Should I Set Up Two Partitions on My Hard Disk?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Should I set up two partitions on my hard disk?

[00:00:06]Hi everyone, Leo Notenboom here for askleo.com.

[00:00:08]Here's a question I got I've just reformatted my hard drive into C and D partitions and I've gained a huge amount of speed from doing so.

[00:00:19]I would like to be able to load some applications under the D drive, which has room available, but even when I specify D, it seems to want to overload C.

[00:00:29]Can you please explain to me how I can better manage my resources?

[00:00:33]I'm winding up with C full I was originally trying to get the operating system on C and other programs on D so that I could reformat C by reloading the OS and not all the other programs.

[00:00:46]Many experts believe that splitting a single hard drive into two partitions improves speed, makes backups easier, and is generally the best thing since sliced bread.

[00:00:59]Me, I honestly don't think it adds a lot of benefit.

[00:01:04]Now.

[00:01:04]I seriously doubt that partitioning got you any significant speed boost.

[00:01:09]When you reformat a computer, there are so many things that get cleaned up and improved speed.

[00:01:15]For example, simply installing and running less software initially can make a huge difference, so I am not convinced that the partitioning had much of a speed impact at all.

[00:01:28]Some programs allow you to specify where they'll be installed when you run their setup.

[00:01:33]Some do not, and can only be installed where they insist on being installed.

[00:01:38]Typically the System Drive, also known as C.

[00:01:41]For the ones that do allow you to specify an alternate drive, say D.

[00:01:47]Many still install components on C anyway.

[00:01:53]The installation destination you specify only controls some of the files.

[00:01:58]Even those setups that copy all of their files to the location you specify still end up making changes to the System Registry.

[00:02:08]The C Drive the System Drive is special, important and special.

[00:02:16]After reformatting and reinstalling Windows on C, you're probably going to have to reinstall the applications you put on D anyway.

[00:02:26]When you reinstalled Windows, the information for each program in the System Registry, as well as any other files that they happen to place on C, disappeared.

[00:02:37]Installing applications to another drive buys you nothing when it comes time to reformat the system drive.

[00:02:43]The sole exceptions are what are called portable applications, which don't require running a setup program.

[00:02:50]Most major applications are not portable, and those that have portable versions are pretty clear about their availability.

[00:02:58]If you had to run a setup program, then you'll probably need to reinstall the program when you reformat and reinstall Windows, regardless of where you installed the application, my recommended approach remains using one partition per drive.

[00:03:16]Thus, I would not have partitioned your hard drive as you have.

[00:03:19]I'd have set up a single partition and reformatted and reinstalled to that.

[00:03:25]If you're just trying to organize your files, that's what folders are for.

[00:03:30]If you're trying to make the next reformat reinstall faster, well, by now you can see that you haven't. Not really.

[00:03:38]The best way to do that is to wait until after you've installed the system in your major applications and take a full system image backup when the time comes to start over, Use that image if you're trying to make backups easier, you're going to want to back up your data and your installed applications anyway.

[00:03:55]So even if you have two partitions, you'll want to back up both.

[00:04:00]A single partition means you'll back up everything in a single operation.

[00:04:05]There is one exception.

[00:04:07]If you have a lot of data not software, not programs, but data files such as videos, documents, MP3s, whatever, it can perhaps be useful to place them on a separate driver partition.

[00:04:20]That way, when you do reformat your system partition or restore it from a system image, you can leave the other driver partition untouched and preserve the data there.

[00:04:30]So you could use a second partition for that.

[00:04:32]If you like my recommendation in a situation like this, go for that second internal hard drive it if you've got that much data.

[00:04:40]This is one approach that actually could make for a noticeable speed increase.

[00:04:47]Unless you have a large amount of data that you might place on a second partition or hard drive, just leave your single drive as a single partition, making sure to back it up regularly.

[00:05:00]For updates, for comments or links to related topics and more, visit askleo.com/5378. I'm Leo Notenboom and this is askleo.com.

[00:05:12]Thanks for watching.