is this a good partition setup?

[PookyBoy]

I bought a 60gig harddrive recently. I split it into 2 partitions. One 10gig and the rest for the other partition. At first, I was thinking that I would put Win2k and all applications on the 10gig partition and other stuff like mp3's, videos and stuff on the other partition. But right now, after installing all my needed applications and Win2k, I still have 6.22gig left on that partition.

I have partition magic and I'm thinking of using it to resize the 2 partitions so that one is 3gig and then the rest for the 2nd partition. Then I would just put Win2k on the 1st partition. All other applications and stuff would go on the 2nd partition. Is this a good idea? Would putting the applications on the 2nd partition degrade performance considerably? Thanks.

The reason that I'm considering this setup is that I would only lose Win2k if I need to do a format. And I'm thinking since all the application files are still on the 2nd partition, then when it comes to reinstalling them, it would also go faster?

 

[Saltin]

You are still going to have to re-install all your apps when/if you blow away your 2k partition, so whats the big deal?

You've got 60 gigs of space. 50 of those are free for whatever. Concentrate on filling those up first, not worrying about the 6 gigs of extra space you've got on your OS partition.

 

[CSFM]

I would take it to 5GIG if I was going to make it smaller at all. 10 GIG isn't bad... you still have 50 GIG left over so you will have plenty of room to play with.
I have a 60 GIG HDD with no partition. Can't be ared with them. I have an external Maxtor 40 GIG drive to back up onto so when it comes to a format I can just copy back from that.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Just remember service packs and whatnot take up an unreasonable HUGE amount of space when you are installing, and I for one could not choose to put all that temporary crap on the D drive (where I had plenty of space). Installing service packs over an SMB share isnt a big deal, but at home, I dont have another Windows machine. I wonder if Microsoft has anything in its eula about installing service packs from a UNIX-like OS? 😉

 

[owensdj]

PookyBoy, IMO it's a bad idea to have multiple partitions like that, unless your system is unable to boot from a single 60GB partition. You might run out of space on your small boot partition while still having dozens of GBs of free space on your other partition.

If you have to format your boot partition, you're still going to have to reinstall many of your applications, even if they were installed on your other partition.

 

[fade2black]

I partitioned my 60 GB drive thus -

5 GB = Windows XP Only (C🙂
25 GB = Apps (Microsoft Word etc.) (E🙂
25 GB = Store (Pics + Music) (F🙂

Works like a charm. You can re-install XP in C: without losing your apps.

 

[fade2black]

 

[AKA]

I had a 2gb D:\Win2K partition for 2yrs with all service packs installed.

I think it got up to a little over 1gb used.

Had all my other data, apps etc installed to another partition.

People keep saying you have to reinstall your applications when you reformat.. not entirely true. Not all apps have to be reinstalled.
And more importantly when they do they keep your current information you had before.. for example ICQ.. reinstall ICQ after reinstalling OS and I still have my original list of friends.... dont have to redo all that.

 

[IJump]

<< You might run out of space on your small boot partition while still having dozens of GBs of free space on your other partition. >>


If he runs out of space on the 10GB partition, which is not likely, and has room on the other partition, he did say that he had partition magic to rectify the situation.


I think the 10/50 split is reasonable.

 

[bhof]

I usually keep MY OS on the first 5 GB partition. All apps get installed on the second partition.
Defrag of the os partition is much faster, you can re-install OS without losing most apps.
I dont' know if it is the best way, but it works for me! <G>