Not for performance improvement. But as somene else already mentioned there are many benefits:

Let's say you have C: and D:
(1) iF your C: gets wiped out by virus, your data still in D:, you can just restored a recovery image like Acronis, Norton etc.

(2) If you have an E:, you can do multi O/S partitioning.( I put Vista on my E:)

(3) If you change mobo, you can back up an image of the old mobo to D: (very important), format the C:, re-install for your new mobo, and your data and hard disk image in D: still intact. In fact, i've been doing so much of this shit previously coz I change my mobo and it has problems and i keep restoring from my D: drive to my C: drive to identify the problem (which is finally solved, not sure what happens, but most likely a dodgy windows update).
Now, imagine if i only have 1 partition....restoring from DVD's takes forever while restoring from hard disk only takes minutes.

My advice: if you only has 1 HDD, partition it!!!

This post has been edited by Matrix: Dec 30 2007, 08:29 AM

You use those "Recovery CD" that comes with ur notebook...which is more like "Destroyer CD"!!!

if you use software like Acronis, you can do:
(1) Just backup image of C: drive, when you restore, just restore C:, without touching D:. In fact, you can boot up from the Acronis boot CD and restore the image from D: to C:.

(2) You don't even need a CD. If you have enuff space, create an Acronis secure Zone ( a hidden partition that can't been seen in the O/S), backup ur image there. When u boot up, press F11 and it'll boot to Acronis and you can restore your PC from the Secure Zone. In fact, i've made one on my laptop.

(3) Another advantage. You install ur PC with all the neccessary drivers, additional drivers and software (say MS OFFICE) and backup it up. Next time you restore, u basically have a ready to go PC in minutes without installing anything extra.