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Hard Drive Partition

M

Maxil223

Member
I noticed that when I turn on my computer it takes a while for Windows XP to load. 41 Seconds to be exact. I have a 160 GB hard drive. Someone said I can reduce that time by creating a partition. How big does my partition have to be for Windows XP?
 
windowsXP data(files) >1G
windowsXP intaller (whan you install winXP) demand a... 2G... or is it 4G? (i dont remember).
dont forget that profile information can take a LOT of space so be prepared for that.

/edit
profile information = all the data(files) under "Documents and Settings" folder
 
I restrict my OS partition to Windows XP and security programs (Firewall, AV, AT and AS), restricting it to about 4GB actual size so I can backup this partition to single-DVD media. For partition size, I simply set my OS partition size to 8GB.

How are you measuring start-up time? If Windows is fully usable after 41 seconds, I don't think that's slow at all.

Some things you can do to improve boot-up speed:
- Trim your start-up apps to the minimum.
- Trim your processes to those actually required (the Elder Geek's site is excellent).
- Periodically clean and defrag your OS partition.

My own boot-up time is nominally 40 seconds with:
- Software firewall (IS2005) at startup.
- Resident AV (IS2005 PC-cillin) at startup.
- Resident AT (Trojan Hunter Guard) at startup.
- Resident AS (Spy Sweeper) at startup.
- 21 running processes at startup.

I can't do any better than that with this system config.

Hope this helps!
 
41 seconds is not bad for XP - keep in mind that the boot up time is directly affected by the number of additional programs you install. An AntiVirus & Firewall alone can add 10 seconds to boot up times.

I suggest a minimum of 20 GB for the XP partition.
 
Those boot partitions can fill up quickly. I'd say no less than 12 gigs. As Dunkster said though, install all necessary apps right after format and image to DVD. One thing that can reallly slow down your startup is if your NIC's are set to auto-detect. By setting their properties accordingly you can often shave 5+ sec. off.
 
I have also found NIC's to slow the boot process some. 41 seconds isn't that bad at all, I have successfully kept a 4 gig system partition with everyday use for quite a long time. Once again though those startup programs are what slows boot more then anything!
 
The time im measuring is when It says WINDOWS XP and there are some things in a box that keep scrolling by.
I only have Internet Explorer, MSn Messenger, and SWG, but none of those are startup apps.
From when I hit the power button, to when the computer completely loads is about 90 seconds.
 
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