Need partition advice...

[Gromit]

I have a 200gb Western Digital HDD that I'm getting ready to install Windows XP on. I obviously would prefer not to have one giant partition, but am not sure what size to make the OS partition.

Any recommendations?

[Zaxxon]

I have a 200gb Western Digital HDD that I'm getting ready to install Windows XP on. I obviously would prefer not to have one giant partition, but am not sure what size to make the OS partition.

Any recommendations?

I generally give XP at least 6 GB to play it safe for the long term.

[RunningMn9]

I have a WD 250GB drive. I made a 20GB partition for the OS and made the rest a giant drive.

I install the OS and all my apps to the 20GB partition, all my games go to the 220GB (or whatever is actually left since it's not really a 250GB drive) partition, and all my data goes on an external 160GB drive.

[Gromit]

Thanks...that's what I need to hear.

10GB should be fine.

[Spike]

Any recommendations?

10Gb should cover it.

I always have a partition for system (currently 10Gb), a partition for apps (the rest of that 60Gb drive), a separate drive for games (120Gb at least, I split mine to two partitions), a separate drive for "stuff" (120Gb at least, again I split mine) and a final backup to put ghost images of those on (120Gb at least, one chunk) should I wish to.

Some people say I overdo it, but I never have any problems that way. Smaller partitions = easier backups = less pain when it all dies screaming.

[Smoove_B]

I just re-did my system with a 160GB hard drive. I gave 30GB to WinXP and the rest to gamez. Apparently I gave too much, based on what I see here.

[EvilHomer3k]

I have a 160gb drive. I partitioned it to be 60/100. I put all my apps and games and windows on the same drive. I put files on the other 100 (and some on my external drive). I figure that if I reinstall the OS, I'm going to reinstall the apps and games anyway. I have a friend who only puts windows on his primary partition and then makes a ghost image of it and stores it on his second partition. That way, he can ghost his fresh windows install whenever he wants. I guess I just don't reinstall windows that often.

[The Meal]

Thanks...that's what I need to hear.

10GB should be fine.

That's my magic OS number, too.

~Neal

[Freezer-TPF-]

Thanks...that's what I need to hear.

10GB should be fine.

That's my magic OS number, too.

~Neal

Are you sure, Meal? Wouldn't it be better to buy a whole new HD just for the OS?

[The Meal]

Good point. Buy two, in fact, so you can swap them out when you do the reformat-reinstall. Can't hurt to have a 500GB physical drive all alone dedicated to your OS, then another 500GB drive for installations (and a third one for your media and storage needs).

~Neal

[Hrdina]

Geez, I only have a 20 Gb disk, partitioned 4 ways: Boot (4), Apps (2), Games (12), Data (2).

Makes backups and defrag easy. I only really have to backup the Data disk (and some small amount of stuff from Games).

Edit: I work on computers all day and still type Mb instead of Gb.

[is_dead]

I put everything on C. That way the default directories always work for installation, updates, uninstall, etc. I save probably 5 minutes a week just by always being able to hit Next during updates etc. You can always organize by folders too.

[Spike]

I put everything on C. That way the default directories always work for installation, updates, uninstall, etc. I save probably 5 minutes a week just by always being able to hit Next during updates etc. You can always organize by folders too.

If you can afford twin drives of the same size it's also superb for backups (especially if you set them up for mirroring). Personally, I use too much space, so only have backups of essentials and a Ghost image of the OS install partition.

[The Meal]

I put everything on C. That way the default directories always work for installation, updates, uninstall, etc. I save probably 5 minutes a week just by always being able to hit Next during updates etc. You can always organize by folders too.

One of the advantages of partitioning is to keep the highly-accessed physical data at the outer cylinders of your hard drive (where the linear velocities are highest). Additionally if you ever need to reformat, you only need to affect some smaller portion (one partition) of your hard drive while not touching data on other partitions.

~Neal