Clean Windows XP Install on a PC w/2 HD's

[Patty S.]

I was given an older HP Vecta computer from my work and
I'd like to spiff it up for my college aged daughter.
Found out that the OS (Windows NT 4.0) was not able to
support the brand new HP printer I bought, so I figured I
might as well upgrade to Windows XP. I have added more
RAM as well as a second, much larger HD. She was able to
purchase a student CD of Windows XP Professional. The
school's IS Dept. recommended NOT to do an upgrade with
XP, but a clean install. Nothing important on this pc's
HD that couldn't be re-installed, so I went ahead and
followed their instructions of deleting all partitions,
then installing XP. Here's the question: The
instructions ask to highlight a partition. Had two
partitions to choose from since there are 2 HD's in
there. I chose the larger of the two, but after the
install is complete, how to I configure the second, small
HD? Hope I am explaining things well enough for
everyone. Just a mom, struggling to stay up with
computers!
Patty S.

 

[Jim]

Since you didn't specify HD sizes specifically, only smaller and larger,
it's hard to be definitive.

In general, if I have a smaller and larger HD (let's say 20GB and 120GB), I
place the smaller HD as the first HD and only install the OS. I keep the
2nd HD, the larger, reserved only for data!

The OS doesn't need all that much space, XP itself is about 2-3GB, plus any
additional apps. At most, a typical OS installation might run up to 6, 8 or
on the outside, 10GB is you have LOTs of apps. But it's the DATA that racks
up the storage requirements (word and excel docs, mp3, video, etc.). It's
better to keep the OS and DATA separated for a variety of reasons. For
example, if the OS HD fails, you don't lose your DATA! Or if you do an OS
upgrade (new version of Windows, service pack, hotfix), or even install a
new driver that mucks up the system, it doesn't affect your DATA. If you
need to rebuild that OS, you now have the complication of *saving* all that
data, deeply embedded in your OS partition, first, before even considering
reinstallation.

It's your DATA that's most valuable, NOT the OS. The OS is, for all intents
and purposes, expendable. At worst, it's a hassle to reinstall. But your
DATA is NOT expendable, lose it, and you won't give a hoot about the OS,
you'll be mighty ticked off. So why "bind" your OS and DATA together,
physically, given they have completely different characteristics, if you
don't have to?!

Now you can also "share" the DATA w/ other OS installations should you need
to have a multi-boot configuration. You simply install additional OS's on
HD #1, never touching your DATA on HD#2. In fact, I would also recommend
getting a third HD and using RAID to mirror the 2nd HD, so should either the
2nd or 3rd HD fail, the other will kick in! Keeping the OS and DATA
separate makes this much more practical since you don't really need to
mirror the OS (you can, but don't have to), again, it's your DATA that's
important in the long run, NOT the OS.

There are other advantages too, like keeping the OS on the NTFS file system,
while keeping the DATA as FAT32 for maximum compatibility. Or you could
make the case for keeping the OS FAT32 (since it tends to be a little
faster), and the DATA NTFS (loses some compatibility across OSs, but doesn't
have the single file size limitation of 4GB found in FAT32, so NTFS would
accommodate very large video files, for example).

Also, by keeping the DATA on HD #2, you could alternatively install that HD
in an external enclosure ( http://www.dealsonic.com/argosy.html ), and
connect it to the PC over USB, or Firewire, SATA, whatever. That would make
the HD itself *PORTABLE*. Now, whenever your daughter left the dorm, or had
other concerns about the security of her data, she can just take it with
here. It's also easily accessible from other PCs simply by plugging the
external enclosure into a PC. So she could take here DATA back and forth
between home and the dorm with ease, and have access to it from both
locations.

The basic idea here is, keep the OS installation on the smaller HD, make it
the first drive, then use the larger HD for DATA and make it the second HD.
That's the *best* configuration for a two drive system w/ a single partition
on each HD. Then choose the partition types for each using the
considerations I've described above. Finally, if you want a little more
protection for your DATA HD, mirror it with an exact duplicate HD using a
RAID controller. That will provide a LOT of additional safety against loss
of either HD #2 or HD #3. Or if RAID is not of interest, consider an
external enclosure, lots of advantages there too. It all just depends on
how you intend to use the system to determine what makes the most sense.

HTH

Jim