Hard Drive Setup?

[Winin]

Ok, I'm back with more for the experts. I got all my new PC parts and I'll be setting it up over the weekend. I've done it all before and it looks straightforward, except for the hard drive setup. I bought a 1TB drive. The last time I set up a new system hard drive, I did one big partition (after setting the IRQ jumpers and all that bad old days stuff).

Is there a preferred method for setting up a large drive these days? Thanks!

[trapsinger]

Well it's not fancy, but i still just use one big partition. it's easy, and requires little to no thought.

[wrewdinge]

Some people prefer to set up a partition specifically for the OS, then just install everything over on the other partition. This way should something happen to your OS partition you still retain most of your data.

[Winin]

Thanks guys. I have an external drive where I backup every night, so I shouldn't lose stuff.

[pandalishus]

While you'd have your data on a backup drive, having data on a second partition saves you from having to restore in the event the OS gets trashed. If something major crashes the OS so that it's not recoverable, having your data on a second partition means you just reinstall the OS and the data comes right back up It doesn't protect you in the event of a hardware failure, but it's usually handy in the event of software issues.

Another reason to have two partitions is that you can defrag a smaller system partition quicker (and don't have personal data in the way of the programs, etc). You can seriously reduce the time required to run a defrag, as well as getting a minor performance boost if your data is on a second partition.

Personally, I always run two partitions, but despite what I've said above, it's not something that really, truly matters in day-to-day usage.