Partition question for producing music on a Windows 7 PC...

I am buying a new PC with Windows7 installed in it. I will have a 2 Terabyte hard disk, and I would like to know... for maximum performance, how should I partition the hard disk & what should I installed in each partition? For an example, I am thinking of creating 3 partitions... 1st partition: Install Win7 and Sonar in it. 2nd partition: Install VST, RTAS, and other effects. 3rd partition: This is where I saved all my Sonar projects / data. Or alternatively, if I am creating 2 partitions... 1st partition: Install Win7 and Sonar in it, together with VST, RTAS, and other effects. 2nd partition: This is where I saved all my Sonar projects / data. By the way, all this partitions is from the same physical hard disk, and I am using this computer purely just to produce music only. So how many partition is preferable and what should i install in each partition? Thanks for the advice.

May I know what is the purpose of 2 HD? Is it purely just for storage or is it for the purpose of installing Sonar & Windows on one hard disk, and then data on another hard disk? Thanks.

Well, it probably won't "suck" but there is a performance advantage to leaving the disk as one large partition, because larger cylinders mean fewer seeks. The only advantage to partitioning is more efficient use of the disk space. However, the efficiency advantage is greatest when you have a lot of small files, and of course audio files are not small. And with 2TB, it'll be quite some time before you ever see a "disk full" message.

For best performance, you'd do well to add another physical disk drive or even two. One for the O/S and applications, one for music projects, and the third for samples if you use them. 

I have a 500 gig main OS drive and two SSD drives, one for my Ivory II samples and one for my East West Symphonic Orchestra samples. This configuration works very well for me. I also have a second 500 gig drive I use for back up. So ya I've got 4 drives in my computer.

I have 2 500GB drives, one with windows 7 64 and another windows 7 32bit.
I have two sample/data drives. One terabyte is for drums only BFD2 (and many expansions) + Eco, EZdrummer and addictive drums. Another 500GB drive is for sonar's audio data as well as 
sampletank, hypersonic, native instruments komplete and a few others.
Ideally the sonar's audio content (my songs) would be better on their own drive.

The whole point of this method is to spread the load of disk streaming over several drives which helps reduce stress.

I have to say a 2 terabyte program drive is a little over the top. Partitioning a drive does nothing to reduce the stress as it is still one physical drive.

Steve