Partitioning a HD during an OS install

I wanted some opinions on two situations:


1) A computer is using a 30 GB HD as its primary drive and an 80 GB HD as its secondary drive. Currently, they (the owners of the computer) use the second HD as the drive that they install most of the programs to, as well as store their downloads on. Would it be wise to set aside a part of the primary drive for the OS and use the rest as extra space on that drive, or should the drive just be left unpartitioned?

2) A computer is using a 30 GB HD as its primary (and only) drive. Would it be wise to set aside a part of the primary drive for the OS and use the rest as the primary storage space (games, apps, downloads), or should the drive just be left unpartitioned?


Both computers would be having Windows XP Home installed and upgraded to SP2.

 

I would partition it,I would install windows,programs, doc&settings on one partition about 10-15 gb.Make 2 or 3 partitions on the 30 gb.This will be usefull if the os fails and you need to reformat you can save data in the other partitions.Also I hear partitioning makes hd access faster,due to better addressing.Make your partition sizes wisefully so that free space will be atleast 25% on each partition.

 

You can set so many primary or logical drive, boot disk is alway set primary
and other like DATA set as logical using Partition magic.

 

I'd also say - 1.) partition it 2.) partition it ... Accessing time -> right but you won't notice it being faster!

I generally partition HDs when I set up WinXP .. After a few weeks you will see Y! Worst case scenario would be, that when the OS crashes, all of your data would be gone too.

As kadavill suggested, make sure you give the OS and the programs at least 10-15Gig. Eventually you'll later have problems with programs in runtime, because theres not enough space for the swap files!

 

These are 2 links on how I am partitioning a 30 gig HD using XP Pro.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=63971
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=64582

It appears to be a good idea for me, although I am not using XP to its' full extent yet. The idea seems sound and will limit the stuff I actually use on "KEEPERS" compared to the stuff I try out in "TESTING".

I only have 1 x XP drive, however. I would recommend that the OS be stored on one drive. Non MS Programs, downloads, documents, photos, etc., be stored on the 80 gig drive in a couple of partitions. Maybe "All our Stuff", photos, docs, etc., on one partition, balnce in the other partition/s. Bazza
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It seems I was wrong about Situation 1. That computer actually has a 15 GB HD as its boot drive, and an 80 GB HD as its secondary drive. Judging from this, it seems that I should NOT partition the first drive, but just leave it as it is and use it only for Windows, and some MS software (Office), while the other HD is used for everything else.

Does this sound appropriate?

 

Why not use 80 gb drive as the primary/boot volume.I beleive it is newer and might be a faster disk and the OS requires the best disk.

 

Mostly because at the moment, the way their computer is configured is using the 15 GB as the boot disk and the 80 GB for storage/apps/games. If I wanted to redo the partitions for them, they would need to back up 50 GB of data from their 80 GB HD, and they have no quick way of doing this (the computer only has a CD burner). Thus, it would save me the hassle of reformatting the HDs if I used the setup that I described.

Your thoughts?

 

single partition on 15 gb would be ok.

 

Probably best to leave partitions and drives as they are.

I would suggest that they/you investigate ways to backup the ESSENTIAL stuff on the big drive, however.

We all get bitten some time or other, by not having a backup, or a recent backup.
What is taking up 50gig of room? How much of the 50gig of stuff is essential?

Look at the 50gigs with a ruthless eye and back up the really essential stuff to CD's. Bazza

 

What's taking up 50 Gigs? Mostly media: music and anime. The rest of it is programs or games they've installed.

Their cousin's laptop has a DVD burner, which they use by transferring files to his laptop over the network and then burning the files onto DVD. It's still time consuming, but not as much as burning everything to CD instead.

 

Once again, all I can recommend is:-

"Look at the 50gigs with a ruthless eye and back up the really essential stuff to DVD/CD's."

Bazza
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