im building a new system with a 60gb hard drive. i want to have one small partition for just the OS and a large one for everything else. i would like to leave a little space on the OS one so i could save some files in case i need to format the larger partition. i will be using xp home. do you think 5gb for OS and 55gb for everything else is good? or does XP need more than 5gb?
how much space to partition for XP?
- Thread starter tokamak
- Start date
Don't put the apps and XP on separate partitions.
If XP gets hosed and you have to reinstall you'll have to reinstall all your apps right along with it, even if they are on another drive as all the apps registry settings will be gone. You'll have a hell of a time getting most of them to work again.
On a 60GB drive I'd partition off about 20-30GB for XP and your installed apps/games. Leave the rest for your data/backup.
If XP gets hosed and you have to reinstall you'll have to reinstall all your apps right along with it, even if they are on another drive as all the apps registry settings will be gone. You'll have a hell of a time getting most of them to work again.
On a 60GB drive I'd partition off about 20-30GB for XP and your installed apps/games. Leave the rest for your data/backup.
stevewm is correct, do not install your applications on a drive seperate from the OS. I would recommend installing the system as follows
c: OS and Applications
d: Files
As far as partitions size, stevewm is making your OSO/Application/C: drive very generous. I run XP on two different machines, and both partitions are less that 12 GB and that handles a lot of Applications, and some games. Basically the OS should take at most 3 GB for a full install. Standard Applications (Office, etc) should take at most 4 GB (unless you have every software development suite, etc.) and 6 GB for games (assuming you keep the saved files for the games on the second partition).
So 15 GB for the OS/Application partition should be more than enough. Especially if you strictly keep all your files, saved games, documents, mp3's etc. on the second partition.
c: OS and Applications
d: Files
As far as partitions size, stevewm is making your OSO/Application/C: drive very generous. I run XP on two different machines, and both partitions are less that 12 GB and that handles a lot of Applications, and some games. Basically the OS should take at most 3 GB for a full install. Standard Applications (Office, etc) should take at most 4 GB (unless you have every software development suite, etc.) and 6 GB for games (assuming you keep the saved files for the games on the second partition).
So 15 GB for the OS/Application partition should be more than enough. Especially if you strictly keep all your files, saved games, documents, mp3's etc. on the second partition.
Thanks for the great XP advice. I am upgrading my OS to XP this weekend and I planned to partition my 40GB HD during the clean install.
Before this post I was going to put the OS on a 10GB partition and place apps on the 30GB partition. Now I will place my OS/Apps on the 30GB partition and image a clean install to the 10GB partition.
This info will save me much grief.
Before this post I was going to put the OS on a 10GB partition and place apps on the 30GB partition. Now I will place my OS/Apps on the 30GB partition and image a clean install to the 10GB partition.
This info will save me much grief.
There is one thing to consider.... If you make your System partition (C small enough, and/or do regular backups of it (Like after you install a major new software product), then restoring just the system partition, with it's correct registry will bring back your system to a working configuration. This is particularly nice if you happen to use different spindles for the partitions......
If the partition is small enough, you might even be able to burn it in some compressed format to a CDR or CDRW, and then it's pretty quick/easy to restore. And @ .10 or less per CDR, that's pretty cheap backup material.
small enough, and/or do regular backups of it (Like after you install a major new software product), then restoring just the system partition, with it's correct registry will bring back your system to a working configuration. This is particularly nice if you happen to use different spindles for the partitions...... If the partition is small enough, you might even be able to burn it in some compressed format to a CDR or CDRW, and then it's pretty quick/easy to restore. And @ .10 or less per CDR, that's pretty cheap backup material.
I run 18 gig scsi drives. I made the c:\ partition 5 gig, and the rest for programs. I back up the c: once a week with Ghost to a separate HD. I ran 2K like this for 1.5 years, and XP since then. I install/ uninstall ALOT of programs, burn cd's and game alot, and have NEVER been hosed with this setup. When you get a low disc message ( only happened to me 2 times) you know you have TOO MUCH CRAP on your drive, and it's time to do some cleaning
Resinboy
Resinboy
I disagree on putting the OS and programs on the same partition. I have XP on a 5g partition, and have several others for different things. One for regular programs, utilities, etc. One for games, one for a swap file, one for backing up my C: drive and another for misc. junk like pictures, video clips, mp3's, etc. You will have to re-install the OS at some point. With this setup you can do it easily without losing anything important, and a lot of programs will still work too. All of my games still run after a fresh OS install. If something doesn't, just re-install it in the same place and all of your settings will remain intact most of the time. And you won't need nearly as much space to do backup, because you'll only really need to backup the C: drive with the OS on it.
sodcha0s- installing apps on a seperate partition when running 1 single OS works sometimes, mainly because no other OS is dependant on those files or their location, but dual boot is different.
When dual booting the FAQs suggest that you could install applications once by running the install program within each OS and installing the application to the same location. Effectively installing one copy over the other, so both OS's know where to find the single install.
Problems with this approach
The problem with this is when you remove the program for some reason, like say to upgrade from Office 97 to Office 2000. You will run the uninstaller program from one of the OS's, which will work successfully. Then you go and run the uninstaller program in the second OS and it doesn't work because the uninstaller file doesn't exist (you just removed it from in the other OS) and the program doesn't exist. So you then go and put in the installation CD and try and run the uninstaller program from there, but that doesn't work because the program can't find anything to uninstall (it needs to see the entire program to restore the registry), and it needs the uninstaller application that should be on the computer to properly restore your registry and system.
Worse yet some programs, like Antivirus or Systemworks, won't let you reinstall the program until the previous version is removed(because the installer program can see in your registry that the previous version has not yet been uninstalled) , but you can't remove the previous version in the second OS (as stated above). So what do you do then? You have the program uninstalled from the computer and uninstalled from the first OS, but the second one can't use it, can't reinstall it, and can't uninstall it.
Keeping seperate copies (space permitting) of most applications is ok and keeps the management of each OS's available applications simple.
The other alternative
If you really only want to have to install the applications once, then you need a third partition (OS 1 on c:, OS 2 on d:, and applications on e and a backup program like Norton Ghost. Then you would do exactly as the FAQ's suggest. Go into one of the OS's (like the one on c and install the program on the e: drive. Then go into the other OS (the one on d and install the program to the e: drive, over the install you just did from c:.
Then each time you go to remove/upgrade a program, Ghost the e: drive before you do anything. After you Ghost, remove the program from within the OS on c:. Then reload/restore the Ghost you just made of the e: drive. This will effectively put the program, and all your other programs back on the e: drive (like before the uninstall, except c: won't know its there), so the second OS has all the required files to successfully uninstall the application. Then uninstall from the OS on d:, which will now work successfully.
The alternative takes atleast 1 hour for every install/uninstall/upgrade of an application, as you have to make a Ghost, uninstall the application from c:, reload the Ghost and uninstall the application from d:, then install the new application within each OS. If you go with the original suggestion of keeping everything seperate, you uninstall two times and install two times, no 60 minuets of Ghosting required.
The only time you should have to spend more than 60 minuets to install/uninstall something (when keeping them seperate) is when you reinstall the OS, and since you would need Ghost for the second alternative, why not just get it anyway and create backups of the installs, and then you will almost never have to reinstall from scratch.
When dual booting the FAQs suggest that you could install applications once by running the install program within each OS and installing the application to the same location. Effectively installing one copy over the other, so both OS's know where to find the single install.
Problems with this approach
The problem with this is when you remove the program for some reason, like say to upgrade from Office 97 to Office 2000. You will run the uninstaller program from one of the OS's, which will work successfully. Then you go and run the uninstaller program in the second OS and it doesn't work because the uninstaller file doesn't exist (you just removed it from in the other OS) and the program doesn't exist. So you then go and put in the installation CD and try and run the uninstaller program from there, but that doesn't work because the program can't find anything to uninstall (it needs to see the entire program to restore the registry), and it needs the uninstaller application that should be on the computer to properly restore your registry and system.
Worse yet some programs, like Antivirus or Systemworks, won't let you reinstall the program until the previous version is removed(because the installer program can see in your registry that the previous version has not yet been uninstalled) , but you can't remove the previous version in the second OS (as stated above). So what do you do then? You have the program uninstalled from the computer and uninstalled from the first OS, but the second one can't use it, can't reinstall it, and can't uninstall it.
Keeping seperate copies (space permitting) of most applications is ok and keeps the management of each OS's available applications simple.
The other alternative
If you really only want to have to install the applications once, then you need a third partition (OS 1 on c:, OS 2 on d:, and applications on e
and a backup program like Norton Ghost. Then you would do exactly as the FAQ's suggest. Go into one of the OS's (like the one on c and install the program on the e: drive. Then go into the other OS (the one on d and install the program to the e: drive, over the install you just did from c:. Then each time you go to remove/upgrade a program, Ghost the e: drive before you do anything. After you Ghost, remove the program from within the OS on c:. Then reload/restore the Ghost you just made of the e: drive. This will effectively put the program, and all your other programs back on the e: drive (like before the uninstall, except c: won't know its there), so the second OS has all the required files to successfully uninstall the application. Then uninstall from the OS on d:, which will now work successfully.
The alternative takes atleast 1 hour for every install/uninstall/upgrade of an application, as you have to make a Ghost, uninstall the application from c:, reload the Ghost and uninstall the application from d:, then install the new application within each OS. If you go with the original suggestion of keeping everything seperate, you uninstall two times and install two times, no 60 minuets of Ghosting required.
The only time you should have to spend more than 60 minuets to install/uninstall something (when keeping them seperate) is when you reinstall the OS, and since you would need Ghost for the second alternative, why not just get it anyway and create backups of the installs, and then you will almost never have to reinstall from scratch.
wjsulliv,
Points well taken, but the original poster said nothing about dual booting so I didn't take that into consideration. Having said that, I actually am dual booting, however not from the same HDD so my config is somewhat different. I am using an Asus a7v mobo which has an additional promise ata/100 controller onboard. I run my main OS on that channel. I have my other HDD on the primary ata/66 ide, and my cd rom and cd r/w on the secondary. When running the main OS I have the primary ide/66 disabled in bios. If I want to run the other OS I simply enable the primary ide channel, and the system boots to that drive instead. Both OS's have completely seperate installations of programs, except for some of my games which run perfectly fine on either OS, even though they were installed through an OS that isn't even installed on the system anymore... ;-)
I know it's not a normal setup, but I really don't switch between the two very often and it works just fine for me.
Points well taken, but the original poster said nothing about dual booting so I didn't take that into consideration. Having said that, I actually am dual booting, however not from the same HDD so my config is somewhat different. I am using an Asus a7v mobo which has an additional promise ata/100 controller onboard. I run my main OS on that channel. I have my other HDD on the primary ata/66 ide, and my cd rom and cd r/w on the secondary. When running the main OS I have the primary ide/66 disabled in bios. If I want to run the other OS I simply enable the primary ide channel, and the system boots to that drive instead. Both OS's have completely seperate installations of programs, except for some of my games which run perfectly fine on either OS, even though they were installed through an OS that isn't even installed on the system anymore... ;-)
I know it's not a normal setup, but I really don't switch between the two very often and it works just fine for me.
YOUR ALL WRONG!! just kiddin
There is not a damn thing wrong with installing your applications on another partition.
Not all programs have to be reinstalled when windows is reinstalled.
Also alot of programs keep their own settings within the installed folder.
So If you did blow away the windows partition and still had your applications partition... and even still had to reinstall the application such as ICQ, RTCW etc.. you wont lose all your friends on ICQ, you wont lose your key configuration for RTCW.. etc.
Much more benefit to having applications on another partition.
Its also nice to be able to look at your applications partition and see what you forgot to reinstall after windows reinstall because the original folder is still there.
I have applications in their folders that are still there from Win95.. although different hard drive now.. just dragged them over to new hard drive.
They have all gone through Win95, WinNT 4.0, Win98, Win2000, WinMe and now on WinXP. Sometimes even in dual, triple & quad boot configurations.
My XP Pro is only on a 2gb partition.. but thats the only thing there.. except the windows updates.
My partiton setup between 2 hard drives on main computer dual booting Win2000 & WinXP Pro
1st Hard drive:
C:\i386 & Drivers
D:\Win2000 Pro
E:\WinXP Pro
F:\Mp3's
2nd hard drive:
G:\Apps & Games
H:\Data
I:\Images & network backup
Have same exact partition setup with different OS's on another computer.. both have 2 30gb hard drives.
Im using software that automatically backs up my data & mp3's partitions over the network between the two computers onto my backup partition.
My email, documents etc are all saved within those programs to my data partition.
Anyways..
There is not a damn thing wrong with installing your applications on another partition.
Not all programs have to be reinstalled when windows is reinstalled.
Also alot of programs keep their own settings within the installed folder.
So If you did blow away the windows partition and still had your applications partition... and even still had to reinstall the application such as ICQ, RTCW etc.. you wont lose all your friends on ICQ, you wont lose your key configuration for RTCW.. etc.
Much more benefit to having applications on another partition.
Its also nice to be able to look at your applications partition and see what you forgot to reinstall after windows reinstall because the original folder is still there.
I have applications in their folders that are still there from Win95.. although different hard drive now.. just dragged them over to new hard drive.
They have all gone through Win95, WinNT 4.0, Win98, Win2000, WinMe and now on WinXP. Sometimes even in dual, triple & quad boot configurations.
My XP Pro is only on a 2gb partition.. but thats the only thing there.. except the windows updates.
My partiton setup between 2 hard drives on main computer dual booting Win2000 & WinXP Pro
1st Hard drive:
C:\i386 & Drivers
D:\Win2000 Pro
E:\WinXP Pro
F:\Mp3's
2nd hard drive:
G:\Apps & Games
H:\Data
I:\Images & network backup
Have same exact partition setup with different OS's on another computer.. both have 2 30gb hard drives.
Im using software that automatically backs up my data & mp3's partitions over the network between the two computers onto my backup partition.
My email, documents etc are all saved within those programs to my data partition.
Anyways..
I will not be dual-booting. I think i am going to try my original idea. I think it will help me keep more organized. If I ever have to reinstall windows, I will just have to reinstall whatever apps dont work. The one thing I am still worried about is the pagefile, though. I am assuming that it goes on the same partition as windows. Do i need to take that into size considerations?
You can put the pagefile whereever you want, and you can even put it on multiple partitions of you desire.... All configurable from with in XP.
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