Do I really Need To Partition (or have separate disc drives)?

These lists of how to setup/tweak xp for a DAW are mostly intimidating
me
just now because I haven't actually gone in and done anything yet .
One thing that I'm wondering about is the severity of the need to have
a distict hard drive for the system, and one for audio, or
partitioning a single hard drive into two drives ,respectively. Aside
from the logical desire to have your audio separate from the system in
case something happens.
So, I'm lazy and cheap and I won't be spending lots of time doing
music, or taking up lots of space (files), Kindly steer my thoughts
accordingly. . I'm thinking partition the one drive and
don't be afraid of the computer. (the computer should be afraid of
me ! lol)
thanks,

Dar

.