Question on partitioning for windows 2000 setup

[Jay59express]

I have a question about the way to setup my partitions for windows 2000...I just had a very annoying computer failure which would not even let me boot into win2k, so I have to reinstall windows fresh without even a change to backup my stuff ...to avoid this, I am thinking about making 2 partititions on my primary HDD, a small one just for the operating system (2GB?) and the other 18GB for my data and programs and stuff...first off, is this a good idea? and if it is, the small partition would have to be ntfs, but what about the other one if i am going to install programs on it? would that one be ntfs also? And what kind of a partitition (primary, logical, etc) would it be, i dont really understand those...
Thanks for the help!

 

[RSMemphis]

Let's see.
First of all, either partition can be either NTFS or FAT32. For advantages/disadvantages see the FAQ on top of the thread list.
2 GB for the OS is ok, a little on the small side. If you do that, you should at least move the "My Documents" folder onto your second harddisk (right click on the My Documents shortcut top left corner on the desktop, properties -> move.
I am sure there are ways to move the whole document and settings tree, but someone over in the OS forum would probably know more.

 

[Jhereg]

Hi ,

Your idea is an excellent one, one which I subscribe to. I suggest a larger OS partition, 2 GB might be a bit too small .
If I do the math correctly you have a 20GB drive so I suggest 4 GB to be safe.

You can set the partitions to either NTFS or FAT32, I would suggest NTFS since it gives much better security options.
As for the second partition, create a logical drive in an extended partition.

 

[Tycoonx]

This is what I do with every machine I built.

6-8 gigs of HD for the C: drive for the OS/Apps/Swap file

And the rest is on another drive, for games, mp3's, etc.

if you loose your C: drive you are going to reinstall all your apps anyways, due to dll, etc.. files that are residing in your C:\windows folder. As for most games, you don't need to reinstall them if you are going to reformat, all you have to do is making a shortcut to .exe files, same goes with mp3's, divx, etc.

6 gigs for the C:\ drive is plenty for everyone, I have about 40 programs in my c:\ drive and I still have 2 gigs left.

 

[Thor86]

You could have saved your original install if you had made a repair disk. This at least would have let you backup anything you lost. Oh well...you live and learn.