Help me partition my drives!

So. I’m about to reformat my computer and all of its drives, and I was thinking about doing a little repartitioning. I was curious as to how everybody else has their drives partitioned, and was wondering if anybody had any suggestions for me.

I have two separate IDE hard disks, consisting of a 140gb drive and a 40gb drive. I think I’m going to ditch the 40gb one, as I have two additional 500gb SATA harddrives on the way, and the 40gb one is getting pretty old and I just don’t trust it anymore. 4 separate hard disks in a single computer case is just a little much, too.

Originally Posted by My current setup

140gb – 3 drives:
Main – 20gb. (Mainly the Windows installation and all of the programs I have installed. Also includes many misc. MS Office documents I have and all of my pictures.)
Music – 35gb (Um. My music.)
Video – 85gb (Couple videos I have *cough*porn*cough*, and is also the designated drive for any temporary downloads from programs such as torrents or P2P programs.)

40gb - 1 drive:
Game – 40gb (Basically Quake III, PSP .iso’s and some emulators.)

I remember reading a while ago that it is generally a good idea to have a partition dedicated to only your operating system installation, and a separate partition for any programs you may want to install. I was curious about this, as I wondered if it would make my computer boot up faster, run more smoothly, or anything.

Anyways. I was basically just wondering what the best way to partition my drives would be. I understand that there is most likely no real answer and it is probably different for everybody, but I just want some suggestions or alternatives to how I’m doing it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh awesome. I think what I am mainly trying to accomplish here is improved system performance. I've never heard of this 'pagefile' you guys were talking about, but I researched it a little and it sounds like it is a pretty common practice to have a partition dedicated to this. Sounds like it really helps to have this separate from the systems partition. Would moving certain things like the TEMP folder and any temporary internet files onto this partition also help attain better performance as well?

I was also thinking about also setting up a RAID, but this is something I've never done before, and don't really know how to approach it. I would most likely go between a RAID level 0 or 1, but don't know which is better, or genuinely used more :/. And why can't you do a RAID1 with XP?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Ok - let me get this straight.

RAID will increase my read/write speeds and overall system performance, but not significantly enough to justify its use? What I got from everybody’s posts was that a major con of RAID is essentially doubling the chance of having a hard disk failure and losing data, and the costs involved from the purchase of an additional drive, right? How many people here actually use RAID on their home PC?

It sounds like what I might just end up doing is just creating a partition for my system installation and programs (since you guys said separating them doesn’t really do anything), and another for my pagefile. Would placing the TEMP folder as well as the temporary internet files into the same partition as the pagefile be of benefit, perhaps keep my system installation partition a little cleaner and more organized? How much space would be appropriate to allot to these two partitions?

Thanks a lot guys. You don’t know how much you’re helping me.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well...I wasn't sure. I've heard so many positive things about RAID, but then Free.User gave that article saying that it may not be such a hot idea for a home pc :/. One of my buddies has it and absolutely loves it. Maybe I'll give it a try. What's the difference between a software RAID and a regular RAID? Or are they the same thing...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?