What is the best partition strategy for a 160GB hard disk?

Question

I have a new dell computer, 3GHz dual core intel processor, 1GB RAM, Windows XP Professional Operating System, 160GB hard disk, etc. It has been left untouched for half a year just because I do not know how to partition my hard disk. The new computer comes with only 1 partition for the whole 160GB hard disk. I do not know how to manually partition my hard disk so I plan to use PartitionMagic to partition my hard disk. I need to know what is the best way to partition my 160GB of hard disk like for example, the number and type of partitions to create, what's the partition created for and how to do it using PartitionMagic?

Currently my new computer is running Windows XP Professional operating system. I want to use my computer mainly to surf the Internet, play and store thousands of MP3s songs, watch and store videos, photos and programs. In near future, I would also like to install Linux operating system in it. Sometimes I will also be using my computer for editing videos and photos. I will also use it to play games but not very often. In view of what I mentioned above, how do I partition my 160GB hard disk? How many partitions do I need, for example, is it better to have a separate partition, each for video files, music files, and photo files? Is it better to have a separate partition for programs/applications or should programs and applications be stored in same partition as my Windows XP Professional operating system? How should I partition my hard disk so that programs and music files and video files, etc, can open up and run efficiently and reasonably fast? What is a swap file partition and do I need one for it? What type of partition for each of the above-mentioned storage purpose, such as FAT32, NTFS, etc? What do I need to do if in future I want to add additional partitions to my hard disk - should I reserve some free space in my hard disk for future partition needs and how do I go about doing this..... as in extended logical partition or what...hope you know what I mean?

Another question that is hanging in my mind for a long time and is important to me is what is the best partition strategy for say, when my Windows XP Professional operating system crashes and I need to reinstall or install a new one, how should I partition my hard disk in such a way that I can simply put in my operating system disk into my DVD ROM and do the job while my video, mp3, photo files and other data files will not be lost? In other words, just simply reinstall my operating system and all my other files are not lost or affected. Hope you do know what I mean. This is important to me because I surf the net often and there will often be times my computer would be infected with trojans and viruses and spywares and times my registry or system files could be corrupted and thus I would need to reinstall my operating system. So I hope there could be a simple way to do this (reinstall my operating system) and not lose my other files and data in my hard disk. How should I partition my hard disk for my operating system, programs/applications, video, mp3, photo, data files for this purpose? BTW, just curious, when surfing the net and you caught a virus or a trojan or a spyware, will that particular virus, trojan or spyware be spread to the other partitions in the hard disk?? When I defragment my hard disk, do I really need to defragment my whole entire 160GB of hard disk or could I just defragment the necessary partitions? is there a faster and yet effective way to defragment my 160GB hard disk as such would take a very very long time. Will having
the right partition strategy help in this matter? And if it does help, what partition strategy should I use? Also, do I really have to do a virus scan on my entire 160GB hard disk (that would take ages to complete). Do people have to scan their entire hard disk for viruses or is there a better and faster way to do our virus scan?

Lastly, I would be using PartitionMagic to do the partitioning. Is there any drawbacks using PartitionMagic? I am new to PartitionMagic, could someone guide me to how to use it? BTW, any idea where can I find online resources to understand about how to partition my hard disk in such a way that my computer can function at its optimal efficiency and performance? I have searched Google and am overwhelmed by the millions of topics it has found. I have read some but some of it is not relevant to my questions or my particular usage and storage purposes.

As you can see, I know nothing about partitioning strategies. There are so many ways but what is best for my computer in terms of my usage and storage purposes? I HOPE YOU CAN GIVE ME YOUR EXPERT GUIDANCE AND ADVICE AND NOT JUST YOUR TRIAL-AND-ERROR EXPERIENCES OR ANY WILD GUESSES AS I HAVE WASTED ENOUGH TIME SEARCHING AND TRYING OUT. It has been half a year and nothing is done and I am tired. PLEASE HELP ME OUT. PLEASE! THANK YOU.

Answer 1

NTFS is best suited for windows XP, and when it comes to partitions, i would suggest you to make it into 5 partitions and make life easier for yourself, make it 30, 30, 30, 30 and 40 so that, you can dedicate one partition to your mp3, one for your games and .... you can reach your desired files easily if you make them this way.
there are no drawbacks with partition magic, I'm using it from past 5-6 years,
trust me computers are to make our lifes easier, why make them complicated?
all the best my friend, i hope i helped you.

Answer 2

Hard Disk 160gb

Answer 3

I'd leave it one contiguous partition and use your file system to organize files.

Partitioning a drive is great if you have multiple OS's but if you are using a single OS it's a waste of time, and space. I've found when I have partitioned drive I don't use the space effectively.

If you had an OS like Un*x partitioning is a different story.

Backups are easier if you keep to a single partition as well.

I've been a sys admin for 20 years, and see a lost of moneys spent on things that are truly a waste.
If you keep your file structure fairly simple, you keep yourself organize and your disk use will be better then if you split it into multiples..

Keep it Simple.

Answer 4

Well, too much sad, too much wirten.
i'd recommend to create 3 partitions
1) program files (say C) -- 45 %
2) windows :system32 & documents (but u can seperate them.) 35 %
3) for backup , in order to be safe.(say E) 20%
but if i were u i wouldn't use prtition magic, find some other partitioning software

Answer 5

I'd say just convert it to NTFS as it is more stable than FAT32. Partitioning really can get complicated, I'd recommend a 2nd drive for things you really want to keep or doing backups to dvd or external drives.

Answer 6

I have the same hard drive, the best partion strategy is as follows:
first you have to use NTFS because it is much faster.
you should partion it to 4 drives, each drive 40GB, this will give you the BEST performance, trust me. And this is good so that if you want to install multiple operating systems, like xp and vista, there will be plenty of space for each one.

Answer 7

cuando mi ordenador ha tenido un accidente no sabía si valía la pena cambiarle el hard disk o comprar otro nuevo, he tenido mucha suerte con amazon, he encontrado el producto perfecto, un transporte rápido y mi portátil funciona otra vez y mejor que antes porque el hard disk tiene una mejor velocidad de respuesta.

Answer 8

60
75
75 gb

Answer 9

as it is only 148.6 GB as follows
drive c: 20 GB operating system only
drive d: 20 GB all installed programs
drive e: 100 GB music and all saved data ripping DVDs etc:(or 2 at 50 GB )
drive f: 8.3 GB backups of drive c: zipped
up to you which format NTFS or FAT 32 mine is all FAT32 easier to retrieve lost data

Answer 10

Well, I of course, don't agree with anyone above me. Here's why: I always give Windows around a 10GB partition, and that's it. That way, every time I have to reload Windows, I only have to reinstall my hardware drivers, plus Windows. I lose nothing, including my GB's of photos, my GB's of videos, and my GB's of MP3's. Of course, you should always have backed up your files onto CD's or DVD's, in case you get a virus, then they aren't lost.

And I would personally recommend that you leave the 160 GB drive formatted to NTFS. Just use the other ~140 GB (formatting "uses" about 7% of the space on a drive) of it for storage of your files. Linux has always worked best for me when it was on a separate drive. Just grab a cheap drive, that's of better quality than your main drive, like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148095 or this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148094 and you'll have the space to have more than one distrobution of Linux installed, if you choose.