new install of windows 7, should I partition my HD?

[bertrenolds5]

Just delete all the partitions on your hard drive using the install cd and then click the new button and make just 1 partition and windows will automatically make a small partition buffer so you don't max your hardrive and cause problems. You could make a 16gb partition for your operating system so it runs a little faster but realistically it's not a big deal and if you run out of room on the operating system partition you've got problems. I always do 1 partition on laptops, just did 1 on my notebook the otherday. An advantage to the multiple partitions would be that if you ever corrupted you operating system you could just reinstall over you OS partition and still keep all your movies and pics on the drive without transferring them. Since I have a desktop I could care less about this and transferring fills off a corrupt hard drive is not that hard to do.

Just make a 40gb os partition and another partition for movies with whats left over, you might be happy you did later.