Hard drives partitioning question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aradur
  • Start date Start date
A

Aradur

Been lurking in newsgroups and have just realised its a good idea to have
additional partitions on hard drives.

Glad to have opinion/ideas on how best to manage this.

I have two NTFS hard drives, neither of which have more than one
partition...and both only about 5% used at the mo:-

C: 120gb on which is Windows XP pro, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MS
Office, PaintShop Pro, Norton Utilities, Norton Anti Virus and a few other
minor programs

F: 60gb used just for backing up - copies of My Docs, My pics etc

Was thinking changes along the following lines but would welcome comment
from experienced members:-

C: Partition into 1 x 10gb for Windows XP Pro,

1 x 50gb for Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MS Office, PaintShop Pro,
Norton Utilities, Norton Anti Virus and a few other minor programs and any
additional progs added from time to time

1 x 60gb for data for the above programs

F: Partition into 2 x 30gb for backing up - not sure why though :)

Notes.

1. I'm not a gamer

2. Will it be ok to keep the swap file on the XP partition or is it a good
idea to have dedicated partition for that?

3.Do I need to, or will it be best to start with a clean sheet - ie reformat
the drives, reload windows to the one and then allocate the partitions or is
it possible to/uncomplicated to add the partitions to the drives as they are
now? However I partition either or both drives I'd prefer not to use Fdisk
or other software prog as have had zero experience with - wish to use the XP
pro disc management that seemed to be user friendly when I fixed the two
hard drives a week or so ago.

Many thanks,

Pete
 
Aradur said:
Been lurking in newsgroups and have just realised its a good idea to have
additional partitions on hard drives.

Glad to have opinion/ideas on how best to manage this.

I have two NTFS hard drives, neither of which have more than one
partition...and both only about 5% used at the mo:-

C: 120gb on which is Windows XP pro, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MS
Office, PaintShop Pro, Norton Utilities, Norton Anti Virus and a few other
minor programs

F: 60gb used just for backing up - copies of My Docs, My pics etc

Was thinking changes along the following lines but would welcome comment
from experienced members:-

C: Partition into 1 x 10gb for Windows XP Pro,

1 x 50gb for Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MS Office, PaintShop Pro,
Norton Utilities, Norton Anti Virus and a few other minor programs and any
additional progs added from time to time

1 x 60gb for data for the above programs

F: Partition into 2 x 30gb for backing up - not sure why though :)

Notes.

1. I'm not a gamer

2. Will it be ok to keep the swap file on the XP partition or is it a good
idea to have dedicated partition for that?

3.Do I need to, or will it be best to start with a clean sheet - ie reformat
the drives, reload windows to the one and then allocate the partitions or is
it possible to/uncomplicated to add the partitions to the drives as they are
now? However I partition either or both drives I'd prefer not to use Fdisk
or other software prog as have had zero experience with - wish to use the XP
pro disc management that seemed to be user friendly when I fixed the two
hard drives a week or so ago.

Many thanks,
Click to expand...
Hi Pete,

So many questions! You should get about 2 k of answers or
recommendations since we all have different equipment and work
with computers in a different manner.

This is not a recommendation - it is how I like to set up my
computers.

Two hard drives equal size. C drive holds everything. D drive
is a ghost of C drive.

Using Norton's Ghost program I copy C drive to D drive each
weekend. If any problems come to light on C drive I just run the
Ghost program from D to C drive. With using the Norton's Ghost
program you really have two complete drives.

If you have software problems on C drive (and who doesn't) you
just use the Ghost program to copy to D drive (your complete
backup disk) to C drive.

If C drive hard crashes then you can just change the cables in
the computer and make it C drive until you replace the crashed
drive.

I do a C to D drive copy before any major software installation.
I set the swap file to D drive.

Hope you get more and more recommendations.

Bq
 
I recently upgraded my hard disk to a larger one and tried to ghost the old
drive to the new one. Having trouble booting to the "new" drive.
I understand with XP there is some tweaking one must do to get this to work
correctly. Any hints/tips?
JD
 
James D said:
I recently upgraded my hard disk to a larger one and tried to ghost the old
drive to the new one. Having trouble booting to the "new" drive.
I understand with XP there is some tweaking one must do to get this to work
correctly. Any hints/tips?
JD
Click to expand...

James I am using the Ghost program that came in the 2003 Norton
Utilities Suit Pro. There was a registry change that I got from
Symantec support. I told them the problem via email and had an
answer back in 24 hours. While I could send you the small
registry change they sent me I would rather not since it may
crash your system. I recommend you go to Symantec and asked them
for the solution to your problem since your hard disks are not
equal in size and I am sure your computer setup is different.

Good luck.

Bq
 
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