Recommended partition disk

The recommended partitioning is based on performance, but the performance numbers assume large numbers of users and much slower processors and disks than are currently available.  Exchange will install on a system with a single partition.

Actually, I would say there's only a performance gain from doing that if the partitions for the transaction files and the databases are on different physical hard drives--if they're on the same drive the access speed will be the same as if they were on the same partition.

It really depends how heavily loaded your Exchange server will be. In our company (around 50 users) the Exchange server runs on a Pentium II/400 with a single IDE hard drive and 512Mb RAM, and there have been no performance issues so far. However, if you're running 5000 users the situation becomes a little different!

Thanks guys,
My company are really not big, and the server I will use can handle the performance issues.
If the single HD of pjknibbs fails the exchange server information could not be restored.
What Im trying to do is prepare the new server in some way that if something happend I could restore it ASAP.
Ive read that Exchange could be restored with the transaction files. My problem is that I dont where to put the other files, in Which partition ??
WinNT will be installed on C:
Exchange on C:
Priv and PUB DB on D:

Do I need another partition ?




   

In order to restore Exchange, you need the pub.edb and the priv.edb files.  The logs are not critical, given that you have a light user load.  The odds are that the transaction logs have nothing in them that has not been posted to the db.   If you want to be able to recover quickly, why not consider RAID 1 or 5 on the server?

Ok,
I think that RAID 5 is a good option, thanks.
On the other hand, I agree with geoffryn, If you dont have the priv and pub files you are not able to restore exchange, but suppose this:
You do every x days a tape backup of the priv and pub files which are located in the D: disk (partition).
If your D disk fails, and your transaction files were located in the same disk you are no able to restore exchange, but if your transaction files were located in the C: or E: disk, you only need to restore the priv and pub files from the tape backup , and with the help of the transaction files you can restore exchange until the date  when the hard disk failed.
In conclusion its better to put in different disks (partitions) the priv and pub files from the transaction files.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
And, Does exist other critical files that I must consider to put in different partitions?
Thanks

You can always restore exchange without the transaction logs.  The logs are only necessary if you expect to have zero message loss.  If there are unposted messages in the transaction logs, and you do not restore the logs, you lose those messages.  It will not prevent you from restoring the the pub and priv.edb.  Given that you have a light user load, there will almost never be transactions pending in the logs.  It does not make sense to partition based on a need that does not exist.  You would be better off using the other disk to mirror rather than deicating a disk or partition to the log files.

My last question.
What about the large companies, how do they organize, a little example (reference) will help.

Thanks geoffryn for all your comments, is more clear now.