A boot drive, sometimes also called a boot device, is hardware required to start or boot your computer. It tells the computer to use a specific operating system to start and run the machine.
Usually, boot drives are internal to the computer, like an internal hard drive. Sometimes, however, an external drive can be used to boot up a system. Common external boot sources include:
External hard drive.
Optical drive (CD-ROM or DVD).
USB device/jump drive.
Network adapter.
Boot chip (common in phones).
Your hard drive is essentially a series of super thin disks stacked one on top of each other. When your system runs programs and retrieves data for you, it has to move back and forth across all those disks to perform its required tasks.
When you partition the hard drive, your computer only has to look at chunks of the drive at any one time. The drive heads aren’t moving around constantly trying to locate bits of information because that data is neatly stored in smaller compartments.
This efficiency translates to fewer micro delays, which in turn adds up to faster overall performance. Saving this time can really make a difference when it comes to gaming or using graphics-heavy programs.
Do you ever have trouble remembering where you stored things on your computer? Partitioning your boot drive can help with that because it lets you sort your storage by categories.
You may just want one partition for your operating system and programs and a second for your data. However, you may desire to further compartmentalize your drive sorting by:
Documents.
Photos.
Videos and films.
Podcasts.
Music.
Games.
Backup data.
The bigger your hard drive (such as over 1TB), the more you want to sort your files by type in different drive partitions. Likewise, if you store a lot of graphics-heavy material, such as if you’re a professional photographer, partitions can be your friend.
Separation of Business and Personal Functions
If you use one laptop for both business and personal functions, you don’t want to mix data and programs between the two. Organizing your boot drive into sections lets you keep them separate. This makes both sides more efficient and reduces the risk for you.
If you keep data for your employer or clients on your machine, you don’t want to chance that a personal program could damage them. Conversely, you wouldn’t want a corrupt work file to ruin your personal stuff.
First, you need to make sure you have enough space to bother partitioning your drive. If your machine is older, you may need to upgrade or replace the hard drive with a larger one.
If you are already reaching the limits of your boot drive but can’t make changes, think about alternatives. Could you delete old files and programs you no longer need? Could you archive old data to external or Cloud storage to make more room?
Don’t Wait to Get Organized
If you have a new computer system without much on it yet, now is the ideal time to organize your drive. It’s easier to create partitions and put new files there as you acquire them than to move existing files.
Do you have an overloaded email inbox with thousands of messages you keep meaning to deal with? Don’t let your new hard drive get like that.
Plan Ahead
Before you do anything else, think about how you intend to use your computer. Again, it’s easier to put your files where you want them for the first time than to relocate them later.
Give thought to how you want to partition your boot drive, such as:
Is there data you need to encrypt?
Do you need to separate data for different users?
Is your computer for both work and personal use?
Do you do a lot of gaming?
Is your storage heavy on graphics and video files?
Do you want to run multiple operating systems?
How many partitions do you need?
Where could you use folders instead of partitions?
Remember that not all files take up the same amount of space. Videos, for example, use more hard drive space than emails or word processing documents. You don’t necessarily need to divide your hard drive into equal segments.
Make Notes
As you divide up your boot drive, especially if you’re moving around a lot of existing files, take copious notes. You might think you’ll remember where everything is, but you might not. Leave yourself a list of what went where, at least until you use the new method for a while.