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Computer Experts - need advice please


260ZRED

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Here my question:

 

Does partitioning a hard drive hurt the performance of the 2 different partitions?

 

I.E. If one of the partitions is allowed to accept all cookies, all updates, a whoke bunch of install'd programs (flash, possibly spyware, adware, ETC); and the other partition is kept clutter free... will that hurt the performance of the "free" partition? (besides from having less HD space of course)

 

Thanks in advance for your replys (anything will help greatly)

 

Igor

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Overal performance will improve. Once you set up your partitions, temporarily turn off virtual memory and soft reboot. Defrag the primary partition (where your OS is) a couple of times and reboot again. Defrag that partition one more time, then set your virtual memory to 1.5x your total RAM. Example: If you have 1 GB RAM, then set VM to 1.5 GB for BOTH MIN and MAX. HOWEVER... I would NOT set my VM lower than 500 MB no matter what.

 

This procedure will cause Windows to create it's own quasi-partition for your swap file. It stays in one place, is kept contiguous, and nothing else is ever written to that section of the HD.

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The partitioning of the drive in itself wont hurt the performance, however since it is the same drive, it wont help either.

i.e. :

If its partitioned as C and D, and you are copying a large file to C.. WHILE its copying, the D will be slower because its working on the C partition.

 

If you have 2 SEPARATE drives, copying from one drive to another will be faster than copying from 1 partition to the other.

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redruM is right. However, minimizing fragmentation of the partition where your OS resides and will enhance performance and minimize OS errors. It's true that performance (speed) will be enhanced further by spreading your OS swap file among multiple drives and the same holds true for any application that uses virtual memory... Photoshop and 3D Studio Max are two examples that could benefit from this. That said, your maximum gain regarding HD performance is to follow the above procedures with a RAID array with 4+ drives.

 

BTW, what apps are you running? Some of this may be a waste for your purposes.

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However, minimizing fragmentation of the partition where your OS resides and will enhance performance and minimize OS errors.

I would strongly recommend against defragging your OS partition using any utility including Microsoft’s own.

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Hi SuperDan

 

I said to "temporarily turn off" the swap file, THEN defrag in preparation for a FIXED SIZE CONTIGUOUS swap file that will never move or be molested by anything:D This works.

 

Mike

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I say this as an "expert" myself ;), but wouldnt you expect experts all to have the same answer ?

 

If you're expecting the second partition to be protected from anything malicious on the first partition, it's going to depend on wether or not a drive on the second partition is visible to the first.

 

If your first partition has your C drive and your second partition has your D drive, all malware or a virus has to do is look for any drive letters available in your system.

 

The answer depends on the types of partitions, wether they're boot partitions or not, and how drives are set up on each partition. More information than you've provided I'm afraid

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Ok, I don’t want to get into the “real world” examples of why this is a bad idea and how a very large company that I work for (where we measure the number of Wintel servers and desktops that we support in the millions worldwide) never runs defrag on any servers or desktops and we have removed the defrag utility from all of our SOE builds.

I will just throw a word of caution out there then.

If you decide to use this common approach to increasing the performance of your system then I would also recommend that before you run defrag that you check to make sure that “Write caching“ is disabled on your hardrive.

Most hard disks now days have that feature and are enabled by default during the OS install.

 

Also, if you want to get any kind of performance benefit from partintiong your physical drive into 2 separate logical drives then:

1. Install your OS on your C: drive as usual.

2. Install all your applications onto the second partition only

3. And defrag only the volume containing your programs thereafter.

 

Just my .02

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SteelToad... Malware is yet another issue. IMHO, the only way to TRULY "protect" data on a secondary HD is to UNPLUG it or have a second PC to which you NEVER connect a network or the internet and with which you NEVER trade files;)

 

That stated, if malware is now the issue, then buy the best AV and spyware/malware SW you can find and keep them all up-to-date. Even then, you're only 80 percent protected:confused2 ... just MHO:cool:

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I've never had a problem... but SuperDan is right about turning off the HD write caching for added safety. That said... I don't turn off my write caching and have never had a problem. You must remember that SuperDan is WAY above most of us in knowing how to "bullet-proof" a system. In his realm, there must be NO POSIBILITY of data loss on servers. After all, where would you and I be if hybridz lost its data?!?!

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Defragmenting...

 

Imagine somebody has taken all of the files in your fileroom out of their cabinets and left them all around the room. Your job is to put them all nice and neatly in the file cabinets filling one cabinet at a time leaving some cabinets completely empty to be filled later.

 

To describe what SuperDan is talking about, imagine people are removing files, bringing in files you didnt have originally, adding new files, and changing files while you're trying to tidy it all up. The write caching he's talking about is analogous to you quitting at 5:00 and people can keep messing up the files all evening after you've left.

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When I said "affect performance" I really meant "Will that spyware/adware/100 installed programs I dont need have a chance in hell of making it over to MY partition to make is slow?"

 

This computer will be for 2 users. I just want to run 1-2 programs and insall nothing.. no updates.. no-no-no nothing! The other user typically has over 40 programs running in the background, and at least 4 various file sharing clients, not to mention copious amounts of spyware/adware and latest versions of flash, winblows media player, etc.

 

Is the only way out to buy a 2nd PC or does partitioning work in THAT regard for my purpose?

 

Thanks again for all your replies. I guess I had a different perspective on performance.. to me a CLEAN and clutter free system IS 'performance' as most of the people I know cant make use of what they have already! My own 1.3Ghz Athlon PC, 224mb ram, boots windows xp from a cold start in under 18 seconds, while my friends P4 2.8 Ghz, 512mb ram takes ~5 minutes!! (because of the above mentioned "upgrades")

 

Thanks,

Igor

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260ZRED... I think I understand what your intentions are. I've said my piece and am done. I'm no "expert" just a long-time PC user with a few skills. I doubt you need anymore input from me.

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260ZRED... You'll need a separate "boot" partition to avoid your friend's gazillion programs from bogging you down. But, if you REALLY want to play it safe, buy a separate HD, install a completely fresh OS and your apps, and unplug the other user's HD before booting.

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I guess I should be a little less vague in my posts and not throw out my recommendations without backing them up.

That is pretty weak on my part and if I was someone else reading my posts I would have to think to myself “who the hell are you? Why should I listen to you?”

I am no expert, just been in IT for a very long time, almost 22 years now.

So let me finish up by saying that Mike is correct in stating that by creating a fixed size contiguous virtual memory file does increase system performance. I did not mean to imply that it does not, sorry my bad.

Also regarding write cache, I forgot to mention above to re-enable that feature once you have finished with the defragmentation process, if you do not you will most likely suffer a serious performance penalty, depending on the applications that you use.

 

From a personal perspective here is how I do things.

I have 2 PC’s that I use for myself:

PC1 is my gaming computer, it’s built to the hilt for pure performance and a blatant disregard for stability and data preservation. Things like RAID 0 disks, write caching on, the latest beta drivers for video and chipset etc. I also defrag it often to help reduce load times. Other misc things, this computer lives on the edge of a serious meltdown.

 

PC2 is were my work is, no write caching, only Microsoft blessed drivers, RAID 1, no defragmentation , nightly backups.

 

There is always a middle ground that you can live in were you can have speed and reliability but for myself I have decided to sacrifice speed for reliability with my important data.

Besides, it has taken years to build my porn collection back up to good size again after that “write cache” incident a few years ago. :lol:

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