[dave]

alright wiggaz and wiggettez

hopefully getting new machine in the next few days. am thinking about setting up a partition on the HD to keep apps and files seperate incase of system fuckups, reinstalling windows etc. My question is how much space is it wise to set aside for the apps and windows shit? i will have a 160gb HD. i won't be running games or owt like that, just the usual shit, office, dreamweaver, nero, PSP, photoshop etc etc. Once you've made the partition, can you move it around later, disk space permitting?

Also i will obvisouly need some kind of tool to do this partition - preferably free and not wack. Also when is it best to do the partition - presumably straight after windows is installed?

Any other tips for partitioning will be gratefully received, preferably in words of 1 sylable or less.

[a dense loner]

do it as you're installing windows. say 8gb for windows on drive c, 12gb for apps on drive f, 20g for tunes on drive g, n 130gb for pr0n on drive h. windows asks you do you want to set up (format), and gives you choices like create or delete. you only need a partitioning tool if everything is already installed.

feel freel to jumble them numbers around tho if you need more pr0n :wink:

[dave]

cheers for the advice dense. the worrying part is that those numbers add up to 170gb. I wish you worked in a shop and had to give me change.

[a dense loner]

i had theoretically compressed your pr0n so you could get more bang for your buck. the more astute will realise the numbers don't change tho.

[squeek]

Like dense says you can partition all your disks before you install windows, which means you might be better reinstalling it, if your PC has it already installed.

If you're having partitions to allow you to format and reinstall windows on a windows parition without losing your data there's not much point having several different partitions for everything else.  When you reinstall windows, most of your applications will have to be reinstalled too as the registry entries won't be there.  You might want to think about having one parition for windows and apps, and another for data.  Having 20 for mp3s, 40 for films etc, isn't really going to give you any advantage of having a 60 for both, with the disadvantage that if you fill the partition up you'll have to start putting that kind of data on another partition.

I used to have several partitions for different things, but now think it can be a pain, and doesn't give you much advantage so I've just got one on my laptop.  What you think is a big partition for windows now, will probably be needed for the virtual memory in 4 years (that could be an exageration  :wink: ).

Also note that you can reinstall windows without formatting a partition, and try to recover or check the disk without reinstalling windows.  You can even run an operating system from a CD to see what's on the harddrives.

[Bubba]

Holy shit, Dense has actually given out some useful advice with no sarcasm :shock:

As long as you keep your c: drive seperate, you can do what you want with the rest.

On your disk, I'd allocate 8 - 12 g for windows. I always split into d: for apps, e: for data, f: for a work area but that's just convenience, there's no real advantage to that setup over having one big d: partition.

I only ever install windows and office into c.

If you have to re-install windows, yes, you will have to re-install your apps, but if they're on a seperate drive, then it's easier to keep track of what you had installed, etc.

[dave]

my original idea was to have the drive partitioned into 2 -  one drive for apps and windows, and one for data (i agree subdividing data up seems to be redundant). so given whats been said this seems to be a good plan. so how much to allow for the apps/windows drive? 20gig, or is that excesive? bearing in mind for last few years been running xp and all the apps and data together on one 25gig drive.

[Bubba]

20 should be fine I reckon.

[squeek]

Better too big than too small, and it's only 12.5% of your drive.

[a dense loner]

don't worry bubbs, i put the references to pr0n in there just so people wouldn't be too shocked :wink:

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I normally work with just a couple of partitions like previously suggested, one for windows and apps, t'other for data. One thing to bear in mind though is that although easier for some things, partitioning one harddrive doesn't protect your data, eg. if the harddrive dies, you'll loose everything on all partitions. If you are building a PC or need more space, I highly recommend buying two or more smaller drives (with one partition each) rather than one HUGE one with several partitions. This way if your playing the numbers game, the probability that two drives will fail simutaneously is tiny, so you can make a backup of vital files (like Dense's prOn collection) safe and sound.

And a reminder to those who think 'modern hard drives never die', I can assure you they do, and most don't give you any warning! So three little hints:
1) Backup
2) Backup
3) Backup

[dave]

don't worry oboe, i always back up everyting irreplacable (i.e. photos) to CD all the time anyroad.

I don't yet go to the lengths some people do of having 3 identical harddrives of different make running simultaneously replicating between themselves, and burning 3 copies of every backup CD (all different brands), one for the house, one to bury in an airraid shelter in the garden and one sent UPS to a safe deposity box in a swiss bank.

[squeek]

I highly recommend buying two or more smaller drives (with one partition each) rather than one HUGE one with several partitions.

You mean buying two or more HUGE ones, no?  One of my friends has about 2TB in his now, although he doesn't run MS sindows.

[a dense loner]

does he get out much? :wink:

[dave]

ok muthasuckers

got new machine home, started it up, had XP pro on it already but went to reinstall it from a CD so could set up partitions. so i goes through the shit in the kind of "vaguely knowing what i'm doing but not really" manner. anyway, to the best of my ability i try to set up the partition so C: drive was 20gig and the rest whatever. when its finally finishes installing the C: drive is indeed 20gig, and the other drive shows up as 108gig. Which is my problem...as its a 160gig drive. So what gives? Hit me.

[Jim]

Its normally out a bit but not by 20 gigs! right click my computer, manage, disk management and see whats up

[squeek]

1 gig when you buy the hard drive is 1,000,000,000 bytes, there are 1024 bytes in a Kilobyte on the harddrive once you actually use it, and the same for Mega in kilos and Giga in megas, ie 1 gigabyte is actually 1073741824
 bytes.  So you should lose ~ 7%, but not as much as you have done as Jim has pointed out

[dave]

word, you always know they end up being a bit smaller than they say on the box, but as you say not that much.

am currently running a maxtor utility to scan the disk and check its flava, will then check the disk managment shizzle. the annoying thing is that when it had XP on initially i'm sur eit was reading 150gb-odd, so it more likely to be summert i've fucked up reinstalling xp. question.

[dave]

ok just gone into the disk management ting, it doesn't tell me anything that i didn't already know. seems the computer is only seeing 131gbsworth of the disk.

[Bubba]

Found this:

Also, another common reason why harddrives do not show up the right capacity:
FAT16 File system: Max 2GB partitions (I think this counts FDisk with no large disk support)
FAT32 (on Win9X): 2 TB (Terrabytes)
FAT32 (on Win2000 and XP): 32Gb
NTFS (Pre SP1 installer): 127GB (or there abouts.)
NTFS (SP1 or higher): 2 TB

Are you running XP at < SP1 ?

[dave]

Found this:

Also, another common reason why harddrives do not show up the right capacity:
FAT16 File system: Max 2GB partitions (I think this counts FDisk with no large disk support)
FAT32 (on Win9X): 2 TB (Terrabytes)
FAT32 (on Win2000 and XP): 32Gb
NTFS (Pre SP1 installer): 127GB (or there abouts.)
NTFS (SP1 or higher): 2 TB

Are you running XP at < SP1 ?

word - it it XP pro from a CD so won't have either SP1 or 2 on it yet, have not yet sorted out network/tinternet on it yet. Are you saying i need to install SP1 (thus get all me network and shit set up?) before it will detect it fully and i can try and repartition? shitty death.

why is nothing ever fucking simple.

[Bubba]

sounds like it from that post, but you never know how correct it is.

make sure you install some sort of firewall *before* doing the sp2 update. the average time for infection of an unprotected windows pc is in minutes without a firewall.

[Jim]

did you get XP cd with compurer? if its new it should be sp2.
If you've only just installed xp, reinstall, and when it comes to set up options again, delete all partitions (some pc's have hidden partitions with drivers and windows on them) and see what it tells you you have space on the hard drive when you create your c: partition again

[dave]

did you get XP cd with compurer? if its new it should be sp2.

i got the CD "elsewhere", its pre-SP1/2.

If you've only just installed xp, reinstall, and when it comes to set up options again, delete all partitions (some pc's have hidden partitions with drivers and windows on them) and see what it tells you you have space on the hard drive when you create your c: partition again

Thats what i did initially, it was saying the drive is 131gb. The irony is that the machine had XP with SP2 on it when i got it but i went for a reinstall of XP to sort out the partitions, not knowing that A. XP <Sp1 don't like big drives, and B. the XP i had on cd was pre-Sp1.:roll:

not to worry will just set up the router/network and shit and get the XP updates. Bubba i believe the router has sone kind of inbuilt firewall. plus i can always set the network up sans internet adn move my zonealarm installer from the laptop to the new box before putting tinternet back on if need be, but it aught to be OK with the router firewall at least till i get ZA installed.

[simes]

this is probably not your problem, but some motherboards come with an outdated bios which cant handle large hard discs. if this is the case youll have to obtain the latest bios from the manufacturers site.
dont get it wrong though 'cos you can permanently damage your motherboard if you do.