[FLACer]

I picked up an 1 TB external hard drive to have for extra storage/backup of videos, pictures and music and I'm looking for some suggestions on whether or not I should partition it and, if so, what the best arrangement would be. (e.g., four primary partitions or one primary partition with several extended partitions)

I know that generally the answer would "just depend", but I'm simply looking to get the most flexibility out of the partition structure without inadvertently painting myself into a corner somewhere down the road.

Thanks!

 

[scrooloose]

Format it as one big drive and use folders to organize your data.

-Mike

 

[ScaryBob]

I usually just create one large NTFS partition. That offers the most flexibility.

The only exception is if I want to create an emergency boot USB hard drive. In that case, create a small active primary partition, about 25GB-50GB and make the rest of the disk one large partition. Installing an O/S may require that the disk be connected using eSATA or SATA (especially for Windows.) It can boot with USB. That can have unintended side effects, like having the PC boot from the wrong drive, so I don't do that unless required. These days, I usually use a DVD or flash drive for emergency purposes.