized into folders or directories, but still in one place. It's kind of like living in a big open warehouse with all the living areas grouped together.
I'm going to outline a method I've used for years to organize and manage my Windows operating system, data, and applications. It gives an extra measure of safety and makes backups a lot easier.
What I like to do is partition my hard drive or drives to separate the different areas. Kind of like putting up walls in the warehouse so you have different rooms. Normally on a new computer, I will partition a hard drive into at least four partitions. I then format the extra partitions and windows looks at each of them as separate hard drives and assigns drive letters of C:, D:, E:, and F: to them.
The different partitions are used to hold different categories of my system files. You might prefer a different arrangement, but I'll explain my setup.
The C: drive is for my windows installation with what I consider "must have" applications like office apps, etc. This keeps windows lean and mean. It's also easier and faster to defrag and backups are a snap.
The D: drive is for data and some applications. This is where I keep my documents, photos, video, music, email, address book, IE favorites, and similar data.
The E: drive is used to hold installation files and a majority of installed applications. I keep my windows installation directory here so I don't have to dig around to find my original CD whenever adding a windows program or needing files replaced. I also copy some of my installation CDs of hardware drivers here with updates as they come out. When I download applications from the internet and want to keep the installation files for a later install, I put them here. I also use this drive for installing most of my applications. I use a lot of apps that update frequently, and using a separate partition from C lowers the chance of messing up my windows installation.
The F: drive is used for my backup files, and also temporary files. I also install some applications to this partition. Mostly they're applications that I'm not sure I want to keep. This is where I store tv shows I record and also have my windows and IE temp files stored here. I also store some downloads here that I want to check out later.
The advantages of partitioning are important to me. I believe it's safer. If windows gets hosed, your data is still intact and up to date. A reinstall of windows won't leave you without your important data. Of course, if the hard drive crashes, and you only have the one drive, you're up a creek, so backups are still important.
That brings up another advantage; Back ups. Backing up the C: drive is a fast, easy process since there are less files to copy. After windows is installed, configured and tweaked to your personal preference, make an image and don't dread installing windows again. Remember how doing a fresh install of windows turned into a long experience by the time you got everything "just right"? Well, guess what? You can now do a fresh installation of windows in about 5 to 10 minutes. Got a virus you can't seem to cure? Installed an application that screwed up your windows big time and can't seem to be repaired? No big deal. Just do a quick image restore and you're good to go. Backing up the D: drive is also easier, since it is separate from the windows installation.
Another advantage is that files on the C: drive are not changed or replaced as often as before, so the drive doesn't fragment as much or often. That can mean faster loading and operation of programs. When needed, defragging is faster since there are fewer files, and they aren't as fragmented as they would be if you only had a C: drive.
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