wwp8

why do new laptops have their hdd already partitoned 50/50?

spectrum48k

this isn't always the case

Sometimes, the 2nd partition can be used to store recovery information, that can be used to reset the laptop back to "showroom condition". Dell do this for example.

Also, its a good idea to store your virtual memory on a separate parition to avoid fragmentation / slowdown.

There is paritioning software that lets you dynamically change the partitions to something more preferrable, but you must know what you're doing or you can mess things up.

wwp8

the laptops i see
ie.. 200gb,, 10gb for recovery then about 95/95 on 2 partitions

spectrum48k

could be the manufacturer formatted the partition(s) in FAT32

which imposes a 32GB limit if I remember rightly ?

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

It's probably because of a lot of people like split drives. I always split mine, but usually about 75:25. Main partition for OS, programs etc, smaller partition for data which I don't want to lose if I have to reformat C:\ (occupational hazard of overclocking). I've never used one of those stupid recovery disk systems, but I'd guess that when you do, C:\ gets trashed but D:\ gets left alone, so can be used as safe storage.


M

Sonic'

Same here, I always split mine too for the same reasons as Meridian, although I make the OS drive smaller and usually create a ghost image of it onto my 'D' drive once its all setup with all my apps on etc

Makes it so much easier to backup your data and restore your system if ever needed

jowl

What Sonic said!

Good good size but smaller sys partition, Large data partition. I often use DriveImageXML these days but it's a similar thing.

Going to put my System drive in a RAID system this time (mirror) - although I'm not sure if it's totally necessary as I'll have a backup image that is quick to restore anyway, Having said that, it's always slightly out-of-date at least.