2003 Partition Recommendations

[Dwayne]

I am getting ready to install two Windows 2003 servers and one will have
Exchange 2003. I have not found any recommendations on the Microsoft web
site as far as partitioning the drives. The one server will have two ide
hard drives and I will be just setting up a mirror. The Exchange will be
raid five with three 40gb SCSI drives. Could anyone help me out with the
recommended partitions for these two servers? Thanks in advance.

Dwayne

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Dwayne

For a system volume, I would calculate about 2GB for the clean operating
system, at least another GB for future service packs and fixes, add the max
size for your paging file - don't forget that you might want to add RAM and
enlarge the paging file in the future - add needed space for any
applications installed on the system/boot volume, and at last, add 50% to
avoid filling the volume to more than 70%.

Having just one volume might also be an option.

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[Dwayne]

I think since we do not have really have separate disks in either server
that I will just go with one big volume on both. I don't really see the
advantage of partitioning in my situation. I just thought someone else
might know a reason why I absolutely should. Thanks

 

[Greg Hayes/Raxco Software]

"I will just go with one big volume on both"

Well thought out partitioning can make it easier to recover in the case of
file system corruption. It can also speed up backup/restore times.

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.

 

[Dwayne]

Since we are going with raid 5 and only three hard drives it doesn't look
like partitioning would be of much of an advantage. It would be different
if we had more hardware available. Thanks