Partitioning

[Grasshopper]

I've noticed that my Dell Dimension 2400's 40GB. H.D.D. does nothave any partitions (that I'm aware of at least). But my brothers H.P. Pavilian 503n did (like Windows was off in it's own little space). Do I absolutely have to create Partitions on my new H.D.D. (Maxtor MaxLine III 7L250S0)? And what is the advantage of doing so? Also, how much space should I allow for Windows XP Pro if I were to give it it's own partition? Thanks in advance for all the info.

 

[vortmax]

I highly recomend running two partitions if not 2 drives. Keep all your documents on the second partition(drive) as well as your mail .dat files (if you use an e-mail client). This way if windows crashes or you otherwise need to reformat, you can just wipe the windows partition(drive) clean and not worry about backing up documents. How much room you give windows depends on what you plan on running. If you want to install a lot of games then I'd do a 50/50 split. 20 gig for windows, 20 gig for documents. I would just buy a second 40 gig drive off of newegg for like $50 and install that on the secondary IDE channel. That will make it where the windows drive can physically die with no side effects to critical documents and speed up seek times.

 

[Grasshopper]

I highly recomend running two partitions if not 2 drives. Keep all your documents on the second partition(drive) as well as your mail .dat files (if you use an e-mail client). This way if windows crashes or you otherwise need to reformat, you can just wipe the windows partition(drive) clean and not worry about backing up documents. How much room you give windows depends on what you plan on running. If you want to install a lot of games then I'd do a 50/50 split. 20 gig for windows, 20 gig for documents. I would just buy a second 40 gig drive off of newegg for like $50 and install that on the secondary IDE channel. That will make it where the windows drive can physically die with no side effects to critical documents and speed up seek times.

Thanks for the reply. But I'm actually going to be working on a new (my first) build using the Maxtor Maxline III L7250S0 250GB SATA drive that I mentioned in the earlier post. And will probably set up a RAID 1 configuration (got 1 getting another, I think). But either way, I surely wouldn't need to allow 125GB. for Windows, would I? It sounded as if you think 20GB. would be sufficient, is that correct?

 

[Geoff]

20GB would be enough if you dont plan to store anything major on there, and without any programs. I'd say at least 80GB. And you dont need 2 partitions or 2 drives, just get a flash drive or external hard drive and use that to backup your stuff.

 

[Trizoy]

I highly recomend running two partitions if not 2 drives. Keep all your documents on the second partition(drive) as well as your mail .dat files (if you use an e-mail client). This way if windows crashes or you otherwise need to reformat, you can just wipe the windows partition(drive) clean and not worry about backing up documents. How much room you give windows depends on what you plan on running. If you want to install a lot of games then I'd do a 50/50 split. 20 gig for windows, 20 gig for documents. I would just buy a second 40 gig drive off of newegg for like $50 and install that on the secondary IDE channel. That will make it where the windows drive can physically die with no side effects to critical documents and speed up seek times.

I am not totallt sure about this... but if your hard drive gets an error... The whole drive is goign to be screwed.. Not just one partition. You would need to reformat the entire thing. Maybe it depends on what kind of error.

 

[randruff]

I am not totallt sure about this... but if your hard drive gets an error... The whole drive is goign to be screwed.. Not just one partition. You would need to reformat the entire thing. Maybe it depends on what kind of error.

Well, in theory, he would only have to format the windows partition BUT any programs on your other partitions will not function correctly after. There will no longer be any registry keys/values for them. For a situation like having 2 partitions, one is windows, other is storage, and something goes wrong. Your best bet is probably to delete that windows partition, connect that HDD to another machine, pull any wanted files off your HDD onto that machine, and format/partition the entire drive over again. It sounds like a pain in the arse, i know, but your functionality of programs after a windows partition only format will not be a fun party either.