Partitioning Large HD on XP

lasercomp · #1 10-10-2002, 05:00 AM

I have a 80GB HD and I am running Win XP. Does anyone have any suggestions on proper partitioning? I currently have one partition with the entire 80GB. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

bobbych · #2 10-10-2002, 10:16 AM

i too have 80gb, split 30-30-20. i use the first 30 for system, 2nd 30 for storage, and the 20 for making backup images using ghost. better than xp restore

Rel.nl · #3 10-10-2002, 12:13 PM

Partition magic does the trick for you !

Disk_Contented · #4 10-10-2002, 03:01 PM

Partition Magic 7 does the trick allright.
The trick being that it destroys all partition information.
You have to remove all existing partitions. Recreate them, and start again. CRAP!!!

Why dont you make it easy on yourself Lazer. You're installing XP, so use XP's partition abilities.
Create a Primary partition the size you want with Fdisk Dont forget to make it active (30 gigs sounds a bit overkill to me).
Boot from XP CD, get the installer to format it as you go.
When installed, use: Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management.
This has a disk management section where you can create partitions in the unpartitioned space to your hearts content, then simply format them.

lasercomp · #5 10-10-2002, 06:11 PM

Disk_COntended, how big of a primary partition do you think I should make? and what type of stuff would go on this partition? Would I install programs or just leave it for the system? Maybe like a 20GB and make the pagefile on a different partition? I want to do this once and do it right... Thanks

Tuff Guy · #6 10-10-2002, 06:37 PM

Once xp is installed, install partition magic 7 or 8 and create your partitions to whatever size you wish. I have a 1gb partition as a burner drive for copying images to, one for storage until I get a chance to burn to cd and one for data, ie personal files and stuff. I install all apps and games on the c drive. There is no limit and with partition magic you can also format them to whatever you like (ntfs, fat32 etc). the best feature with partition magic is later on you can choose to add or remove a partition, resize a partition, anything you like. And in the future should you need to do a full reinstall of xp you just format the c drive and existing partitions stay as they are. One OS is reinstalled just reinstall partition magic, partitions and data on them won't change.

It is also a good idea though to use a ghosting program, for example Symantec and Powerquest have their own versions and there are shareware ones also. The idea being do a complete fresh install of all software, set everything up to how you like it and ghost it. This has the potential to be quite large and require many cd's which would be a pain to redo it after every service pack upgrade so perhaps install windows, peripherals, internet, network and that sort of stuff and just ghost that. With the speed of current machines program and game installs take next to no time anyway.

Disk_Contented · #7 10-10-2002, 06:52 PM

Hello again

My primary partition is 10 gigs, after formatting dropped to 8.79.
This holds Office XP, and umpteen other apps. In a nutshell, it holds everything i use (or just want) and there is still 5.5 gigs free.
Your requirements will dictate what size you need.
If you want large apps and their files (imaging progs, video editing or lots of games etc), then a larger size may give you more headroom.
If you just want run of the mill office apps, internet utils, a few games etc.. the usual stuff. Then 10 gigs should serve you well.

The paging file should be on the primary partition as this is at the fastest part of the disk, and so is accessed faster.

I install all games to a seperate partition, well away from my system files. (saves loads of time on backups of my sys partition)

Disk_Contented · #8 10-10-2002, 06:58 PM

in reference to tuff guys post, can i add that you can ghost to one of your partitions, as i do. This can be copied to CD later.
Thanks guys

Tuff Guy · #9 10-11-2002, 06:07 AM

The bottom line is there is no right or wrong way to do it. First come up with a plan that suits you, then create and configure the partitions to fit that plan. Only you can make the decision on what you want to do. If the plan changes later, just reconfigure the partitions.

Disk_contented configures his the way it suits him and I do the same.

And by the same token some people are big on backups of the whole hard drive, some just back up personal data. Some ghost and some don't. If you are not sure about doing something check it out and make your own decision on how you want to go about it.

And remember this is ok for home but different rules would apply for a corporate or business environment.