Recorganizing HDD

[gipsyking201]

Dunno if this is the right forum..but anyways here goes.

What I have

Two hard drives (C and D);8 GB each. C is pretty much clean of any data. D has got Win98 and tons of other **** (basically other apps).

What i want to achieve:

Repartition the drives such that I have all my O.S's on one partition and all other apps and data in the other partitions.

The way I thought about getting this achieved is to format the C drive and make it a basic bootable drive. Get the machine to load up through this drive and next install Win98 on it. Then take out the copy of 98 from the other drive (D). This way I get to not reformat the D drive and loose all my other apps.

Also let me add I wanted to use Partition Magic to repartition my C drive once I get to it.

Please let me know if what i plan above will work and also if there woudl be any other better way to do it.

Thanks

[swany]

Which is the other OS you are using?

swany http://techieinfo.cjb.net

[BFlurie]

If you want to change the size of D drive (partition), you'd need Partition Magic -- Fdisk would wipe it to do any partition resizing. What you outlined is a good strategy. Depending on how many OSs you want, C drive probably should be .5 to 1.5 GB. In that case probably be best to locate your swap file on D drive & set it as a single-size (permanent) file so it won't fragment. Some 3rd party defraggers can set your swap file at the start of the partition for slightly better results. As you already know, every program & its mother want to install in c:\program files\yada yada yada, so you need to redirect it to where you want -- D drive in your case.

PS While you're partitioning, there's nothing wrong w/creating even more partitions (I've got 4). It won't hurt or help performance any, but it might make your file system easier for YOU to follow. JMHO.

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 09-03-2000).]

[jmatt]

http://home.adelphia.net/~bobstur/misc/repartition.htm#W98
http://www.compguystechweb.com/
http://www.pcguide.com/proc/setup/hdd-c.html
<A HREF="http://www.webdev.net/orca/nojava/fdisk.htm#Why%20not%20just%20use%20"Fdisk"?" TARGET=_blank>http://www.webdev.net/orca/nojava/fdisk.htm#Why%20not%20just%20use%20"Fdisk"?</A>

Post at Annoyances . http://www.annoyances.org/cgi-bin/ce-discussion_show?n967604570

I would partition because it improves performance. Having Windows
separated from the programs means the programs (and Windows) can run
faster. I would create a 2GB FAT16 partition for Windows (because,
strange as it may seem, FAT16 is actually faster than FAT32), and
create a couple of FAT32 partitions for the rest of the system.
I used to have one FAT32 partition (C: 12.1GB), now, it is 6 FAT16
partitions and 1 FAT32 partition (C http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif2GB), D http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif2GB), E http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif2GB), F http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif2GB),
G http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif2GB), H http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif2GB) and I http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif177MB-FAT32),
and I have definately noticed an increase in speed. What FAT32 is
good for is very small files (e.g. Temporary Internet Files).

[otheos]

177MB FAT32???? Are you sure? 256MB is the smallest FAT32 can do.
As for the original question:

yes, keep windows apart from Program files, also make a small partition and put your swap (fixed size). Try to put the swap partition in the beggining of the disk (if you know the capacity per platter), this way you will get the maximum performance for your swap file.

[jmatt]

Go to the Hard Drive manufacturers site & download the free utility & see if that is a help .
Maxtor's is called MaxBlast .
Seagate's is DiscWizard ,
Quantum's is DiskManager .
Here are some brand sites , http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/software/maxblast/index.html http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz_utilities.html http://service.quantum.com/softsource/disk_docs/dm2000.htm