XP Pro on virgin PC

I've been to a few forums and raised the question of partitioning but received answers such as:
"You may want to consider adding a second hard drive. "
"My recommendation to anyone that stores anything on their computer is to always make a second partition and store your critical files/ and or anything you cannot be without. "
"Keep your registry clean, occasionally look for entries yourself using the search function. "
"10GB for your primary, don't install anything there. Only drivers and Windows XP. That's what I do, I also used it as my swap partition. "
"You probably can, but I just meant installing all the programs on another partition. Don't use 'My documents'. That's not trustworthy, anyway. What I do is create a 1GB FAT32 backup partition so I can read it with nearly any OS should something go terribly wrong. I store my important documents there. "

Between all the answers I still cannot get down to the nitty gritty of partitioning. Also the answers then sometimes drift off as folk start to argue between themselves about other points made.

After reading various threads on WindowsBBS I found some posts by charlesvar in the Windows XP section.

I'll step back - I've purchased a new puter with XP Pro about 10 days ago, I've got a 320GB HDD and it is currently a two partition setup, C is 102GB and E is 195GB (NTFS). D being DVD/CD drive. Before I install firewall, anti-virus, etc, etc I would like to have my partitions set up correctly, each for its specific purpose.

He's nailed the subject on the head with his suggestions incl two great pics.
I decided if he cannot give me any tips then I'll rest my case and use this new puter (as I've used my old 98SE, currently a total disaster) as supplied by the shop, a two partition.
My main line of thought is to make enough partitions, really do not mind how many, to enable easy and convenient splitting of all logical data and then being able to use something like Acronis v7.0 (which I have) to regularly save critical partitions.

charlesvar:
No, you will not have to hold my hand and I'll not pester you throughout the whole procedure.
All I need is yr advice on qty of partitions, possibly with suggested sizes and suggested purpose of each partition.
Also if possible, which partitioning prog would you suggest. Each and every product I've checked comes with some or other negative comments. You being a 'partition person' will be able to advise me. It does not have to be freeware, it must just be able to do the task efficiently. I'm sure I'll find yr suggested prog here in Europe.

I would love to start using the puter but personally I feel that correct partitioning is the best foundation.

 

I'll try to throw something in.

I thought hard about setting up my partitions when I first started, like you. The thing is, I still use the same system now and put it onto friends and families systems if they understand drives/partitions.

I have worked mainly with Win 98, so I put that on the C: drive. D: later. E: is applications (third party programs). F: is data. (Now) G: is Win XP. I backup across a network or to optical disk and a second HDD would be ideal for backup, but I don't have enough data to warrant it (big files that i can't afford to lose). I have a basic system that can be loaded from optical disk and then add my data back. I don't mind reinstalling applications, sometimes I think they should be "Spring cleaned ". If my system falls over, I reinstall good "old" applications or new ones (or recent versions of old applications).

C: Windows and it's most dependent (MS) applications...Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, MS Messenger, etc). MS Office seems to work on the E: drive, but gets confused if the drive letters change (although I use an old version of MS Office).

E: I have made a folder Program Files on the E: drive. When a program is being installed I just change the recommended location, C:\Program Files\Blah Blah to E:\Program Files\Blah Blah.

F: My Library. I put all my save data/information here. I can then easily burn it to disk or backup across the network. I don't use My Documents (although you can transfer the location of my documents to another drive). I use a whole drive as My Documents.

G: has become Win XP, it seems quite happy there, but I need to install applications to the same drive (G: ) or make a new drive for Win XP applications. I can't install Win XP applications over those in E: (Win 98 applications), it won't work that way, installation/file usage is different. If you don't have a dual/multiple boot system, this won't worry you.

Now D:, D: is special because on some (now original) versions of Windows, adding a second harddrive meant the first partition of the second drive became the D: drive and shunted all those behind it into the next drive letter.
I use D: as a place to put temporary files...burning files, editing files, "cache" files, etc. You can transfer the location of "temporary" folders here, like the Temporary Internet Files folder, Windows\Temp folder, even the Pagefile file (although if Windows starts up and finds if for some reason it does not have a Pagefile, it probably won't work).
Putting temporary files onto one drive means that they do not fragment the OS drive. Your OS system is not fragmented by putting the data into different locations on the disk.
If I add a second harddrive I can turn the D: drive into freespace on the HDD using a partition management program, then the D: drive becomes the first partition of the second HDD. (Just maybe...why your system has been set up with the CD/DVD drive as D:...a "changeable" drive.)

Those were/are the way I set up drives, although Win XP gives you more freedom to allocate the lettering system. Me, I would not stray from the basics too far.

I recommend putting the backup (Acronis) onto another HDD. It usually seems to be "all or nothing" with HDDs. If the motors, heads or electronics fail on a HDD you won't be able to backup from a drive on that disk. If the MRB gets scrambled it usually takes all the drives on that disk/HDD with it.

Partitioning program...
I had Partition Magic 4 then got a more recent version. sometimes.
I got a free version of Partition Manager (Ranish I think) from a PC magazine, it has worked perfectly so far.

I hope others throw in their setups, I have seen some very setups. PeteC...I think he has run out of drive letters

Matt

 

Hello willem07,

I use Partition Magic v8.0 - still a Power Quest version, Symantec bought Power Quest. If you look around on the net, you can still get it and works well on XP.

I personnally have just two partitions per OS - one for the OS and the other for non OS user files. I'm basically set up the way Tony is. Windows has a good basic organizing principle in the folder and use Folders instead of multiple partitions to organize data. But that's your choice. If after creating partitions and using you change your mind, they can be consoldated/eliminated.

I know you came to this from the System Restore thread so you know I have two OS's and have external drives. Later you can add external drive(s) which in the long run is a good idea. I also reffered to Chriter's thread on moving the My Documents folder to a non OS partition which you can also do later if you wish once you're set your partitions.

I hope between all of us we've made a good start on answering your basic questions.

For everybody's FYI, this started out as PM from willem07.

Regards - Charles

 

First off, thanks Charles for the suggestion in yr PM response that I place a thread here. This is not food for thought, this is practical sound experience advice from 'real' users.
Matt, Christer and TonyT - I'm going to check my new puter current shop setup and do some mathematics and will be back asap.
At last I can get started and ask a few more to-the-point questions.

Thanks folk!

 

In the interest of circumventing confusion, this single partition guy will refrain from an expose on his logic.

 

Willem, based on the "tone" of your post, I just want to make sure that you know that there is no right answer to all this. TBH, with a such question, we can simply make recommendations based on our personal experience.

I would suggest that you go with two or three partitions simply because it makes backups and system recovery (from disaster) more convenient, more compartmentalized and more robust.

I applaud you on your use of Acronis. I use Acronis 9 and it's simply amazing. And for simply disk cloning I use Norton Ghost 2003 as it's very fast.

Gary

 

Matt - Currently E: only contains two folders, Recycler and an "Access is denied" folder named System Volume Information. It is showing 70MB space used & 195GB free of the 195GB.
C: with everything, showing 4.17GB used & 98.3GB free of the 102GB.
I guesstimate I should:
Resize primary C: to about 25GB for ALL progs
Make a backup partition for C: of plus/minus 25GB - name it drive ?:
Leave the dif (52GB) open and name it ?: and leave as is - re TonyT

Current E: partition of 195G to be used for User data & Temp files and My Docs - re TonyT
With ghosting I would prefer to write to an external Iomega drive I’ve got.

Christer - Hidden partition of 15GB! - yes that seems to be pretty large but I understand that I shouldn't remove it because it is part of recovery process? Should I remove it with ATI what will the consequences be? I’m not tight on space and may well in future install another drive for easier ghosting.
The only sort-of heavy prog I use is Photoshop, oldish version, but intend to upgrade to CS2 soon.

TonyT - ...change the drive letter of the cdroms-dvd drives to X & Y...
Yes I've noticed that the cd/dvd drive on D: rather awkward between the current two partitions. Is there a std XP option somewhere inside Device Manager to enable renaming?

Charles - Re external drive. I do have a Iomego 160GB USB drive that I've been using to copy photos, fonts and psd files to (user date from my old PC). In no special order, just folders with files kept should something go wrong. I suppose I'll have to partition this USB drive also to obtain a separate partition for Acronis to write to but in NTFS format? This drive still FAT at this stage?

Rockster2U - I believe that single partition users outweigh the rest by at least 80% but if you’re such a paranoid like me...

Gary - I acknowledge this is a 50/50 issue but I prefer to learn from the experienced and not by first experimenting myself. I will not hold anybody responsible should I bungle it now or in future. I will have a closer look at Norton Ghost, read many positives about it.

Plse be so kind as not to agree with me to what I’ve written here and spot the potholes.

 

Hi willem,

Re the ROM drives. Go into Disk Management: Right click on My Computer > Manage > under Storage > Disk Management. Right click on ROM drives > Change Drive Letters and Paths.. and assign new drive letters.

About the external drive. No need to partition unless you feel better organized - just a folder(s) for the .tib image files. Keep in mind, with every partition, you add a drive letter to the system.

No particular need to change file format either, it can stay FAT32. XP goes from one format to the other transparently.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi All,

Here are my 2 cents.

I agree with TonyT, you do not have to reboot when changing drive letters. I have done this several times.

TonyT, you partitioned your 320 GB hard drive into "C" and "D" using C for the OS and programs and D for your user files and a Ghost Image.
If the hard drive ever goes bad, you will not be able to get to the Ghost image to restore it. So, what would be the point of having a Ghost image on the same drive?
Am I missing something?
Please enlighten me.

Regards
Sven

 

I think Sven hit the nail on the head - and, with HDD's being as cheap (rephrase - inexpensive) as they are today, it makes good sense to have at least a couple. Losing a hard drive is no joy unless one has made adequate provisions for the possibility. Anyone who has been at it long enough knows catastrophic hard drive failure can happen to anybody. When and if it does, the wiser ones will be prepared to handle it in stride.

 

TonyT

You must be very lucky. I had 2 HDD fail on me within 3 month. Because of that I was wondering why you do this. I guess it is faster to restore from HDD then from DVD, as long as you only want to restore something that was messed up on "Câ€.

Thanks for explaining
Sven

 

Charles re #10 - Thanks Charles, yr renaming procedure fine and I’ve applied it to move the optical CD/DVD drive to Z: and change E: to D:.
What I left out previously was that I’ve requested the shop to add a 5.25 frt panel internal card reader/2x USB + Firewire and that added F: = MMC/SD, G: = CompactFlash I/II, H: = SmartMedia and I: = MS/MS/Pro to the list. I suppose it is best to move/rename this bunch further down the line to prevent them being in-between the partitions? Any suggestions? Z: is now DVD-RAM while C: & D: now the current two partitions.

Christer re #11 - It is not a special Dell or HP computer but it is an "own brand" of the shop that I’ve requested to be upgraded with a more current mobo & chipset, or at least up to where my finance could afford it (Asrock Conroe945PL-Glan & Intel PentiumD 945 3.4 GHz 800M plus 1GB RAM).
I suppose the "own brand" installation could have caused "...some kind of hidden recovery built into it� There are a few "freebies" which I have my doubts about but I’ll move over to the other section for advice.

TonyT re #12 - The XP Pro is a real version, the package actually still sealed. For ghosting I still need to purchase a prog and have noticed Norton version highly rated. Will add that to my "new" thread in the other section.
As soon as I have such in my hands I’ll check the hidden partition, thanks.

Reboot after renaming a drive or partition - not knowing enough, I follow-up a Reg change automatically with a reboot because I read once that w/o a reboot changes will not take effect. Well, I’ll skip it in future with renaming of partitions.

 

Hi willem,

Moving those devices down above the optical(s) and not having them in between the partitions is a good idea.

Regards - Charles