Should I partition my new hard drive before a clean install of Vista?

I have installed a brand new 160 GB hard drive in my notebook computer. I wish to install the Vista operating system; however, someone recommended that I partition the hard drive first to create a separate C: partition for the Operating System & all Programs, a D: partition with all the data, and then Ghost the C: partiion to allow for a full restore of all the applications if I experience a catastrphic hard drive failure. Of course, while working, I would perform regular full backups of the D: partition with all the data.

Asked by John_3:16 53 months ago Similar questions: partition hard drive clean install Vista Computers > Hardware > Computer Components.

Similar questions: partition hard drive clean install Vista.

Computers > Hardware > Computer Components.

No, it's really not necessary to do this You're better off just backing up your data regularly than partitioning your hard drive for this purpose. The only good reason to partition drives nowadays, in my opinion, is if you plan to run more than one operating system on your computer and you need different file formats. Otherwise, you're just making life more difficult for yourself unnecessarily.

Don't do it. That's just my opinion, but I've had a lot of experience with this and I've always found that dealing with multiple drive letters is a pain. There are arguments to the contrary.

Your friend's is one, which is you're protecting your data. Maybe, but if you're going to be doing regular backups anyway, then it's a moot point. Another is that you may speed performance.

Possibly, but today's drives are so fast that you're probably not going to notice any improvement. Another would be that it simplifies backups because you'd normally only want to backup data and not programs. Possibly, but as long as you organize your data into folders you're not really making things any simpler.So again, in my opinion, it's not necessary and I wouldn't suggest doing it.

I hope that helps! Sources: My experience .

Definitely partition it. It won't take that much space. Before you install an OS, you'll definitely want to either partition your hard drive or back it up.

Partition is more common simply because it is cheaper. Consider that Vista is a relatively new operating system. There are many things that could go wrong with it, simply because it hasn't been tested in as many different situations as many other systems.

If your system crashes, and you haven't backed it up, you'll spend a very long time tracking down all the programs you had. In addition some very useful programs simply don't make money, and may be removed from the market, because they only have a niche audience. You may lose a program, and not be able to find it again.

Also, backing up your current OS will save you many headaches. If Vista crashes, unless you have you install disc for whatever you're currently using or you've backed it up, you're out of luck. Microsoft won't send you a free XP disc, so you can either wait until Vista is fixed for you, or pay a pretty penny for something else.In the end, it's best to just take the time to back up.

It won't consume that much space, and will save you so much hassle. Sources: Opinion .

That's highly unnecessary I've always found that no matter the situation, separating data from application is only troublesome, and makes for longer load times in applications that manage data (such as games and other programs). And then, what if you need to grossly expand the data partition to accomodate some large file transfer? To maintain a proper file structure, you'd have to repartition, which is a huge pain.

Also, if you're making regular backups, the ghost partition is worthless, as anything that corrupts a partition most likely affected the entire hard drive. The only thing that could possible isolate to a partition would be some odd OS failure/virus, and that could kill the HD as well. Sources: Opinion .

Don't want to this if not needed. " "Why partition an external hard drive?

Do you have to partition a flash drive to load songs through the computer.

I recently used "clean: in command prompt for my external hard drive and now if I plug it in my computer just freezes s.

How to Reformat just one partition of an external hard drive.

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