Advice on WinXP in its own partition

[Dave]

Hello, all! I have a question on partitioning for Windows XP Home.

I just recently purchased an Athlon 64 & MSI Neo motherboard, and I'll be
getting a Maxtor 60GB Serial ATA hard drive soon. I'm looking for more speed
in XP, so a coworker suggested I put Windows XP on its own partition, and
data on the other.

My questions are:
1) How much space should I allow for Windows XP's partition? After
installation, will there be that many files added to the partition over
time?
2) What are the noticeable advantages (or disadvantages) of giving XP its
own partition?
3) When installing data on the second partition, should I allow a Program
Files folder to be created - or just install the applications' folders
straight to the root of the partition?

Over all, is this the "thing to do"? Any information is appreciated. Thanks!

============================
- Dave

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

"When performing a clean install, Microsoft recommends that NTFS be used
and that the system be installed in a single partition on each disk. Under Windows XP,
big partitions are better managed than in previous versions of Windows.
Forcing installed software into several partitions on the disk necessitates longer seeks
when running the system and software."

Benchmarking on Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/benchmark.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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"Dave" (e-mail address removed) wrote in message:

| Hello, all! I have a question on partitioning for Windows XP Home.
|
| I just recently purchased an Athlon 64 & MSI Neo motherboard, and I'll be
| getting a Maxtor 60GB Serial ATA hard drive soon. I'm looking for more speed
| in XP, so a coworker suggested I put Windows XP on its own partition, and
| data on the other.
|
| My questions are:
| 1) How much space should I allow for Windows XP's partition? After
| installation, will there be that many files added to the partition over
| time?
| 2) What are the noticeable advantages (or disadvantages) of giving XP its
| own partition?
| 3) When installing data on the second partition, should I allow a Program
| Files folder to be created - or just install the applications' folders
| straight to the root of the partition?
|
| Over all, is this the "thing to do"? Any information is appreciated. Thanks!
|
| ============================
| - Dave
|
|

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I'm looking
for more speed in XP, so a coworker suggested I put Windows XP on its
own partition, and data on the other.

You'll get lots of different opinions about having multiple
partitions--some people are for it, others against it. But
whatever the advantages or disadvantages of multiple partitions,
don't expect doing this to give you more speed.

 

[JAX]

The main advantage of having the OS on it's own partition will be realized
in disk maintenance, i.e. defrag, cleanup, etc. and file search times. A
separate partition for programs is questionable, as far as value goes. It
does lend into the reason for the OS partition. If you need to re-format,
you will have to re-install all of your programs anyway. In my opinion,
(note my opinion), a separate partition for personal files is a must. Reason
being, they are protected in the event of a serious system failure that
would necessitate re-formatting the OS partition.

IMO, JAX

 

[Sharon F]

Hello, all! I have a question on partitioning for Windows XP Home.

I just recently purchased an Athlon 64 & MSI Neo motherboard, and I'll be
getting a Maxtor 60GB Serial ATA hard drive soon. I'm looking for more speed
in XP, so a coworker suggested I put Windows XP on its own partition, and
data on the other.

My questions are:
1) How much space should I allow for Windows XP's partition? After
installation, will there be that many files added to the partition over
time?
2) What are the noticeable advantages (or disadvantages) of giving XP its
own partition?
3) When installing data on the second partition, should I allow a Program
Files folder to be created - or just install the applications' folders
straight to the root of the partition?

Over all, is this the "thing to do"? Any information is appreciated. Thanks!

============================
- Dave

No reason to do this except personal preferences. I have the setup you are
considering (XP only on C to keep the size of my images down. By moving
the pagefile, I can fit that entire drive image onto a single DVD.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Dave

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

--
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Hope this helps.

Gerry
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