Sensible partition sizes

[Guest]

Hi,

What would be a good / recommended way of partitioning a 320 GB Disc for
win XP Home?

I was thinking of 3 x 100 ish partitions


Thanks

 

[John Weiss]

What would be a good / recommended way of partitioning a 320 GB Disc for
win XP Home?

I was thinking of 3 x 100 ish partitions

That would be fine if you allow all your applications to be installed in the
boot partition, in the default "Program Files" folder.

Otherwise, make the boot partition around 20 GB (40-50 if you plan to
migrate to Vista), 150-200 GB for your data, and the remainder in a
[smaller] "Archive/Backup" partition on the inner rings of the HD.

 

[Guest]

That would be fine if you allow all your applications to be installed in the
boot partition, in the default "Program Files" folder.

Yes I was thinking of putting all the programs in C: and data in D: and
archive in E:


I may move to vista after SP1 is released but only if it has anything
that I would benefit from.

Thanks for the advice.

Otherwise, make the boot partition around 20 GB (40-50 if you plan to
migrate to Vista), 150-200 GB for your data, and the remainder in a
[smaller] "Archive/Backup" partition on the inner rings of the HD.

 

[Kent_Diego]

What would be a good / recommended way of partitioning a 320 GB Disc for

win XP Home?

I was thinking of 3 x 100 ish partitions
...

What's wrong with one 320GB partition?

 

[Rod Speed]

What would be a good / recommended way of partitioning a 320 GB Disc for win XP Home?

Just one partition for the whole hard drive.

I was thinking of 3 x 100 ish partitions

No point over one partition for the entire hard drive.

 

[John Doe]

Hi,

What would be a good / recommended way of partitioning a 320 GB
Disc for win XP Home?

I was thinking of 3 x 100 ish partitions


Thanks

Buy a disk manager like PartitionMagic or Partition Manager and stop
worrying about it.

If you can't do that. Make one large partition for everything except
the files you keep between installations. Make the second partition
large enough to keep files from being deleted when you want to
reinstall Windows.

In other words. Guess what size Windows and your program files could
possibly require. My guess is that would be no more than 100 GB? Use
that for the primary partition. In my opinion, the leftover 220 GB
will be more than enough for any conceivable files you would want to
keep between installations of Windows.

Be sure to keep removable media copies of any important files at all
times.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[John Doe]

Just one partition for the whole hard drive.


No point over one partition for the entire hard drive.

There is, like for keeping files you want to keep between
installations of Windows. Having those files on the hard drive ready
to go in their appropriate folders after a reinstallation is very
useful

Fortunately, reinstallations don't occur as often these days, but
keeping non-CD files on a non-primary partition is still useful.

The difference is files that come locally from the Windows CD or
program CDs during installation, those files versus files you
download (for example downloadable software and program updates),
files you don't keep on removable media like movies/whatever, and
personal files you generate (and always want to have additional
copies of).

 

[Rod Speed]

There is, like for keeping files you want
to keep between installations of Windows.

Nope, a repair install wont touch those.

Having those files on the hard drive ready to go in their
appropriate folders after a reinstallation is very useful

Much better to do a repair install so all the setting etc are retained too.

Fortunately, reinstallations don't occur as often these days,

And anyone with a clue does a repair install with XP and 2K.

but keeping non-CD files on a non-primary partition is still useful.
Nope.

The difference is files that come locally from the Windows CD or
program CDs during installation, those files versus files you download
(for example downloadable software and program updates), files you
don't keep on removable media like movies/whatever, and personal
files you generate (and always want to have additional copies of).

Waffle when you use a repair install.

 

[`AMD tower]

Rod,

I have not done a repair install. Are you saying, that if xp gets borked,
you can do a repair install and your programs will work again, and all your
data files will be intact? I mean, you won't have to re-load your programs?

Mike

 

[Rod Speed]

I have not done a repair install. Are you saying, that if xp gets
borked, you can do a repair install and your programs will work
again, and all your data files will be intact? I mean, you won't
have to re-load your programs?

Correct. Its one of the big advantages XP has over Win9x.

 

[Gremenbulin]

Correct. Its one of the big advantages XP has over Win9x.

Depends how borked. If you have a bad virus infection, it's very useful
to have the option of wiping a system partition clean.

 

[`AMD tower]

so, then the best way to do it is with partitions, right?

Partitoin 1: operating system
Partitiion 2: programs
Partition 3: data
Partition 4: backups

so say I set one up as above, and then wipe the os partition and re-install
xp. Will the programs work? I seem to recall that when a program is
installed it dropps dlls or something into xp and if they are lost the
programs won't work. ??

But, if it's set up as above, and I do a repair install, then everything is
back to normal. Is that it?

tia,
mike

 

[Gremenbulin]

so, then the best way to do it is with partitions, right?

Partitoin 1: operating system
Partitiion 2: programs
Partition 3: data
Partition 4: backups

so say I set one up as above, and then wipe the os partition and re-install
xp. Will the programs work? I seem to recall that when a program is
installed it dropps dlls or something into xp and if they are lost the
programs won't work. ??

Then keep the programmes and the OS together, and you still have the
option
of a repair install. If you have virus problems, you will want to wipe
both the OS and the programmes. The most important
thing on a PC is your own data -- you can't buy another copy if you
lose it.

 

[John Weiss]

so, then the best way to do it is with partitions, right?

Partitoin 1: operating system
Partitiion 2: programs
Partition 3: data
Partition 4: backups

That is ONE way to do it, but whether it is the "best" way is debatable. I
combine programs and data on 1 partition, but that is a personal preference
only, and may not be the "best" way by any technical rationale...

so say I set one up as above, and then wipe the os partition and
re-install xp. Will the programs work? I seem to recall that when a
program is installed it dropps dlls or something into xp and if they are
lost the programs won't work. ??

The programs will not work. All their Registry entries will be gone. If
you had a current IMAGE of the OS partition (which also contains the
Registry), though, you should be able to restore it via the image and have
all the programs work.

But, if it's set up as above, and I do a repair install, then everything
is back to normal. Is that it?

It depends what caused the need for a repair install. If a hardware driver
or OS Registry entry became corrupted, it may work fine.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Depends how borked. If you have a bad virus infection, it's very
useful to have the option of wiping a system partition clean.

Nope, if its that bad, the non system partitions are just as much at
risk and you should be restoring from the last good backup instead.

 

[Rod Speed]

so, then the best way to do it is with partitions, right?

Nope. Best handled with proper incremental image backups.

Partitoin 1: operating system
Partitiion 2: programs

No point in separating these. If you are going to do a clean
reinstall of the OS, you'll have to reinstall the programs as well.

Partition 3: data
Partition 4: backups

Those are best on a separate drive so they survive a hard drive failure.
I prefer to have them on a separate hard drive across the lan so that
even a catestrophic power supply failure wont kill both the hard drives.

so say I set one up as above, and then wipe the os partition and re-install xp. Will the programs
work?
Nope.

I seem to recall that when a program is installed it dropps dlls or something into xp

dlls and registry entrys with most modern programs.

and if they are lost the programs won't work. ??
Correct.

But, if it's set up as above, and I do a repair install, then everything is back to normal. Is
that it?

Nope, the repair install is an alternative to a clean reinstall.

 

[Rod Speed]

Then keep the programmes and the OS together, and you still have the
option
of a repair install. If you have virus problems, you will want to wipe
both the OS and the programmes. The most important
thing on a PC is your own data -- you can't buy another copy if you
lose it.

Which is why the data should be properly backed up and not
visible to the system when not backing up, so no virus can touch it.
That isnt possible with a separate partition, it has to be on a separate
system thats physically disconnected when the backup is complete.

 

[Gremenbulin]

Nope, if its that bad, the non system partitions are just as much at
risk and you should be restoring from the last good backup instead.

If you have kept programmes and data properly separate, there is
little chance of reinfection from the data partition. Full and
frequent backups are of course ideal, but most home
uses don't have the resources, especially with hard drives capacties
having got
ahead of everything else.

 

[Gremenbulin]

Those are best on a separate drive so they survive a hard drive failure.

If you have the resources.

I used to work for a compay that *triplicated* all their data
and hardware. They were very rich.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

If you have the resources.

You're a fool if you dont have those with hard drives so cheap now.

I used to work for a compay that *triplicated*
all their data and hardware. They were very rich.

You dont need to be anything like rich to have the backups on a
separate hard drive so that a hard drive failure is just a nuisance.