How many G should I allocate to C drive ?

[TheSleeper]

I bought a new WD 250G HDD 4 days ago and I just have some time today to unpack it and plug into the pc.

In XP, it shows around 232G which is normal. I want to ask your advice on how to partition it ? I am gonna install Vista with around 2 games (like C&C3 and WC3FT) and of course applicationz like photoshop, office acrobat flash and dreamweaver for me and my sister use.

thanks

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: TheSleeper
I bought a new WD 250G HDD 4 days ago and I just have some time today to unpack it and plug into the pc.

In XP, it shows around 232G which is normal. I want to ask your advice on how to partition it ? I am gonna install Vista with around 2 games (like C&C3 and WC3FT) and of course applicationz like photoshop, office acrobat flash and dreamweaver for me and my sister use.

thanks


Partitioning is for organizational purposes only now. Some people absolutely refuse to partition at all.

This is purely a personal call.

 

[R3MF]

i use 16BG for Windows/V-mem/Temp/Drivers

applications games and media go on separate partitions.

 

[loup garou]

232GB

 

[theMan]

Dont partition, it just makes things more complicated.

 

[Jack03]

You can download the free trial of Partition Magic at
-http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Partition-Magic.shtml
Once you do that you can repartition your hard drive then install Vista and dual boot!!
Once Vista is installed you can repartition your hard drive from within Windows Vista!!
Hope this helps!!

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: theman
Dont partition, it just makes things more complicated.

Exactly. There is no point to putting applications on another partition or drive because they have to be reinstalled if you reinstall Windows anyways.

I use different drives to save music / saved files etc... but for programs you don't need to.

 

[KeypoX]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze

Originally posted by: theman
Dont partition, it just makes things more complicated.

Exactly. There is no point to putting applications on another partition or drive because they have to be reinstalled if you reinstall Windows anyways.

I use different drives to save music / saved files etc... but for programs you don't need to.

What if you dual boot should you part then?

 

[wseyller]

Originally posted by: KeypoX

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze

Originally posted by: theman
Dont partition, it just makes things more complicated.

Exactly. There is no point to putting applications on another partition or drive because they have to be reinstalled if you reinstall Windows anyways.

I use different drives to save music / saved files etc... but for programs you don't need to.

What if you dual boot should you part then?

yes multiple operating systems need to be either on separate drives or separate partitions

 

[KeypoX]

Originally posted by: wseyller

Originally posted by: KeypoX

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze

Originally posted by: theman
Dont partition, it just makes things more complicated.

Exactly. There is no point to putting applications on another partition or drive because they have to be reinstalled if you reinstall Windows anyways.

I use different drives to save music / saved files etc... but for programs you don't need to.

What if you dual boot should you part then?

yes multiple operating systems need to be either on separate drives or separate partitions

LOL yeah i guess thats true you cannot really have 2 xps on one drive can ya ... i was more curious about a vista and a xp? Though it makes sense that wouldnt work either

 

[Leros]

OS & Programs on one partition. Data on another. That way if you even need restore or reinstall your OS, you don't have to bother backing up your data.

Putting your programs on another parition does nothing since you usually have to reinstall them anyway.

 

[Nothinman]

What if you dual boot should you part then?

Dual booting is a special case and can easily be avoided anyway with things like VMWare.

That way if you even need restore or reinstall your OS, you don't have to bother backing up your data.

Yea, because no one ever makes a mistake and does something like restore an image to the wrong partition.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

What if you dual boot should you part then?

Dual booting is a special case and can easily be avoided anyway with things like VMWare.

That way if you even need restore or reinstall your OS, you don't have to bother backing up your data.

Yea, because no one ever makes a mistake and does something like restore an image to the wrong partition.

Always have two copies of everything. Preferably in different machines. Disk space is cheap enough.

 

[Nothinman]

Always have two copies of everything. Preferably in different machines. Disk space is cheap enough.

Disk space is cheap but that doesn't mean that everyone can afford to have 2x as much as they need. Especially since consumer level drives are pretty much crap, so to be really safe you would want to have 3x or 4x the disk space so that you can have the at least drives mirrored on your backup box and possibly on your main box too.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Always have two copies of everything. Preferably in different machines. Disk space is cheap enough.

Disk space is cheap but that doesn't mean that everyone can afford to have 2x as much as they need. Especially since consumer level drives are pretty much crap, so to be really safe you would want to have 3x or 4x the disk space so that you can have the at least drives mirrored on your backup box and possibly on your main box too.

And in that case they should back up their crucial data only. I have about 700GB of data, but less than 1 GB of crucial stuff.

 

[Joeygates]

Hi,

I'm not sure I would listen to the people who say not to partition. Why?

Well, mechanically, there might not be any reason to do so. That's fine. Logically, there's plenty of reason.

For instance, lets say you get a virus or something that trashes your OS. You can't log in and the only way to get access to your system is via some boot disk or formatting and reinstalling your OS. If your C drive is your entire drive, then when you format, you lose everything.

That said, I'd say split it up for that reason alone but you already want to split it up. If it was a small drive I might not say that.

The way I normally do it is to decide on what I want to install on the C drive first. What I normally do is install all/most of the things that have shared files in the windows directory first. Office and other applications, perhaps photoshop and dreamweaver, etc. I may or may not leave out games. So, that is how you want to determine your C drive size.

If you have a 232g HD, I'd say if you intend to put your games on your C drive, no less than 80gb. You dont want to limit yourself for future games if you want them all on C. If you want your games on the other partition, then make your first partition around 40gb for vista and maybe 25gb for XP (this will include apps). I dont know aobut you, but my desktop can get pretty heavy sometimes and that is on C for me. Those are just rough. Really rough. I just see no reason to short yourself on the C drive when you have so much room on the other partitions.

Right now, I have a 72gb hard drive as my C and a 320gb hard drive as my backup drive.

Good luck!

 

[Nothinman]

For instance, lets say you get a virus or something that trashes your OS. You can't log in and the only way to get access to your system is via some boot disk or formatting and reinstalling your OS. If your C drive is your entire drive, then when you format, you lose everything.

That's a reason for physically separate drives, not more partitions. That same virus could just as easily f' up your MBR and now your partition table is gone or your rescue boot disk could present the partitions in a different order than your Windows installation did and you could format the wrong partition.

 

[Steve]

I like to partition, it's just my preference to have my files apart from my apps and OS. Here's how I've partitioned my drives over the years:

27GB (25.2) = 5.2GB C, 20GB D
36GB (34.2) = 4.2GB C. 30GB D
40GB (38.1) = 8.1GB C, 30GB D (both)
120G (111) = 11.0GB C, 100GB D (both)

That sort of thing, you get the idea. My HTPC however has a 200GB drive all as one partition. And I don't partition my SCSI drives, except one I did for a little while.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: KeypoX
i guess thats true you cannot really have 2 xps on one drive can ya

Actually, you can

And much better than dual booting.