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On a FAT32 system, NEVER create a partition larger than 7 GB's. If you do, your
wasted space will increase from 4% to 10% due to cluster slack space. On an 8
GB partition, for example, this EXTRA wasted space would be 480 MB's. I don't
know what the rules are for an NT partition (NTFS). Also, a partition is a
PHYSICAL division, as opposed to a software one with a folder (or directory).
This means your data will be protected should you have trouble in a different
partition. This happened to me last year.
I plan to ADD 5 MORE partitions, giving me a total of 13, plus I have 2 more
(small blank unused) for accessing "hidden" backed up partitions. This will
give me a total of 15 partitions. Buy PartitionMagic 5 and ask them about
hidden partitions. Your hard drive (HDD) is the fastest device for creating
backups, unless of course it crashes. However, HDD's are extremely reliable if
you purchase a retail boxed version. Most HDD's have a MTBF of 300K hours.
That's 34 years, even you used it 24/7.
Right now, all I want is a 30 or 40 GB IDE HDD. Eventually, I'll buy a couple
Quantum SCSI-160 HDD's. They're coming out with great products now. I think,
for MS explorations, an Atlas 10K II is overkill. Also, since the Atlas 10K II
is going to be expensive, I expect you will buy only one. This means while you
are doing explorations, your other operations will be very slow.
Instead, you should buy two (or three) 9 GB Atlas V 7200 RPM. It is also a
SCSI-160 and has a maximum sustained data rate up to 29 MB/sec. This is a very
fast drive. If you have 2 or 3 of these, you will be able to place your O/S on
the first, other things on the second, and your MS database on the third. On
any system, IDE or SCSI, when you are doing explorations your CPU is only 30% or
less utilized. With the new CPU's coming now, utilization could be down to
10%. Using this configuration, you could do your explorations, browse the web,
and use Excel all at the same time. You would not notice any speed degradation
at all. Keep in mind you can connect up to 15 SCSI devices.
At http://www.pricewatch.com/ you can now buy a 9 GB Atlas V for only $245 or a
18 GB for $365. This is a very good deal. Expect these prices to come down
further when the IBM 70 GB IDE is released. Server operators are using IDE
drives, you can now buy IDE Raid PCI cards, and SCSI makers are being forced to
drop prices.
I have yet to find a motherboard maker which produces a SCSI-160 board. I want
to buy an Athlon SCSI-160 board which is DDR memory capable. Such a system will
fulfill my needs for a number of years.
Daniel.
Nicholas Kormanik wrote:
> Daniel: "I plan to buy a (much) larger drive in the future.... using at
> least 5 partitions."
>
> Do you think from a speed standpoint that partitions would matter? In other
> words, a one partition system would be significantly faster than a
> multi-partition system? Or vice versa?
>
> I've been waiting for the new Quantum Atlas 10K II, with its 8 meg
> buffer --- due out in April
> (http://www.quantum.com/products/hdd/atlas_10kii/atlas_10kii_overview.htm).
> I then want to build a new system around that new drive, preferably buying a
> mother board that supports the Ultra160 SCSI, but if no great mother board
> is available, then using one of Adaptec's cards
> (http://www.targetpages.com/adaptec/gotscsi/index.html?src=16&sess=GS3895093
> 8ef461). I'd go with a PIII as fast as I can afford, full of memory. I'm
> hoping that this will speed up the MS explorations, and symbol switching
> through multi-page layouts.
>
> What are you looking at?
>
> Nicholas
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