Some partitioning ?s

Hello All -

I recently purchased a new Dell XPS 400 with a 250gb hard drive and I want to set up some partitions with Partition Magic 8. I'm new to this "partitioning" stuff, so . . . I'm looking for some serious "direction" and suggestions.

I remember something BillyBob once said (and certainly, more than once) about having his OS on a single partition so it wouldn't (or couldn't) get corrupted and that statement has made a lot of sense to me since I first read it - way back when.

Okay . . . . . Here we go. I'm running the latest "updated" version (as of last week) of the WindowsXP Pro Media Edition OS.

I guess my first question would be - How much disk space does the WindowsXP Pro Media Edition OS require and how much more space should I reserve on the C: drive for the many OS updates, fixes, patches, repairs (ad infinitum), etc., that will certainly come down the pike from Microsoft in the next few years?

Space isn't a problem. This computer is a "working" computer, not a TOY, so I don't need a ton of HDD space for a lot of junk that I'll never download or use. It has more than twice the space on a single hard drive than my old one has on two physical hard drives.

On my old computer, I'm running WinXP(sp2) and all of my other stuff, plus a 20gb "storage space ", on an 80gb HDD and Win98SE (and nothing else) on a 40gb HDD. Collectively, the free space on the three drives is about 78%.

I don't collect music downloads because I'm not too "cheap" to buy CDs of the music I like. I don't download any other stuff that I can't really use. I do, however, download and save the digital photos from my camera and "play" with them, at times, with some really great (and mostly FREE) software that I have aquired over the years.

My plan, though it is still in limbo, is to have the OS on one drive, all my other programs on another, my pics on another, my created websites on another, my documents on yet another, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well, I think you get my drift here.

Bottom line, BBSers: Please pass on your suggestions, ideas and recommendations! They ALL will be considered.

As I said above ~ I'm looking for some direction here. This is, most certainly, the last computer that I will ever buy and I just want to make it the best that I can while I'm still able to use it.

As always, any and all help is greatly appreciated. TIA!!


Mike

OBTW: In my estimation, WindowsBBS is the greatest site on the WEB!! And the people that contribute TO it, are much, much better than that!! Thank you ALL!!

I have picked your brains for 4+ years now and I've never been let down!! Thanks to you ALL!!!

 

Firstly Mike you need to be aware that your machine will already have the hard drive partitioned into 3 for the Dell restore system. If you modify this partition layout in any way you will loose the ability to revert to factory condition. http://goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm

You will need to set up your own way of keeping and restoring images of your OS before you remove the Dell system, or your only way of replacing a damaged Windows will be a reinstall "“ and who wants to do that every year or two. The Dell system will always put the computer back to delivery condition, so everything you have ever changed or added, all your data and settings will be gone forever. If you set up your own system then you can keep it updated so restoring an image of your OS will only take you back as far as when you made your last image.

Do you have a full Windows CD? If not then it’s advisable to get one. Check and see if there is an option within XP to make one, or request one from Dell.

The OS can still get corrupted, it’s just easier to replace an image of the OS without loosing the data that’s on a separate partition.

It’s questionable whether having programs on a separate partition is worth it. If you are reinstalling Windows you will still have to reinstall all your programs. If you are restoring images of your OS then yes the restored Windows will use the programs as before, however if you have a faulty or damaged program it will be the same after you restore your image, as it was not a part of your image.

You don’t need a multitude of partitions to do this, just folders on one partition.

 

I'm with McTavish on this too. I can't see where having multiple partitions on a single drive is any kind of an advantage. I am a big believer in multiple drives however and use both imaging and automatic backup software to save "stuff" from a system drive to another drive so its no big deal to restore or replace in the event disaster strikes (and sooner or later it can happen).

 

Been away for a while. I'll come back in a day or two and try to learn from you all. Thanks for the replies.


Mike

 

I'll chime in with McTavish and Rock on having only two partitions on a drive, OS and the other for everything else.

Also have an external USB drive to store the OS image on and store user data backups in case of any disaster.

Regards - Charles