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I've decided to give the 64bit Windows 7 RC a try. I was thinking of having two separate partitions, one for programs and my user data, the other for OS. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to do this? I have an older 250 GB HD (I still waiting for SSDs to get more reasonable). How large should I make the OS partition (Win 7 64 nead 20GB for install according to MS)?

Missed the edit time.

After doing a bit more research you need to keep app installs with the OS it appears. Would there even be any benefit to haveing a separate data partition on the drive (and the apparent hastle that goes with that), since I back up to an external HD weekly?

I snagged this quote. I have it in my sig in various places;

warrens @ ars technica forums wrote: "One Drive, One Partition, the One True Path" - ars technica forums - warrens - on hhd partitioning schemes.

Sure, you can have one partition on more than 1 drive (aka RAID), but you need to get into high end SANs and the like before this advice starts hitting it's limits.

Some laptops do not have 2 drives, but laptops are quitely simply unreliable as the entire device is a moving part and moving parts break. So any backup strategy has to be external to the laptop anyway.

If you have only one physical drive, make a data partition. I don't care what made-up rule some nerd spouted on the internet; when you OS inevitably breaks you'll be happy for the time you'll save not having to recopy everything from backups. The potential marginal performance increase from having just one partition can go fuck itself.

Wing Commander MAD wrote:I've decided to give the 64bit Windows 7 RC a try. I was thinking of having two separate partitions, one for programs and my user data, the other for OS. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to do this? I have an older 250 GB HD (I still waiting for SSDs to get more reasonable). How large should I make the OS partition (Win 7 64 nead 20GB for install according to MS)?

If you just want to make sure your files are backed up and safe just buy a regular old fashioned external drive. There's no reason to wait for an SSD drive to price-drop if all you need is storage when the performance/cost ratio will be negligible.

Win7 allows boot from VHD. So you have a single partition, and have the drive boot off the VHD file on the drive. If you need to reinstall, you nuke the VHD, and all your data is still there. Admittedly, this is something that only works with Ultimate, but that's fine for the RC.

Bounty wrote:If you have only one physical drive, make a data partition. I don't care what made-up rule some nerd spouted on the internet; when you OS inevitably breaks you'll be happy for the time you'll save not having to recopy everything from backups. The potential marginal performance increase from having just one partition can go fuck itself.

You don't have to format the whole drive to reinstall an operating system.


Shocking, I know.

Uraniun235 wrote:

Bounty wrote:If you have only one physical drive, make a data partition. I don't care what made-up rule some nerd spouted on the internet; when you OS inevitably breaks you'll be happy for the time you'll save not having to recopy everything from backups. The potential marginal performance increase from having just one partition can go fuck itself.

You don't have to format the whole drive to reinstall an operating system.


Shocking, I know.

I prefer clean slates.

Update:

I decided to simply go with one partition. I am likeing it so far, runs well and is quite stable. I do have a question though regarding doul booting. I know there are some apps that don't play well with 64bit OSs. Since the release of Win 7 comes with both 32bit and 64bit licenses (if memory serves), would it be possible/legal to have both 32bit and 64bit versions installed in a dual boot configuration to allow the advantages of 64bit for newer stuff, and for older stuff that doesn't work, run it on the 32bit version. Finally, I plan to get an SSD at some point in the future, and I figure that I'll probably install it along with my current HD. Is it possible have one OS loaded onto each HD and and doul boot, or are they required to be on the same HD?

Wing Commander MAD wrote:Update:

I decided to simply go with one partition. I am likeing it so far, runs well and is quite stable. I do have a question though regarding doul booting. I know there are some apps that don't play well with 64bit OSs. Since the release of Win 7 comes with both 32bit and 64bit licenses (if memory serves), would it be possible/legal to have both 32bit and 64bit versions installed in a dual boot configuration to allow the advantages of 64bit for newer stuff, and for older stuff that doesn't work, run it on the 32bit version. Finally, I plan to get an SSD at some point in the future, and I figure that I'll probably install it along with my current HD. Is it possible have one OS loaded onto each HD and and doul boot, or are they required to be on the same HD?

There are very few apps I've ran into that won't run well on 64-bit systems, and by and large those are older games. Unless you have apps you know you'll be using that won't run I wouldn't really suggest bothering with the dual boot solution.

If it won't run on 64 bit, chances are it's old enough to run well in a virtual machine.

As for dual-booting from another drive, I don't see why that wouldn't be possible, as long as your boot manager is on the right drive.

I used to think that multiple partitions were better from a data-security standpoint, but my current reason for doing so is compatibility. Some programs simply won't run on ubuntu, either via WINE or virtualbox, so I left the XP partition there for the sake of programs like D&D character builder and iriver plus 3. Bounty is probably right about a vm, but they won't necessarily work - some programs are just broken like that.

Well actually the main program I am concerned about at the moment is the orignal Neverwinter Nights. There's some speculation that the sequel might be patched to be compatible last I heard (though I don't yet own it). Then again the issue is installation of the program, so maybe its a Windows 7 issue (odd though as I've heard it worked on Vista 64bit and I thought generally speaking if it worked on Vista it'd work on Windows 7).

oh. Well, if it's neverwinter nights, then this thread should answer your questions (apparently it works alright).