Is 20 GB a good size for a window's partition?

[mitchafi]

I'm partitioning my raptor into the OS at the beginning, my games/apps in the middle, and the paging file at the end which will be 2 GB. Is 20 GB too much or too little for the OS or just right?

 

[Matt84]

if all your apps and games are gonna b on a sep parition u could get away with 4GB.

My current setup

40GB Primary Master
C:\ 4GB WinMe (Older games and apps)
D:\ 36GB WinXP + Apps (speeks for itself)

160GB RAID 0 (2x80GB) on Promise Controller
E:\ 20GB Data (Uni work, downloads, etc)
F:\ 50GB Games (Almost Full)
G:\ 90GB Media (Music and TV Recordings)

 

[SpunkyJones]

Thats more than enough, I usually leave between 8 to 10 GB for the O/S and generic apps like office/email, and partition the rest for my games.

 

[mitchafi]

But the questions is will it benefit me in any way, or am I just wasting valuable space. Would 10-15 be better?

 

[dderolph]

You're wasting space. There's no reason to have it that large.

 

[JBT]

I would go for about 15GB. I used 10 once and it was a little cramped after awhile even with cleaning. My 74 GB Raptor I gave 25 GB's to the system partition and there is plenty of room on both C and D partitions still. I should have went with 15 instead but I am sure I will fill all of it up sometime.

 

[mitchafi]

So would I want to put my catalyst/creative drivers on the OS partition, the other raptor partition (for games etc) or on my second 120 GB HD that I use for storage mostly?

 

[bunker]

I set mine up for 4gb a while ago and regretted it. Many apps are now starting to put custom directories and store things in the My Documents folder without a way to change where they store it.

It's now at 10gb and fine.

 

[Pariah]

I run XP on a boot partition that's slightly smaller than 3GB without problems. All applications and other software and swap file goes on another partition or different drive. When I ran Win2k, I used to have a slightly under 2GB boot partition.

 

[Davegod]

I use 5gb, I've nearly 2gb free in it and I havent moved my swapfile from there yet. When drivers ask for an install location I install them to OS (XP Pro) partition, but everything else is on another partition/drive.

To put My Documents elsewhere, right click + hold the folder, drag to where you want it to go and select "move here". This will now be the default My Documents location, everything works fine that way and nothing will try to save files to the "normal" location. This is "a way to change where they store it". IIRC you can move Program Files this way aswell, but dont know if it will screwup any programs already installed there. You can keep that Program Files folder and still have the usual program-install default folder be somewhere else with TweakUI, IIRC, though unlike the My Documents move some programs will still ask to install to c:\program files. You can of course change it.

 

[airfoil]

20 GB is a tad on the higher side, but I believe you'd be better off with the extra space you may never use - you wouldn't like to be operating at near capacity most of the time.

Go for it.

 

[aircooled]

If your using XP, might as well give it 15-20 gigs and the rest to your apps... (might be overkill, but think about the future updates)

 

[Todd33]

I used 10GB on my HTPC, plenty of room for standard small apps too.

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I use 10GB, and I've had no problems for months.

I just change all my installs to different directories.

*edit*

small typo there big difference

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: SpeedKing
if all your apps and games are gonna b on a sep parition u could get away with 4GB.

I would not do this. Residual crap will build up, and along with your swap file, you'll be dangerously low on space. I try not to run below 25% free space on my system drive. I installed most of my programs on other drives, but as time went on, things like drivers and DirectX kept taking up more and more space.

20GB is fine if you can spare it. I have 11GB for mine.

 

[jerome12345]

how bout NO partition

 

[Rukkian]

That is annoying if you ever want to reinstall. I like to keep apps and such off my system drive, as then if I need to reinstall, I can just format c, and not worry about losing anything.

 

[Matt84]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: SpeedKing
if all your apps and games are gonna b on a sep parition u could get away with 4GB.

I would not do this. Residual crap will build up, and along with your swap file, you'll be dangerously low on space. I try not to run below 25% free space on my system drive. I installed most of my programs on other drives, but as time went on, things like drivers and DirectX kept taking up more and more space.

20GB is fine if you can spare it. I have 11GB for mine.

mitchafi just wants a small parition for his OS - he clearly states that his apps and games will be on a seperate partition. Swapfile should also be kept on a seperate paritions to what your boot drive is in my opinion, better still a dedicated partition. (i have a Unix background) My current fully updated Windows XP Os install (running for bout 6 months) with drivers/AV/spyware, and utils comes to 2.4GB usage. leaveing ample space if it were a 4GB boot parition. Setting 11 or 20GB for a boot drive which contains the OS and that's it is just waste of space. If it were to hold apps as well then that would be the best solution, but for a boot drive it is not

 

[EarthwormJim]

Out of curiosity, let's say I leave a 15gb system partition on my 120gb drive and the other 105gbs is used for my programs and games. If and when I have to reformat and reinstall windows, but leave my secondary partition intact. How can I have it so all my previous programs will be reocognized by windows, like in add remove programs or the registry?

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: EarthwormJim
Out of curiosity, let's say I leave a 15gb system partition on my 120gb drive and the other 105gbs is used for my programs and games. If and when I have to reformat and reinstall windows, but leave my secondary partition intact. How can I have it so all my previous programs will be reocognized by windows, like in add remove programs or the registry?

You may be able to save some effort with the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard... but most likely, you'll have to reinstall some or many applications. Personally, I don't see much point in splitting Applications and Windows into different partitions, nuking one will have repercussions in the other.


Also, for the original poster, unless you are able to put the pagefile on a separate HD, there's no reason to place the pagefile outside of the OS partition for Windows. You'll only lose performance since the HD, during paging operations, will have to travel back and forth between the two partitions.

 

[0roo0roo]

i prefer it as 7GB and less. windows xp+ office + most apps = ghost image of about 600mb. turn off hibernation of course, that eats space. should keep boot partition as free of cr@p as possible so u don't lose much besides appz when formating c..or restoring ghost image.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: JBT
I would go for about 15GB. I used 10 once and it was a little cramped after awhile even with cleaning. My 74 GB Raptor I gave 25 GB's to the system partition and there is plenty of room on both C and D partitions still. I should have went with 15 instead but I am sure I will fill all of it up sometime.

15GB is what I use as well. The OS and apps like 3DM/SANDRA/HD b-marks/Photochop are all on the System partition. Games/My Docs/MP3s/Midget Porn are on sep partitions.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: JBT
/Midget Porn

Glad I'm not the only one...

 

[Atlantean]

Why partition your drive at all? I have never had partitions on mine, though I have always had more than 1 harddrive in my computers.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Atlantean
Why partition your drive at all? I have never had partitions on mine, though I have always had more than 1 harddrive in my computers.

for the obvious reason of not losing all the stuff you want to keep when windows gets hosed and you have to format c or restore a backup image? or when you want to restore windows to an earlier condition.. course u can just have multple hds..but well not everyone has that. and thats kind of a waste of space, not to mention makes it hard to make a ghost image. if ur c: is 30gb, and filled with stuff, your going to have a 30gb ghost image, at best 15gb compressedif its just full of programs.