To Partition or Not to Partition: That is the question:

[Jeri]

A friend is performing a clean install of Win 7 Home on a 1 T HD. Is there any advantage to partitioning? Perhaps putting the OS/programs on one and all data on the other?

He purchased a WD black, so he can take advantage of the WD Acronis for creating images. Does this negate any advantage in partitioning?

As always - Thanks!

[jdeb]

I do not know about performance but creating an additional partition or partitions will help you with file management.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Originally Posted by Jeri Perhaps putting the OS/programs on one and all data on the other?

That is the very reason why you must partition it.

[Jeri]

How much space would you allot for the OS & Programs?

[glc]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader That is the very reason why you must partition it.

No, partitioning it is NOT a "must". It's completely optional and up to personal preference.

If you do partition it, the size of the system/apps partition is dependent on how much software you plan on installing. I wouldn't use less than 200gb. Fortunately, there is software available that can adjust partition sizes after the fact without losing data.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Having the personal data in a separate partition/drive than the OS and apps makes recovery from disaster much easier. It's a healthy practice, but OK, let's change 'must' to 'ought to'.