Partitioning Question

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Guest

I've read a couple of things saying that you should have
multiple partitions on your comuputer (2 or 3), and have
the OS on one, programs on another and data on a third.
I'm not sure exactly what the benefit of this is? Is it
possible with this setup to reinstall Windows on the first
partition without having to reinstall all the programs on
the second partition?

Second question, anybody know of any good programs that
will do the partitioning if you only have 1 partition and
it holds OS and everything, or will I need to do a format
and clean install?

Third, if I do a clean install, how can I get Windows to
put the default Program Files folder on the second
partition and the default My Documents folder on the third
partition?

Thanks in advance

Don
 
Actually, Windows XP will perform best when one partition
is used.

"When performing a clean install, Microsoft recommends that
NTFS be used and that the system be installed in a single partition
on each disk. Under Windows XP, big partitions are better managed
than in previous versions of Windows. Forcing installed software
into several partitions on the disk necessitates longer seeks when
running the system and software."

Benchmarking on Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/benchmark.mspx

NTFS Preinstallation and Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/tech/storage/ntfs-preinstall.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


| I've read a couple of things saying that you should have
| multiple partitions on your comuputer (2 or 3), and have
| the OS on one, programs on another and data on a third.
| I'm not sure exactly what the benefit of this is? Is it
| possible with this setup to reinstall Windows on the first
| partition without having to reinstall all the programs on
| the second partition?
|
| Second question, anybody know of any good programs that
| will do the partitioning if you only have 1 partition and
| it holds OS and everything, or will I need to do a format
| and clean install?
|
| Third, if I do a clean install, how can I get Windows to
| put the default Program Files folder on the second
| partition and the default My Documents folder on the third
| partition?
|
| Thanks in advance
|
| Don
 
Then what are the benefits of using partitions? I know
I've seen a few people here say they use the 3 partition
setup (OS/Programs/Data)... why do they find that better
than 1?

I'm not arguing, just wondering what the benefits are (If
any) to using partitions, or if it's purely personal
preferance.

Don
 
1. One big benefit of having at least 2 partitions and
limiting the
system partition to about 10Gig is for Backup. Defrag is
also
easier. Personally, I never allow more than 4G of stuff on
my
system partition. It only takes 4 CDRs to accomplish an
Image
of the C partition.
Also, you can reinstall the Backup Image without disturbing
the
other partitions.
2. You'll need a 3rd party program such as Partition Magic
or
BootitNG (30 day trial but a steep learning curve;)
3. I personally prefer to leave Program Files and My
Documents
on the C partition so I'll leave this query to others;)
 
3. In my experience, moving Program Files and other "standard" file
locations off of the C drive is just asking for trouble.

I usually recommend keeping the Documents and Settings, Program Files, and
Windows folders on the C drive, and set up everything else on other
partitions. I keep the C drive partitions at about 10-15 GB, and partition
up the rest of the HDs as needed.

Larry123
 
So are you saying you don't put programs in the Program
Files folder or files in the Documents folder? That is how
I am set up.... so I'm not sure exactly what else would be
on the other partitions?

Don
 
Don,

What I'm saying is to install all programs into the Programs Files folder on
the C drive. We generally put working documents out on network drives, but
for local use, we don't use the standard Windows structure of saving
documents to the My Documents folders on C. We set up special folders on
another partition to isolate them. It makes system backups much easier, and
keeping them on a different partition helps protect them better again
crashes, which are much more likely to affect the C partition.

You might create a separate partition for each type of data you store: mp3
files, photos, movies, etc., whatever you do with your PC.

Partition Magic is an invaluable tool, well worth the money. You can pickup
a low-cost copy of an earlier version on eBay.

Larry123
 
ok first off how big is your hard drive? if it is a large
(60+ gig)drive then maybe but smaller there is not
practical use for it the "performance" gain would not be
noticed by most users, i myself have 2 physical drives
a total of 3 partitions 2 on my 80gb 1 on my 40gb the
80gb has a 60 and 16.2 gb partitions the little one i use
for Documents and the likes and bigone is for programs &
windows, the second drive is my SAFE Drive so i know it
will always remain intact, incase of a windows crash
(windows never crashes* yeah right*) all my downloaded
programs and game patches will always be there unless i
use Go Back which i won't after losing what was on my
safe drive because of what it does to MBR on the disk
point being if you drive is smaller than 60gb don't worry
to much about unless you just want a small partition for
docs. and such
 
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