windows - Advantages/Disadvantages of Partitioning a Drive

I have a 100GB hard drive in my Win XP Pro desktop. I use an external 250GB drive for backups, and am wondering if there would be any advantages to partitioning my internal hard drive.

I understand that some people like to keep their OS and programs on one partition, and their data on another partion on the same hard drive.

I'd like people to list the advantages, or note any disadvantages.

Thanks.

Answer

I strongly recommend you to do the partitioning. It makes sense.

Advantages

1. Formatting Convenience - If you ever need to format, you do not have to copy your data out first since it resides on another partition. You can just format the OS partition.


2. Increased Security - There is increased data security, since your data is now on another partition. Malware that affects or scan files on only one single drive will not scan your data partition.


3. Improved Performance - you can defragment your OS drive for max performance, and not worry about it being fragmented so fast, since data (where it changes the most), resides on another partition.

Disadvantages

1. Slower Data Moves - Moving data from one partition to another takes awhile, unlike moves in the same partition.


2. Set-up Inconvenience - There are advisable steps to do in order to let your OS use the other partition as data effectively without impacting your workflow. e.g Moving your My Documents folder to the other partition.


3. Reduced Space - When you have 2 partitions, some space is lost.

That said, you definitely should partition. In fact, I recommend THREE partitions. OS, DATA, CACHE. Been following this style for years, and never regretted.