Partitions

R

Reka

Guest
I have a 80GB hdd.
I plan to have 3 partitions

5GB for winXP
20GB applications
50Gb for mp3 and movies

My first question will be,
is 5GB partition enough for winXP alone ?

I am now running winXP on NTFS, say if i wanna create the 3 partitions manually with my files backed up on another hdd which is also NTFS, i will have to convert my current drive to FAT32 from NTFS, and then boot up with a win98 boot up disk and use FDISK to do 3 partitions. Then create an NTFS partition on C: with windows on it. After windows installation, convert the other two partitions to NTFS.

Now, is this way done properly ?
Or is there another better way to do it ?
 
First you can't convert from NTFS to FAT32, at least not without third party programs. It isn't necessary anyway.

Why do you want to create an extra partition for applications? If you reinstall Windows you will have to reinstall your programs as well. So Windows and applications go on the same partition for me.

No need for a Win 98 boot disk. Just boot to the Windows XP cd. You can delete, create and format partitions during setup.
 
I see, i didn't know i could create and format partitions during setup. Thx for letting me know

I want to create extra partitions so it's easier to manage my files. And i format once in three months, it'd be alot easier if i backup my files on another partition.

Because i only have one hdd.

But is 5GB sufficient enough for a winXP partition ?
 
Didn't doubt the usefulness of partitions for your data files, only for applications.

5 Gb is not much for XP, but should be ok. Depends whether you move your "My Documents" after installation, how much space you assign for system restore, how many programs you install (they put files in the Windows and 'Documents and Settings' directories).

Why do you format every three months?
 
As I said it depends. On a 80 Gb drive I'd setup a partition of about 12 -20 GB for Windows and programs and one or two partitions that contain your data files (music, movies, pictures, documents), programs that don't need to be installed, and backups of your application and driver installation files you don't have on cd. (You can disable system restore on these partitions to save space, these kind of files aren't monitored anyway).
Also a good idea to move the "My Documents" and your Favorites folder to another partition so that they won't get lost when you reinstall.
 
I have devided my 80 gig HD's into

20 gig system (incl. My Documents)
10 gig temp (divx encoding, downloads, stuff)
25 gig data (games, apps, whatever)
25 gig mp3's

Remember that it is possible to mount any partition in an empty ntfs folder. For example I mounted my mp3 partition in My Documents/My Music ...


Greetz,


Lukas
 
You just described my exact setup, yoyo. ;)

I also keep a slave drive for backup of all the important stuff on the master drive. You never know when your HD is going to die on you. And the chances of both HD's dying at the same time is slim to none. Just a cheap 20 or 40 gigger should do the trick. Saves you from having to back everything up onto CD's.
 
I use a diff part. for applications and so my XP OS never takes up more than 2G of space.Still I like plenty of room and give it 7G anyways.My apps take up 13G but I give it 30G of space.So when I reformat all my stuff is still there.Still have to re-install some stuff of course.

Data partition is much bigger of course.I keep my OE and page file there too.

I re-direct all of my installs to the apps partition right after the install through the registry(commonfiles and programfiles) and I move my docs and favs there.
 
Originally posted by Lukas
I have devided my 80 gig HD's into

20 gig system (incl. My Documents)
10 gig temp (divx encoding, downloads, stuff)
25 gig data (games, apps, whatever)
25 gig mp3's

Remember that it is possible to mount any partition in an empty ntfs folder. For example I mounted my mp3 partition in My Documents/My Music ...


Greetz,


Lukas

Can you please explain to me what do you mean by "Remember that it is possible to mount any partition in an empty ntfs folder. For example I mounted my mp3 partition in My Documents/My Music ..."

I don't understand the term mount

Thx alot
 
If you are running Windows XP professional:

Right click "My computer", click on "Manage" and select "Disk Management" on your left.

You'll get your drives and partitions.

Now, lets say you have a partition called D:, and you have some mp3's on it... Too much data to copy them to My Documents/My Music. What you could do is mount the partition in a folder.

You need your drives to be in NTFS to do this.

Go to "my documents" and create a empty folder, for example "mp3s". Then go back to Disk Management and right click the D: partition. In he context menu choose "CHange Drive Letters and path". A small window will pop up with the drives letter (D: in this case). Click on "add....".

Next thing you do is check the option "Mount in the following empty NTFS Folder" and browse to the folder you have created in My Documents ("mp3s" in this case). Remember, the folder must be empty.

Click on OK, and on OK again.

If you go look into My Documents/mp3s now, you'll find that the folder has the contents of your D: partion. It's not a shortcut, becouse you dont "jump" to D: when clicking it, its a mount point. The volume D: has been mounted on /My Documents/mp3s

More info in Help and Support Center.



Hope that helps.



Greetz


Lukas
 
on my laptop I have a 5.5GB partition for XP and the rest of the 20GB is for BSD, XP seems fine with it. Though I dont have much software on that XP drive
 
To explain the mounting point example:


screenshot


on the right the drive properties
on the left the folder properties


Greetz


Lukas
 
Thx alot guys, i have learnt alot today

But does the files inside the partition gets deleted or formatted when you mount it to My Documents, since My Documents in under the winXP partition ?
 
Hmm, I don't know.

Battersafe then sorry: it's not a lot to do to unmount the partition.

Just follow the steps described above, but click on 'Delete' instead of 'Add...' ater selecting the path to the empty ntfs folder in 'My Documents'.

If you delete all paths and drive letters, you will unmount the volume.


Greetz



Lukas
 
Same situation here - doing a freah install
5GB Windows XP Pro NTFS
5GB Windows ME FAT32
5GB Lycoris Linux FAT32
45GB Games FAT32
10GB Documents NTFS
10GB Program Files NTFS
40GB Ghost image of everything - FAT32
May try striped volumes again. :)
 

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