Does anyone have all their games on a SEPARATE PARTITION? Any probs w/that?

[MichaelD]

Hi all. Tomorrow, I'll be doing a fresh install of W2K SP3/DX8.1b on a new HD.

Traditionally, I create a Folder called GAMES on the primary partition (the partition that has the OS on it), put all my games and their updates on it and everything runs well. Until Windoze starts to flake after about 9 months, but that's another story.

I am considering putting all the games on a separate partition, this way, if the OS gets hosed, I blow away that partition and just ghost an image to it.

I am concerned that the games will not run correctly, due to the fact that the games need Program and System files to run.

Am I way off-base here? Will there be some sort of slowdown/probs/issues from this strategy?

Thanks.

 

[Mitzi]

You will not have ANY problems with that approach...I've been doing it for years. All my games are installed to d:\games\gamename.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, Mitzi.

Leaving room for growth, what size is good for a Primary Partition? 10GB? I know W2K and the SPs will fit on 2GB (thereabouts) but I want some "elbow room."

 

[Mitzi]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Thanks, Mitzi.

Leaving room for growth, what size is good for a Primary Partition? 10GB? I know W2K and the SPs will fit on 2GB (thereabouts) but I want some "elbow room."

Mines 40Gb but thats total overkill - I'm currently using 12Gb of that (I have a number of VMWare virtual machines on there).

I'm sure you could get away with 5Gb but hard drive space is so cheap nowadays I'd go for 10-15Gb just to be sure.

 

[Whitedog]

if the OS gets hosed, I blow away that partition and just ghost an image to it.

Unless your Ghost image was made after you've installed your games, you'll have to re-run the setup for each game.

I am concerned that the games will not run correctly, due to the fact that the games need Program and System files to run.

You're correct. Most all games now a days install registry setting....etc...

You will not have ANY problems with that approach...I've been doing it for years. All my games are installed to d:\games\gamename.

Riiiiight.... You've blown away your C drive and the games still worked without asking you to Install them again? What games do you play? Pong?

 

[Mitzi]

Originally posted by: Whitedog

Riiiiight.... You've blown away your C drive and the games still worked without asking you to Install them again? What games do you play? Pong?

For sure, you lose the start menu entries for them but they all work fine if you double-click the .exe...

Warcraft III, CounterStrike, System Shock 2, Starcraft, Diablo II, Ghost Recon and err....Harry Potter 2

<-- The non so hardcore gamer anymore

 

[Vegito]

I have multiple HDD

SCSI 0 & 1 are 9.1 10k RPM boot Drives

ie I clone 0 to 1 and choose to boot from either.. ie if i need to test a new program or something

IDE chanel 1 Master - wd 120gb - holds mp3/movie porn
IDE chanel 1 Slave - Raid mirror of above

IDE chanel 2 Slave - wd 120gb - holds "my documents" important documents
IDE chanel 2 Slave - Raid mirror of above

Your strategy should work if you take the image after you install the games, ie all reg keys and paths in place.

 

[Atlantean]

I put all my games on my second harddrive, I think they take up about 20 gigs of it now. No problems with it. As for Windows partition, why not make it about 5 gigs, then you can put apps with the os, like office xp and norton and all that other crap. I guess it depends on how much stuff you will be putting in there, and the size of the drive.

 

[DaFinn]

I've had 2 HDs for years now, and I allways have master with OS/Important Programs/Files etc... Slave has all Games/MP3s/po...umm other stuff! I have never met a game that would not run from another partition/HD!

So, no prob!



-DaFinn

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Whitedog

You will not have ANY problems with that approach...I've been doing it for years. All my games are installed to d:\games\gamename.

Riiiiight.... You've blown away your C drive and the games still worked without asking you to Install them again? What games do you play? Pong?

i hope this is sarcasm.

actually a lot of games work just fine without being reinstalled, like unreal and anything based on the quake engines. i think serious sam as well though i haven't tried that in a while

 

[hdeck]

i have copied a game's folders from one computer to a completely different one and have had the games run fine.

 

[Turkey22]

I've had a few games and programs that wouldn't run once I redid c: but most of em did. If you back up your reg after each install then you shouldnt have any problems. Good idea to keep separate partitions unless you have winxp.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your help.

I'm finally going to go with separate partitions; I'm tired of having to go back up "this and that" and look for "the other thing" every time Windoze gets hosed....like it is now.

Now, things like SANDRA, WCPUID, 3DMark, MP3 proggys...they should go on the OS partition, correct?

 

[CurtCold]

I have all my games on my RAID drive, and the os on the C, and D drives (dual boot with 9x and XP) I would give about 15GB for the OS, just because I have alot of stuff in the My Documents folder, and it fills up fast nowdays.

Alot of games will just copy over the network, games like Sims, and MCM2, won't. Basically as of late I've noticed most mocroshaft games, and other new games won't work without registry entries.

 

[DaFinn]

Now, things like SANDRA, WCPUID, 3DMark, MP3 proggys...they should go on the OS partition, correct?

No matter... they would work fine from any partition too. Only some of those would need to be reinstalled if you kill your c: drive...

 

[vash]

I don't tend to partition. Most of my organization comes from different disks. Disk1 boots, disk2 is for games, disk3 is for applications that aren't games. If I have only two drives, then disk1, disk3 are the same, but disk2 is always seperate.

vash

 

[Shagga]

Originally posted by: Mitzi
You will not have ANY problems with that approach...I've been doing it for years. All my games are installed to d:\games\gamename.

Me Too. No problems what so ever.

[edit]

Sp

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks again everyone. I'm planning on keeping everything on separate logical drives. I've learned that no matter what you do, Windoze gets hosed every 6-9 months....dll's come up missing, games crash, etc. I figure by keeping the OS separate, I can avoid those probs, and correct them easier if need be.

 

[risen]

Sounds like you have decided but just wanted to mention one more benefit to keeping only operating related stuff on your c drive. I use drive image and since my c partition has about 2 gig of stuff on it you can restore an image very quickly. Usually it takes about 15 minutes. And it is easier to backup and takes less space. I like to fiddle and after I make a change I also make a image of just the c drive. That way if the next change messes things up you can restore the old version. I have even restored a version from a month before and it correct problems I was having. That way you just have to reinstall the new items since then. Also after I make a change I write it down and also record when I make an image. It helps to figure out what messed things up. I would make the drive at least 4-5 gig to allow room to grow. Hope it helps.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: risen
Sounds like you have decided but just wanted to mention one more benefit to keeping only operating related stuff on your c drive. I use drive image and since my c partition has about 2 gig of stuff on it you can restore an image very quickly. Usually it takes about 15 minutes. And it is easier to backup and takes less space. I like to fiddle and after I make a change I also make a image of just the c drive. That way if the next change messes things up you can restore the old version. I have even restored a version from a month before and it correct problems I was having. That way you just have to reinstall the new items since then. Also after I make a change I write it down and also record when I make an image. It helps to figure out what messed things up. I would make the drive at least 4-5 gig to allow room to grow. Hope it helps.

Yes, it does help. Thank you, Risen.

 

[WyteWatt]

MichaelD you should backup like your start menu, registry settings, desktop icons, etc so you can like reload those settings into windows after you are done formating the windows partition only then ghosting it with the image. That way you will always make sure the game, program, etc runs after redoing the windows partition. I believe there is a way to do that in windows xp but not sure how to do it in windows 2000.

 

[WyteWatt]

MichaelD i believe if you go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Backup then Backup tab. Then you click on my computer. On the right hand screen you will see System State. Not sure if that would backup all your programs in the start menu and stuff but it may. I never used it so i am going to have to test it.

 

[BFG10K]

You will have absolutely no problems at all. I keep all of my games at the root level of D:\ and my applications in E:\Applications.

I am concerned that the games will not run correctly, due to the fact that the games need Program and System files to run.

They'll work just fine and even if you wipe C:\ and try to run them without reinstalling them, most of them will still work fine. I have around 30 games installed and there's only one (Rogue Squadron 3D) that won't run straight after a Windows reinstall.

Riiiiight.... You've blown away your C drive and the games still worked without asking you to Install them again?

Correct - see above. In fact, most games don't even touch the registry at all other than to register their uninstaller with Windows.

For sure, you lose the start menu entries for them but they all work fine if you double-click the .exe...

Just back up your Start Menu (manually) before the reformat and you won't have any issues there either.

 

[WyteWatt]

BFG10K one thing to consider. When you backup your Start Menu (manually) before the reformat and they were all pointing to drive C:/... (Just putting three dots because people install there games whereever they want to mostly) When you go to replace the Start Menu after reformating in windows you will have to make sure you put the right path in every shortcut if you never had partitions when you backed it up before.

 

[WyteWatt]

MichaelD ok the backup tool in windows 2000 when using the option to just backup System State does not backup the start menu or desktop icons. But i believe it does backup the registry. Then again i think its best to just backup the registry from regedit.