How big are Windows OS?

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Guest

I run out of space on my laptop. I'm currently using
Windows XP Pro - and neve liked it much. W 95/98 were not
stable enough. I had the best experience with W 2000. But
I also have to consider the limited space. How much space
do the mentioned OS occupy on the HD? (And what's the
basic difference between Word and Works regarding usage
and program size?)
 
For W2k a partition of around 5-6GB should suffice for quite some time
as long as data and very large application-installation files are kept
elsewhere. Perhaps if you post back with info about your laptop's
drive(s) size and current partitioning structure, and how many and what
sorts of apps you use on the machine, you'll get useful suggestions.
 
From
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/sysreqs/default.asp:
Hard Disk 2 GB with 650 MB free space.

You do have the option of directory compression, if space is a concern.

If you were running 9x on this laptop, and are concerned about space, you
almost certainly want to look at the rest of these requirements, and
remember that these are minimums, not recommendations.

You can download the Readiness Analyzer from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4c-dd8d-4816-a3d9-fd2ed787e735&displaylang=en.
This focuses on compatibility, but is certainly worth running.

Be aware that going from XP Pro to 2000 Pro is considered a downgrade. You
don't say what it is about XP that you never liked. But if it's a matter of
the changes to the interface, well, you can choose the 2000 style interface,
but be aware that 2003 has much the same enhancements.

Greg Stigers, MCSA
this space for rent
 
Does this mean that after installation on reformatted 3GB HD there'd be 1 GB
left for apps? I'm currently running WinME but would like to have a look at
2000 before deciding on whether it or XP should be the OS for a replacement
computer with, of course, a much bigger HD
RoS
 
RoS - if your only hard drive is 3GB and you repartition for a 2GB
Win2000 partition, then yes, what's left is a 1GB partition. And a 2GB
Win2000 or XP partition will fill up very quickly if you plan to run it
with many applications as a prolonged test.

Be aware also that to get from WinME to Win2000 you cannot simply do an
upgrade that migrates your application settings. That's an invalid
upgrade path. You must do a clean install of Win2000, then reinstall
your apps. (I'm not sure whether this applies to WinXP as well; WinME
was released after Win2000 so its structure is not understood well by
the Win2000 upgrade routines, but the WinXP routines may be able to
handle the upgrade. Check the WinXP upgrade requirements carefully. Be
aware also that the collective wisdom in these newsgroups seems to be
that upgrades in general are too error-prone to be preferable to clean
installs anyhow.)

You should of course back up all your important data files elsewhere
before any partitioning.

You could probably go to a computer store, spend some time fooling with
a Win2000 computer and then with a WinXP machine, and pick your next
move based on that. You could then move your laptop data files to your
new machine across some LAN-equivalent or portable storage medium.

Greg Stiger's response to your query is consistent with many others I've
seen in these newsgroups. Some people prefer one OS, some the other, and
most have good reasons. It's a personal decision depending on many
factors, not all cosmetic and not all technical.
 
I run out of space on my laptop. I'm currently using
Windows XP Pro - and neve liked it much. W 95/98 were not
stable enough. I had the best experience with W 2000. But
I also have to consider the limited space. How much space
do the mentioned OS occupy on the HD? (And what's the
basic difference between Word and Works regarding usage
and program size?)
Click to expand...

Comrade,

I have W2K on my 'C' partition. It consumes 1.2 GB. It used to be a lot
less before I installed SP's, updates, a firewall, anti-virus software,
device drivers and so on. I don't put the paging file on the 'C' drive.
Even if I did, it wouldn't be all that big -- I have a lot of extra RAM.

Father Joe
 
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