Clean install and partition

[Sevada]

Hey guys, I have decided to do a clean Win 7 install. I do it pretty much every year.

Now, this might sound stupid, but I have always used a single partition. I have had my PC for about 5 years now, and haven't had any disc problems. For this clean install, I thought I'd go for 3 partitions, just to try it out and see if it increases my PC's performance. I have a 750GB hard drive. I thought it would be a good idea to go for C: Windows, D: Programs and games E: Documents, music, downloads etc.

I have however stumbled upon a problem; I have no idea how much space to allocate to each partition...I was thinking C: 40/50GB, D: 40/50GB, and the rest for E.

So, what are your thoughts, should I go for more or less for each?

Btw, my 750GB hard drive is displayed as 690GB in windows explorer, why is that?

EDIT: yes, some of you might think: "get yourself an SSD, it's faster!". I do want that, I am just not in a good financial position now. That kind of upgrade is for later.

[enaberif]

Won't gain any performance at all from partitioning a drive just leave it as a single partition.

Same reason why a 320gb drive shows up as 290gb

[On2wheels]

I do exactly what you're planning, have done it for a few years, no performance gains, only convenience. My Win7 OS partition is 40gb, misc file storage is 200gb, remaining space is split between 2 smaller partitions for steam games and other programs, but I may consolidate them into one for a total of 3 partitions.

[Shadowmeph]

Like everyone else has said there is no performance increase ,at least as far as I have seen in the past but I used to and with my ssd still do have just my OS and a few games and maybe some doc on my main drive and everything else goes on seperate drives . Before when I used to have a single drive I would baiscally do the same it just saved me the headache of reinstalling all of my software lol.

[Sevada]

Thanks guys, I went ahead and made 3 partition. I figured I should try and see for myself.

Here is a different question. I have one 750gb HDD. And I am planning on adding a 128gb SSD in a few months. I got windows installed on C. When I add the SSD, can I install a clean Win 7 on that SSD drive and format only partition C without losing everything on partition D and E?

[frontier204]

Originally Posted by Sevada

Here is a different question. I have one 750gb HDD. And I am planning on adding a 128gb SSD in a few months. I got windows installed on C. When I add the SSD, can I install a clean Win 7 on that SSD drive and format only partition C without losing everything on partition D and E?

That's exactly what I did (except with 1 TB hard disk instead). You will however want to make sure the installer doesn't "see" your old C partition, either by deleting it or installing with the hard drive unplugged so you don't get two OS on your computer (the SSD install and the HDD install).
If one of those secondary partitions has programs on it, you may still have to reinstall because you lose registry entries and whatnot that are always stored on your OS partition.

[Sevada]

Originally Posted by frontier204

That's exactly what I did (except with 1 TB hard disk instead). You will however want to make sure the installer doesn't "see" your old C partition, either by deleting it or installing with the hard drive unplugged so you don't get two OS on your computer (the SSD install and the HDD install).
If one of those secondary partitions has programs on it, you may still have to reinstall because you lose registry entries and whatnot that are always stored on your OS partition.

Hmm I think it's okay since I installed windows 7 on C, programs and games on D, and everything else (movies, downloads, files) are on E. I am okay with formatting both C and D, because I want to install both Windows 7 and all the programs on the SSD to make them run faster and reserve 750GB for misc.