New hard drives - which order

[xjboonie]

I'm rebuilding my WinXP system, and wondering what order I should have my hard drives.

I've currently got:
WD 80G as C:\ with Windows, My Documents, and Program Files
and WD 120G; 2G as F:\ Windows Swap file and 40G as G:\ with Games and files I've downloaded

I'm planning on picking up a Seagate 200G/8MB cache from Compusa, and setting it up like this:

WD 120G:
C:\ {Windows, the Program Files that come with Windows, and a few other program files that insist they must be installed on C:\}
E:\ {Windows Swap file}
F:\ {Program Files, when the program allows a choice}
G:\ {Temporary Internet Files}

Seagate 200G/8MB,
D:\ {Linux}
H:\ {My Documents, Downloads, Temporary Internet Files, etc.}
I:\ {Games}

Should I move things around? I'm thinking of using the old WD 80G as a music server in the basement.
I plan on backing up to an external HD or DVD (any thoughts?)

My system is a AMD XP 1600+, SOYO Dragon Plus (KT266A chipset), 512 MB 2100 RAM, GF3Ti200 AGP card, Aopen 16x DVD-ROM, Lite-On 24x CD-RW (to be replaced with a NEC 3500A DVD-RW) in a no-name case (to be replaced with an Antec 3700BQE).

Thanks!

 

[YoYoBabyYo]

yikes. i would actually just dual boot windows and linux on the wd120 drive and use the seagate for files, downloads, games. actually, that is exactly the way my hard drives are set up right now.

 

[xjboonie]

bump

 

[V00D00]

That's a very messed up way to do things.

Why separate the program files? why put the internet cache on a separate drive? If you're going to be surfing the net and whatnot while doing other things, there won't be any performance hit if you have the cache on the same drive as your program files and windows stuff.

You know if you put your swap file on the same drive it doesn't do anything for performance. You want to store your swap file on a different physical drive, not virtual drive. Just by putting it on it's own partition does nothing.

WD 120G:
C:\ {Windows, the Program Files that come with Windows, and a few other program files that insist they must be installed on C:\}
- - {Program Files, when the program allows a choice}
- - {Temporary Internet Files}
- - {Games}
D:\ {Storage}

Allocate as much as you need for the windows/program files drive, and use the rest for storage. If you need to reformat, then you only need to reformat the main partition.

Seagate 200G/8MB,
E:\ {Windows Swap file}
F:\ {Linux}
G:\ {Storage}

 

[xjboonie]

V00D00,

thanks for the reply. What do you think of this:

WD 120G:
C:\ {WinXP, Programs, Temp Internet FIles, Games}


Seagate 200G/8MB:
D:\{Windows Swap File}
E:\{My Documents}

I guess I was thinking of putting program files in a seperate partition in case I needed to re-install windows, I wouldn't need to reinstall all the programs... but now thinking about that I'm not sure if that would work.

 

[tallman45]

If your OS partition needs to be reloaded then having your programs on a separate partition will not help you, the new Windows registry will not know about them. So you will have to reinstall progs again.

 

[mplutodh1]

Id go with what V00D00 suggested. Keep the one drive as file storage that way if you want to reinstall your OS or it crashes for whatever reason you still have your files stored. Might create a partition on both HD's if you want to back up each drives contents (redundant backup the old fashion way)

 

[V00D00]

Originally posted by: xjboonie
V00D00,

thanks for the reply. What do you think of this:

WD 120G:
C:\ {WinXP, Programs, Temp Internet FIles, Games}


Seagate 200G/8MB:
D:\{Windows Swap File}
E:\{My Documents}

I guess I was thinking of putting program files in a seperate partition in case I needed to re-install windows, I wouldn't need to reinstall all the programs... but now thinking about that I'm not sure if that would work.

Looks great to me. That's pretty much the setup I have, except I have 2 partitions on my 120gb drive.

I have the one for windows/programs/temps/games, that is 20gb, and then the other 100gb is partitioned and used for whatever other files/movies/music/etc.