What size partition for Winxp & apps?

[Phantom]

Hello all...

I'm sure this questions been asked umteen million times...Would you mind going for umteen million & one...Please!

Just joined the ranks of midrange to high-end system & have never before patitioned my HD. Just used the wole drive as one partition. Now I would like to put Winxp & all my app's on a seperate partition & mirror that partition with "Ghost" or the like.

Question: What is the best size partition, maintaining best performance & not wasting unused space?

This months "Maximum PC" magazine says..."For maximum performance with Winxp, we recommend creating one big partition that spans the entire drive" (as I used to) Is this true? I don't want to slow or clog Winxp every month with a small partition. I built a higher end machine to take advantage of Winxp.

Could you please help?
Thank's very much!

PC Spec's:
-Albatron socket 478 "PX865PE PRO" motherboard with 800Mhz FSB W/Intel 865PE chipset...Blah...Blah...Blah
-One Gig DDR PC-3200 (400) memory (2-512mb sticks)
-Pentium 4/ 3.0Ghz 800Mhz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, HT Tech
-Coolmax 400W power supply
-Sapphire ATI Radeon 9200SE Video card 128MB DDR, 8x AGP
-Plextor 12x DVD+RW/RW Drive

[dragflameson]

Phantom, I dont understand.. why do you want to do this? I mean... what are you going to use the 2nd partition for?

[richard_cocks]

there are some good reasons for using more than 1 partiton, but you gotta be organised.

One you've described is to have a 20gig ish partition for system/program files that can easily be backed up onto a second 20gig ish partition.

another use is the one I have,

I have 1 large partition, then I have a small 20gig partition I use for any file that would get fragmented, e.g. downloads, logs files, temp files, that way my main partition doesn't get fragmented, never needs defragging. My other small partition has so much throughfare that I don't bother to defrag it either, so my system stays defragged without having to run defrags at all.

[Sterling_Aug]

I always partition my drives into a C: and D: drive.

The OS and all apps get loaded onto the C: drive while all of my data and downloads get stored on D:.

If I have to reload or repair the OS, none of my downloads are affected or lost.

[dragflameson]

Yes, I understand that, but see, this is what I dont understand...

Now I would like to put Winxp & all my app's on a seperate partition & mirror that partition with "Ghost" or the like.Maybe I'm just retarded and totally missing something? :confused:

[Phantom]

Maybe I'm going about this all wrong, but, that's why I'm here with the smart ppl.

I've been told to put my OS & progam applications on an approx 10gig partition & use the 2nd partition for files & such.
Comparable to the posts by Sterling_Aug & richard_cocks.

I would backup the 1st partition to a Slave drive with a HD imaging/coping software as like "Ghost". If the OS or applications become corrupted or something drastic in the future, I can use the bckup.

Is this "old school" nowdays? Am I going through more trouble than I should?

I guess I should do as Richard suggested & go with a larger partition for the OS & app's

Respectful Thank's!

[dragflameson]

Ohhh okay, I didnt understand you correctly. I thought you were trying to do something different that wouldnt have made any sense what so ever ;)

So what size is your HDD?

I got a 120GB HDD, If I were to do this I would probably go 30GB/70GB

I had 80GB HDD for a while, back when i had that drive, if I were to do this, I would probably have went with 20GB/60GB or somewhere around there :)

I wouldnt go less than 20GB for the OS and Apps though.

[Sterling_Aug]

There is nothing wrong with "old school" backup solutions as long as they work for you.

If it ain't broke, then don't fix it.

[rraehal]

I use a single partitionm on my primary 60GB drive. I store all apps and files on the one drive. I backup daily to my secondary 40GB drive (only my data files and downlaods). I back up weekly to my DVD's.

I think 2 partitions is an better option as you can restore your system and still be okay if your backup is a week or two old.

I have already used 12GB for apps and data. I have 4 GB data which is why I backup to DVD. That means if I bought a new program I would go over 10GB. I agree that 10GB is too small for todays software.

[urdvurk]

I've got my windows installation, applications and data on three different disks. I've found that the windows disk will get fragmented, the applications disk will not (as it is basically a static set of files once you're done installing things), and the data disk will also get fragmented. I can never get the windows disk to defragment completely as there are always a few files in use.

Putting much-used files (like temp files and stuff) on a separate partition is a good idea because it will keep fragmentation down.

Backing up your windows install and apps like you said is also a good idea, because it will allow you to restore your system easily. As for size, 10GB, maybe a little more if you use a lot of applications, should be enough for windows and applications.

[crossedup]

I usually go about 10Gb or so for the system partition, after you install you can tweak the system to have a smaller page file, fewer temp and temp internet files and the like to keep the size down and ghosting a 10GB partition with todays drive speeds is a 5 minute affair, easy to keep up with

On my rig with the 200GB drive ive got three partitions, a 14GB for the O/S, 170GB free space for stuff and a 5GB partition for the ghost file, so far its worked out fine. Every once in a while I burn the ghost file off the 5GB drive onto a DVD.

Keeping your backed up ghost file on the same physical drive as the O/S itself is not the best idea if you have something you dont want to lose but since they are on seperate partitions ( the o/s and the apps ) thats not what is being strived for anyway

[dragflameson]

I personally wouldnt go less than 20GB for a system partition ;)

just my $0.02

[crossedup]

Ive got removeable drive racks in all mine as well, cant recommend those highly enough. Easiest way to back anything up and they are cheap.

[dragflameson]

Originally posted by crossedup
Ive got removeable drive racks in all mine as well, cant recommend those highly enough. Easiest way to back anything up and they are cheap. How much were yours? All the ones I've ever wanted to get were $50.00+ USD

[crossedup]

link (http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GN210&cat=HDD)

$7.95. Maybe not the highest quality but for the price, how can you go wrong? Been using these for almost 6 months now with no trouble. Have four of them.

I dont subject them to the wear and tear that a place would that was going to buy the higher quality ones either though

[richard_cocks]

These days with the abundance of cheap storage I certainly wouldn't use less than 20gig for a "system" partition, but then I play quite a few games, which add up the amount needed.

I know with my main partition that out of 114 gigs, only about 6-8 of that was "system" and program files, but then at that time I had most my games uninstalled to save space. (my 160gig HDD was running out with 20 gig "temp" drive and a 20gig linux partition)

[dragflameson]

crossedup - AWESOME! Thanks for the link! Thats exactly what I wanted too.. only in black ;) Everywhere I found them they were so much more expensive than that!!

[crossedup]

These days with the abundance of cheap storage I certainly wouldn't use less than 20gig for a "system" partition, but then I play quite a few games, which add up the amount needed.


I guess thats where I have problems, I dont play many games so I dont really think about that. My W2K install on the 14GB partition with BartPE and the UBCD ISO still only eats up a little over 2GB.

dragonflameson, they have a black one for the same price, did you find it?

[dragflameson]

Originally posted by crossedup
dragonflameson, they have a black one for the same price, did you find it? Yup, thanks again for the link! :D

[urdvurk]

Originally posted by richard_cocks
I certainly wouldn't use less than 20gig for a "system" partition, but then I play quite a few games, which add up the amount needed.
Hm yes, 10 GB is without the pagefile and without temp files of course. Also I didn't play games on my pc until recently. Bought some old ones (like Freespace 2, Civ 3) a while ago, and installed them, which consumed GBs like there was no tomorrow. So if you play games, 10 GB will not be enough. :)

[The Lodge]

There are many reasons to partition your drive. I have a c, f, and g drive. One 60GB and one 40GB drive. My main drive which is the 60gig is split in half, 27.9GB each. I put windows and all my applications on my c drive. 20gigs would probably be fine, I only use 9.21GB of my c drive. My f drive which is the other half of my main drive is for my image of c (I have it on a dvd too) and encoding\decoding video. My d drive is where all the action is. I’ve mapped my documents folder there which keeps my c drive nice and clean. My favorites folder is there too, but that was before I started using an image program. I have OE emails store folder there also. And then…. all my games. Whenever I do a reinstall or image my c drive I don’t lose any progress in games. You know how some games make it impossible to find your save points. Also by moving your documents and games to a separate partition, it drastically cuts the size of your image. I can fit a clean install image setup the way I like with all my apps on one dvd.

Check this out for an image program, it does everything that ghost does but cheaper. http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/ I checked this out from a recommendation by G and never looked back.