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hard drive partitions

moqel
Level 7
I am new a user of G74SX. Two questions bug me:

1) Can someone explain to me why my hard drive is broken down into 3 parts:
- OS (C) 440GB
- SDATA1 (D) 232GB
- SDATA2 (E) 232GB

2) Normally laptop runs quietly. However, once I try to open SDATA1 (D) noise level arises and I can hear and feel the hard drive spinning. Noise and vibration are slight, but it puzzles me that it never happens when I access two other partitions, only this one.

Thanks, from Moqel
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12 REPLIES 12

xeromist
Moderator
What is on your D drive? If you have a lot of small files or compressed archives your computer may be trying to read them all. Possibly you might have an anti virus scanner trying to read the files as well?
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

Granny_Geek
Level 7
I also have a new G74SX. I have no problems with the drives, or any other part of the computer - yet. I don't understand why the 2nd drive is partitioned. I know I can change it, but I have to believe there is a reason ASUS did that. Would someone please explain?

Thank you.

I have no idea why ASUS does anything, lol.

But I DO know why I like to have big drives partitioned into smaller logical drives. 1.) Organizational - one partition could be Games, the other Documents. 2.) smaller logical drives defragment faster. 3.) I make backups with Acronis TrueImage and its easier/faster to make backups of smaller partitions that only have what you want to backup instead of EVERYTHING.
Read the User's Manual for more info. 😄



G74SX-A1 BIOS 203
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Chastity
Level 10
It's a legacy setup from 1 HDD systems, so that you can have storage areas. I just merge the 2 into one 🙂
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Retired
Not applicable
Hello, folks. I hope you don't mind me replying to this thread with a similar issue rather than creating a new one. I have a G73JW-A1 and noticed a few things recently, and I was hoping to get some questions answered here.

It appears my G73 has two HDDs. Disk Management shows these as Disk 0 (22 GB hidden, 116 GB OS C:, and 328 GB DATA D:) and Disk 1 (232 GB SDATA1 F: and 232 GB SDATA2 G:), with their respective partitions as noted.

To date, all program that I have installed have been installed onto OS (C:), only because I let the programs use their default locations. Additionally, these programs are either installed into the Program Files or the Program Files (x86) folders.

The OS (C:) drive was over 90% full recently untill I moved all the documents folders, etc., over to the DATA (D:) drive.

So, here are my questions...

1) What does "SDATA" mean? What these drives just partioned space on a separate drive?

2) Do I have to install games and other programs onto the OS (C:) drive? What happens if I reinstall them onto other drives? Is game performance effected?

3) What are your recommendations for my drive partitions and how I should install game programs?

Thanks for your help!

nickcarin wrote:
So, here are my questions...

1) What does "SDATA" mean? What these drives just partioned space on a separate drive?

2) Do I have to install games and other programs onto the OS (C:) drive? What happens if I reinstall them onto other drives? Is game performance effected?

3) What are your recommendations for my drive partitions and how I should install game programs?

Thanks for your help!

SDATA doesn't "mean" anything. It's just the volume name. (You can change the names to something more intuitive, if your like.) "Disc" in Disc Management refers to a physical disc in your machine, while "Drive" and "Volume" refer to a partition on one of those discs. Is that what you're asking in your first question?

When you install a program, it goes to the OS drive in one of the program folders that you mentioned. There's no reason not to let them install there, though you can put them elsewhere if you want. What's good practice, though, for programs that accumulate and use a lot of data, is to set the program to store that on a different partition.

My general recommendation would be to have an OS partition in the 100-250Gb range....that should be more than adequate room for all the programs you're ever going to install, without being so large that it's tedious and cumbersome to back up regularly. (It's a good idea to run a system image of your OS drive regularly.)

Beyond that, organize partitions in whatever manner seems most efficient and intuitive for you and the way you use your computer. On mine, most of the second hard drive is used for a music partition, with the rest (150Gb) taken up by a partition I use for backups....that's where I save a monthly system image of the OS drive. Because I wanted to use most of the second hard drive for music, I put all other data (My Documents, My Pictures, etc.) in a partition on Disc 0, next to the OS partition.

But that's customized for my preferences. You can use as many partitions as you like, in whatever sizes suit you. The partition advice that really applies more broadly is the limited OS drive....I think that's a good idea for everybody.

JRd1st
Level 12
Actually, if he plays Steam games installing to a different drive isn't a bad idea because if he does a clean install, all he needs to do afterwards is to start Steam and let it put icons for his games om his desktop with no reinstalling of games. Any Direst X needs will be taken care of when he tries to start the game.

ALSO, for people that like to image their disks/partitions for backup purposes, putting games on a separate volume saves a LOT of time and backup size.
Read the User's Manual for more info. 😄



G74SX-A1 BIOS 203
Intel 6230 WiFi/BT
LG E2350 LED LCD Monitor
Intel Series 510 120 GB SSD

Drivers, Apps and How To's
Latest nVidia Drivers

JRd1st on DeviantArt.com

JRd1st wrote:
Actually, if he plays Steam games installing to a different drive isn't a bad idea because if he does a clean install, all he needs to do afterwards is to start Steam and let it put icons for his games om his desktop with no reinstalling of games. Any Direst X needs will be taken care of when he tries to start the game.

ALSO, for people that like to image their disks/partitions for backup purposes, putting games on a separate volume saves a LOT of time and backup size.


in my case, 2 hd, 4 partitions 250gb each. stupid on one hand, nice on the other..

BrodyBoy
Level 10
As I said, you can install programs wherever you want. The drawback for most programs, though, if you do decide to install them elsewhere, is that they will need to be re-installed if you ever do a clean Windows install. Whether that's a concern depends on your setup and whether you're the sort of user that will ever do a clean install. (I don't think most users ever do.)

In my experience, any OS drive up to ~200-250 is manageable in terms of easy system imaging. (Mine run in the background once a week and I never even notice.) The real problems arise when people leave an entire big drive....like 500-750Gb for the OS drive. That results in huge system images and difficulties if you ever want to transfer your installation to a smaller drive. It also just seems like sloppy organization to me..... 😉