Formatting My 80GB Hard Drive

[Tincup]

I thought about partitioning my 80GB hard drive before formatting it. I have just a couple of questions, hoping someone can help me out.

1) I want to create a partition just for the paging file in Windows XP. Of the 80GB's, what would be a good size paging file for Windows XP to utilize? Any websites that would iron it out step by step??

2) How many partitions should I create....and what should I use them for?? Could I create a 5 GB partition just to install Windows XP as well as Office XP....and use another partition for programs??

Basically, I want to get the fastest performance out of my hard drive when accessing programs/files on my computer. Shoot me some advice.

Again, I have a Western Digital 80GB ATA 100 7200RPM hard drive with an 8mb buffer.

Thanks People!!

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Tincup
I thought about partitioning my 80GB hard drive before formatting it. I have just a couple of questions, hoping someone can help me out.

1) I want to create a partition just for the paging file in Windows XP. Of the 80GB's, what would be a good size paging file for Windows XP to utilize? Any websites that would iron it out step by step??

2) How many partitions should I create....and what should I use them for?? Could I create a 5 GB partition just to install Windows XP as well as Office XP....and use another partition for programs??

Basically, I want to get the fastest performance out of my hard drive when accessing programs/files on my computer. Shoot me some advice.

Again, I have a Western Digital 80GB ATA 100 7200RPM hard drive with an 8mb buffer.

Thanks People!! For WinXP, references that I've seen suggest a paging file size of 1.5 X amount of ram present (e.g., for 1gb ram, set paging file to 1.5gb).

Regarding partitoning schemes, I usually create a 10gb (C:\) partition for the OS and application (program) files. The second partition is nearly all the remainder, which I use for games (incl their program files, which can be huge, example Flight Sim2K is over a gb), and data storage, plus all my archived drivers, installation files for D/L'ed utilities, etc.

I'll create a much smaller third partition to house the page file plus use it for the location of my temporary internet files. In my specific case, I have 1gb ram, so I have a 1.5gb page file + I set my temp internet file size to 512mb. To avoid getting the "almost out of disk space" WinXP nag, I set this third partition to 3gb... which will allow me to adjust the temp internet allocation, or the page file size, if need be.

I happen to use NTFS for all partitions (my preference).

One final thought... you may want to create a fourth parition to be used to house (only) a ghosted/backup of your OS/programs files. This could be FAT32 so that you can read it with any Win boot disk (besides, I'm not sure any but the latest ghost utilities can work with restore for NTFS. You may want to check into this.
jmichna

[otheos]

The 1.5x rule for pageing size these days is not valid for home users. A total of 1GB (physical+swap) sounds enough to me.

If you are making a partition for that swap file, you'd ideally want to put it as the first one as it is the fastest part of the disk.

[Swordfish]

I suppose it depends on the amount of ram installed and the applications that you are goin to run on the system.

I think 1 gb of swap is a total waste of space. Imagine having 128 mb ram installed and 1gb of swap. hmm...i don't think so.

I am not sure though..but earlier it was around 2 or 2.5 times the ram installed.

1 gb is a lot of space for a swap file...but then you don't have to worry about it since u got 80GB :t

[Tincup]

Thanks guys for the replies. :)

One final question. Otheos mentioned putting the partition that would be used for the paging file first. So, does that mean my hard drive would be as follows when viewing in Windows XP:

C: 3GB for paging/swap file/temp internet files (wouldn't use neccessary that much)
D: 10GB for operating system and program files (Windows XP)
E: 67GB for games and other utilities

Oh..and one more. If I ever needed to format my hard drive with these three partitions, would it wipe out the entire hard drive, or just the partitions I selected to be formated???

[otheos]

Yes this looks ok. Just hold on to the partitions and format/delete what you don't need.

[Tincup]

Should I format all partitions with NFTS or FAT 32??

[mnosteele52]

I use NTFS on evey pc I build, it's more stable & secure. My logic is why use an advanced OS such as 2K or XP and not take advantage of the advanced file system it offers?:)

[Tincup]

Can I format the three other partitions within Windows XP as NFTS??

[mnosteele52]

Yes you can.:)

[Vladimer]

Pardon me, but would you care to explain what NTFS is and how it's used?

[mnosteele52]

NTFS - New Technology File System, it is the prefered file system for Windows NT based Operating Systems (NT, 2K & XP). It is much more secure, more stable, it provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. You can convert your current file system without losing any information at anytime by using the following line at command prompt convert C: /FS:NTFS and press enter (instead of C: you may choose whatever drive you like) just be aware that you cannot convert back to FAT32 without a 3rd party app such a Partition Magic. Something else to note is that if you dual boot a NT based OS and an older OS the older OS cannot read NTFS so you will not be able to access the NT based OS when you have booted into the older one.

:) :D