Partitions 101

MY SYSTEM:

XP Pro, SP3, 3GHz CPU, 512Mb RAM, 37GB HDD with just C:\ on it - no other partitions

BACKGROUND:

I play a LOT of online poker - around 40,000 hands a month & it's very important to my win rate to keep all the data on my opponents & how they play. I use software called 'Hold'em Manager' to track all the play at my virtual tables & it stores the data in PostgreSQL. Once a week or so I must vacuum & re-index my DB & defrag the disc or I get severe lag. At the moment my machine is faulty - missing folders. I can't perform certain tasks such as defrag which means I will soon be in trouble. I'm waiting for delivery of an XP Pro CD + SP3 & I will then perform a repair & set up the XP Pro for single use. It was this forum that advised me well on how to solve that problem - which is pending obviously

MY PLAN:

After the repair I want to do this:
1. Using Partition Wizard partition my 30GB HDD into C:\ for programs & A:\ for data:
2. Move Windows data into A:\
http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/49222-moving-windows-xp-default-folders-rev1.html
3. Reinstall my PostgreSQL Database, poker ebooks & poker videos onto A:\ as well
Would you read this thread please? ...
http://forums.holdemmanager.com/showthread.php?t=25584
4. Get rid of a lot of Windows stuff useless to a poker-dedicated machine such as ie (I prefer Mozilla) , outlook, messenger, MS Works etc etc
5. Tune up XP Services for performance by changing Windows services settings (I will use BlackVipers advice probably) to minimise the bells & whistles
6. Put in more RAM probably

MY QUESTIONS:

** What do you think of my plan - any improvements in the way I'm doing all this ?
** I'm confused about where the best place to put A:\ is. From the little I've read I *think* it's as far as possible to the inside of the disc near to the spindle. The reason I'm confused is the outside of the disc is the place where the track is moving under the head fastest so isn't that where the head can read/write quickest ?
**So if I do put A:\ on the 'inside' I will first have to shrink C:\ to make room - Is it safe to shrink the 'front' of C:\

I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but I think that's enough for now

 

I agree with all support replies above, you really should invest in a newer hard drive. They are minimum 250Gigs these days (I suppose you could still get smaller ones though)
And generally many users purchase external Terabyte drives for all their data needs.

Anyway, the amount of difference in speed from the outside of the hard drive to the inside is insignificant.
If you wanted a bit more hard drive speed, again you are best purchasing a new hard drive, they're pretty cheap these days

 

PeteC - not helpful

I work at poker 300 hands an hr, 6hrs a day. 24 days a month.

The tables run at between 80 & 150 hands/hr each & I play 2 or 3 at a time. This is easy stuff in the online poker world.

There are multi-tablers who routinely play over 20 tables at once

I play

 

Obviously these 40,000 games do not accumulate lots of data, for you to wanting to partition a 30Gig drive and making a data folder.

Have you though of just having an external drive for your data? Or even just putting the data in your documents folder?

In defense to PeteC, I have never heard of such a full on online gambler, and I've seen thousands of logs (that carry these poker games, and in many cases malwares as well)

But so be it, you are addicted (or you are a really good winner

 

Steve, Arie, Kimsland

I will call it drive D:\ then

I'm happy with the 30GB drive. It allows plenty of space for my data because I keep nothing older than 6 months. Each month I clean out data that's 7 months old.

250GB would be a waste of space & I don't need more speed because what I have works very well

I would like to put the PostgreSQL DB stuff on another partition for easy backups & efficient defragging

Where shall I put D:\ ?
What do you think of my plan ?
Any advice - given that I'm sticking with XP Pro & my current hardware & I'm only using external storage for backups & nothing else (not used & I don't intend to use for data I'm currently accessing) ?

Kind regards
Michael

 

I use XP Pro, far as I'm concerned it still works well (although I'm not a high end gamer)
"D" should be placed at the back of your system drive (ie don't move Windows "C" drive or anything)
Keep "C" (the system OS partition) at the beginning of the drive

I can't see any further issues, except since 30Gig drives are old, you may want to have a backup of your data backup (which may seem a little pointless)

 

Thank you Kimsland I will follow your advice - useful. I appreciate your help

D:\ will go at the 'back' of C:\

I don't understand what you're saying here: "I can't see any further issues, except since 30Gig drives are old, you may want to have a backup of your data backup (which may seem a little pointless) ", but perhaps this covers it...

BACKUPS: I have ANOTHER almost identical machine (both are laptops) & I keep each one up-to-date to within a day. Even if I lost all my data I can get it all back from PokerStars within 12 hours

THE LONG TERM PLAN: I am waiting for 'Holdem Manager'(HM) to release a Linux version of their poker tracker software & then I will build a machine with a small SSD & my defrag concerns will be history. If HM don't do it soon (within a year) I will have to run some sort of Windows VM environment inside Linux since I am not mad keen on moving to Win 7. I will pay a Linux friend to tailor the Linux OS to my specific needs

BBSFORUM ADVICE: As per my original post - I will move my data to D:\ using this:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/49222-moving-windows-xp-default-folders-rev1.html
This will include the windows documents folder, but I will not put my 'hands' in documents because I have PostgreSQL for that & also a C:\HMArchive which will become D:\HMArchive

HM FORUM ADVICE: Did you take a look at this ? Any comments ?:
http://forums.holdemmanager.com/showthread.php?t=25584
It explains how to move the PostgreSQL DB folder to a (real or virtual) drive thats different from the PostgreSQL program location

¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( >< ¿ <°((( ><

MY REPLIES TO YOUR GENERAL COMMENTS:
** LOGS & MALWARE - Absolutely not possible where I play. PokerStars are safer than a bank when it comes to online security. I am more likely to pick up malware etc off a MS or Adobe site than at PS
** WORK - Online poker is my work - according to HM I worked 1,549hrs last year while a full time worker in the UK will probably do 1,950hrs/yr & I don't have to drive anywhere nor get involved in office politics - ideal really !
** ADDICTION - This is far from being addictive behaviour It allows me to work from home & look after my beautiful little pre-school daughter - whom I love beyond reason
** GAMBLING - It is skilled hard work that requires discipline. There is no possibility of slipping into a loss because of the many precautions I take - the primary ones are having a lot of data on my opponents & keeping a close eye on my own game. It is a sport & just like any other successful sportsman (woman) I train & keep myself open to new methods
** WINNING - I am a winner. In the top 1% at my stakes. There is NO TAX in the UK on this income & my poker costs are tiny. It is not a recreational 'gaming' activity for me

Kind regards
Michael ¿ <°((( ><

 

Well having a small break and coming back here and viewing your reply. I may have been a bit heavy handed and dealt you a bad hand in parts of my replies above to you.
So I do apologize, as I am no judge to what or how anyone lives their life at home or work or in their sport. Online Poker obviously sounds to be a prosperous and excellent way to maintain a financially stable (or better than) life. If you are good at what you do, and after that many hours you would have to be.

I suspect that automatically many would be a bit skeptical at how much time you spend online just playing poker, and that would make you stronger in defending these attacks (or unfounded accusations) as the months roll by.
I will say that I have no interest in anyone's life and how they live it (except my own and my kids) Nor when I service computers both online and locally here, I couldn't care less for user's data or what legitimate programs are installed and being used.
In saying that, generally "poker" installed games do accompany malware and infected computers. But obviously not all poker games are the same (ie there are secure ones of which you use)

Lets face it, deep down we all envy someone in your position. At home with your daughter. Playing poker, and making money My situation is not far off that, as I need to take care of my, two school age, kids myself (me being the only available parent) Except I have to do a manual labor part time job to survive, basically I couldn't find a part time computer related job (all these positions require 12 hour days usually!)
I do actually service computers when I can as well. (and that's what I'm good at) But sadly this is not enough to survive on in my present small country town location.

So my humble apologies for any poorly written words to you. Please take it as mentioned without judgment or any knowledge of how you live your life. I am only interested in solving the computer related technical issue that members post and ask for free support, (as obviously I'm not getting paid here), in helping someone who they don't even know.

 

Kimsland

I enjoyed your post. Have you thought of doing remote viewer tech support sessions from home ? I don't know how easy it would be to generate business that way, but my Linux friend does it as a one-man-band in the USA for private individuals from his home in the middle of nowhere (a very lovely nowhere). He supplements this working for a retail computer chain doing the same thing. I imagine it could be an attractive proposition if you live in an area with low I.T. needs.

If you have a chance could you look at the hold'em manager link & give me your opinion ?

To give you some background on the world of poker you could check out www[DOT]PokerStars[DOT]com which is registered & based in the Isle of Man.
To give you an idea - like a lot of banks (& strangely world of warcraft ~ whatever that is) Pokerstars provide an RSA security token to me for viewing & handling my account - it's a serious biz

Right now there are 293,316 players from every nation in the world at 45,229 tables playing: Texas Hold'em (fixed limit, no limit, pot limit, play money), Omaha (normal & hi/lo/), Stud (7-card, 7-card hi/lo, razz), Draw (5-card draw, 2-7 triple draw, 2-7 single draw), HORSE, HOSE, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha H/L, 8-game, PLH/PLO & Badugi. These games can be Heads Up, 6max, 8/9 player, 10 player - then there's tournaments, Sit&Go & special events

There are maybe 20 levels of Stakes ranging from $0.01/$0.02 with a maximum buy-in of $5.00 right up to $200/$400 with a MINIMUM buy-in (per table!) of $20k. I am very much towards the low end of the ladder, but not so low as to make it attractive to work for someone else ever again. There are also private games on there which I can't view, but they are known as the 'nose bleed stakes'

I play exclusively 6-max (meaning there are 6 seats round the table) cash No Limit Texas Hold'em which isn't for the nervous type & I think there might be 8,000 people playing the same game/stakes as myself in any given month & I have 5,000 players on my database whom I've played against at my current stakes - so you can see the value of data.

Kind regards to you & your little family
Michael ¿ <°((( ><

 

Thanks. I re-read it and thought woops that's sounds like I might be angry but I was actually trying to be compassionate to your needs (thankfully you took it the right way)

I don't want to stray offtopic (your topic here) as the Mods may close the thread. (I was a Moderator too for a few years (elsewhere), and "offtopic" replies are always seen as possible cause to close a thread (or remove posts)
But I have signed up to one of those online remote viewer things (who knows where now, it was a few years ago, it could have even been skype that rings a bell)
Anyway I was one of a few thousand faces, and I undercut everyone's support by stating $5 only (I also felt that I could provide better value for dollar than higher respected (and higher priced) support members)
But no emails came So I thought, oh well, maybe I won't do that.
I even officially applied foe geeksRus (or some lingo) But they wanted me to attend a 2 week stay over at their HQ and they also requested that I own a specific (new) car.
Since I wasn't about to spend $20K or more (plus insurance and signage) I decided not to go for that either.

I eventually opened my own tech retail shop (actually inside a shopping complex) With me as the Manager and everything (including all that painful tax stuff)
I did well there, but the shopping complex was sold off too one of the major "Mart" people. And guess what? They didn't want a small computer shop, so I was out

I actually have a large computer career tech history, all of them being quite respected. Including: Dell; Unisys; Government; and private sectors and University (as the sole tech in one large department)
I really do know my computer stuff
Basically when my wife (good point I'm a guy) decided to be the modern woman (!!!) and leave me AND her 3yo and 2yo kids!!! Guess what? My career took a dive.
So here I am Tech and University graduate. Loads of industry; and private sector specialized experience. Sitting at home providing free support on tech forums.
Please Google kimsland, every single tech hit is me

Oh well... BACK To Topic

I read all the way through that forum topic and specialized support replies
All seems quite easy to do, if you just follow exactly what they say.
If you have further issues with this, it may be best to direct this specialized (specific program dependent only) support back to a new reply there.
General hings like partitioning or using registry editing and backing up copying/moving so forth, can be handled here. (ie just standard Windows and system tasks. Hardware and software.)

 

Thank you Kimsland - I will let you know how I get on

I Googled. Happy Birthday for last week ! I'm more Disc than Disk, but now I know how/when to use both

BTW...

There's a lot of need for HP9000 tech support - a lot of companies have legacy UNIX machines many years old (including DARPA & offshoots, Pentagon, NASA) which must remain accessible. There's no young people now who can do this stuff. May be worth a look if your locale is not TOO remote. Used HP9000 kit is selling for a fortune all over the world. For example insurance companies must keep their data readily viewable even when it's 20 years old - it's cheaper to keep the old machines running than to migrate it across OS's & technologies.

I was importing from the US & selling 4.6 & 9Gb HP HDD's 5 years ago for around £600 & D Class servers for $2k-3K. The guy who installed for me charged £250 a visit minimum & £1,200 for the day if it involved more than plugging it in. He didn't deliver - just turned up in a suit & tie & did a bit of keyboard work. Genius !

TTFN

 

lol

You know I think it was me that got Seagate to change on this.
That thread is nearly 2 years old now. It may not have been me, but I'd like to think so anyway

Also, yep my b'day last week. We (the 3 of us) went on a 3hr boat scenic ride (it was actually pretty cheap, but fun)

I might look into that HP9000 thingy. Thanks for the info