Hard Drive Question and Partitioning.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Hello,

I have been experiencing bootup problems. For example, I would boot up the PC and it just keeps rebooting. Yesterday it kept doing it for an hour and a half. When it finally kicked into gear, I did a CHKDSK via RUN and it discovered bad sectors.

1) Does that mean my HD is screwed?
2) I will buy a new one anyway. Something much bigger, but what are your views on partitioning?
I don't partition my drives, but I will get something reasonably bigger than what I have now. Should I partition or not? What is the value really? I mean, that if a hard drive screws up on you, it is ruined anyway, partitioned or not.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Thanks for the reply Stardust.

A few more questions though:

1) Is it best to partition the drive into 3? So Operating System. Programs and Data?
2) If so, what sizes would you suggest? I have just bought a new 400GB drive.
3) As far as installing programs go, do you let them install in their default settings/folders? If not, does that mean everytime you install a program you have to direct it to say a folder that you created on the D drive. For example, Let's say I install a game, do I let it install by default or choose a particular location on another partition (For example D Drive)?
4) If installing programs means choosing the D Drive, what about sample data that comes with certain programs like Kontakt which has loads of sample data, would put the sample data on the E Drive?
5) When I install my new hard drive, is that the best time to partition. I intend to reinstall from an Acronis image file, so am not sure how that will work.

Excuse all these questions, but I have never partitioned my drives so am not sure of the right procedure.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Thanks for the reply Stardust.

A few more questions though:

1) Is it best to partition the drive into 3? So Operating System. Programs and Data?
2) If so, what sizes would you suggest? I have just bought a new 400GB drive.
3) As far as installing programs go, do you let them install in their default settings/folders? If not, does that mean everytime you install a program you have to direct it to say a folder that you created on the D drive. For example, Let's say I install a game, do I let it install by default or choose a particular location on another partition (For example D Drive)?
4) If installing programs means choosing the D Drive, what about sample data that comes with certain programs like Kontakt which has loads of sample data, would you put the sample data on the E Drive?
5) When I install my new hard drive, is that the best time to partition. I intend to reinstall from an Acronis image file, so am not sure how that will work.

Excuse all these questions, but I have never partitioned my drives so am not sure of the right procedure.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

Thanks for the reply Stardust.

A few more questions though:

1) Is it best to partition the drive into 3? So Operating System. Programs and Data?
2) If so, what sizes would you suggest? I have just bought a new 400GB drive.
3) As far as installing programs go, do you let them install in their default settings/folders? If not, does that mean everytime you install a program you have to direct it to say a folder that you created on the D drive. For example, Let's say I install a game, do I let it install by default or choose a particular location on another partition (For example D Drive)?
4) If installing programs means choosing the D Drive, what about sample data that comes with certain programs like Kontakt which has loads of sample data, would you put the sample data on the E Drive?
5) When I install my new hard drive, is that the best time to partition. I intend to reinstall from an Acronis image file, so am not sure how that will work.

Excuse all these questions, but I have never partitioned my drives so am not sure of the right procedure.

[Astral Fridge Magnet]

I don't understand the triple post. Sorry.

My original HD was 80 GB, but the acronis image is only about 4 GB in sze.

[kylie]

1) Is it best to partition the drive into 3? So Operating System. Programs and Data?

I do it that way (mostly), but you have to remember that usually lots of files that you intended to go to D: will nevertheless go to C: since some common file stuff is just expected to be there, and it's copied there without your control. so you probably can follow the 2-drive rule from stardust as well.

2) If so, what sizes would you suggest? I have just bought a new 400GB drive.

there are only new drives and full drives. the mentioned 100gb for the system and programs is surely not too small.
if you can estimate the remaining 300gb enough for the content to be expected, you can surely go with that for some time.

3) As far as installing programs go, do you let them install in their default settings/folders? If not, does that mean everytime you install a program you have to direct it to say a folder that you created on the D drive. For example, Let's say I install a game, do I let it install by default or choose a particular location on another partition (For example D Drive)?

the default is most probably always your system drive. I can't remember a system variable for the program dir that you could change for all future use. so if you intend to get a program installed to D:\Program Files\$Productname, you have at least to change the driveletter. in some occacions you'd better check the resulting path since some programs alter the path to be D:\$productname then, accidentially.

4) If installing programs means choosing the D Drive, what about sample data that comes with certain programs like Kontakt which has loads of sample data, would you put the sample data on the E Drive?

not a bad idea, especially if you intend to add big sample libraries that might crowd you D: drive one day if not separated.

it's just some more control over what content is where, although, as mentioned, you might not have full control on that matter.

if you feel the need to separate things for performance reasons (libraries and pagefile, for instance), use separate disks.

-greetings, markus-