Partitioning The Hard Disk Increases Performance And Organization, Even For Today's Casual PC User

Part 3: Organize Your Thoughts

Here's how one partitioning scenario might play out. A user buys a new computer with a 100 Gb hard disk. Now, they could simply leave it like that, but over time files on that disk will become fragmented and decrease the system's performance. If the user chooses to defragment the drive, it is likely to take many hours to complete the task. However, if the user created a separate partition just for their user data — let's say a 33 Gb partition, they just reduced the time that their system will be out of service significantly. Remember that even though a part of that 100 Gb drive will be empty, defragmenting software will still look at every sector to make sure there's no data there that's out of place. Also, since the data is on a separate disk partition, which looks to the system like an additional logical disk drive, only the data on that one partition will be optimized.

If the user made three 33.33 Gb drives, they could put their video files or MP3 on the third partition. These files tend to be read-only, so once that partition is optimized, it stays that way.

From a purely organizational standpoint, organizing a drive for different uses, such as system files, data files, video files and MP3 files, makes it easier to find the file you need.

You might also want to partition a disk if more than one person uses that system, e.g., when a computer is used by employees on different shifts or those who work on multiple projects and they need a method of segregating their data beyond simple folders.

Creating multiple partitions is also a good idea for those who want to create a back-up of their system partition. This is particularly advisable for those with relatively stable systems, where the back-up partition can house a copy of all system files. However, it's also appropriate for those who make frequent changes to their system, where a copy of the system partition can be used to restore a disk drive that suffers from a corrupt system file.

Security is another reason why you might want to keep your data and system files separate. Let's say you partitioned your disk drive so that your system and application files are drive C and your data on logical drive D. Should your C drive fail due to a corrupted FAT table, for example, your data will still be safe. (In fact, most systems create two versions of the FAT for each partition so that if one fails, the other is likely to be intact. Windows generally can restore the damaged FAT by copying over it with the valid table.)