Formatting a new hard drive

[Ken]

I just need some basic advice on formatting a new 120Gb
hard drive. I will partition the drive to 30 and 90 Gb,
both NTFS. In the formatting window there are various
choices. What allocation unit size is best, or
preferable, and why? Also, should "perform a quick
format" and "enable file and folder compression" be
selected? I wish in the end to load XP to the 30 Gb
partition, and use the 90 Gb partition for storage. My
older, original drive is going to another computer as a
second drive.

 

[Guest]

Hi

15 to 20 Gig is good enough to run XP unless you have plenty games or very large applications to install
Do not select quick format or enable file and folder compression(it will affect the performance and you can do it at at time after XP installed
By the way, I would suggest you to make one more partition for the storge of frequently modified files, e.g. vedio, music, pictures. This partition should be the biggest one
The 3rd partition is for storage of text files and other documents, 10-15 Gig is resonable for normal usage

Pete

----- Ken wrote: ----

I just need some basic advice on formatting a new 120Gb
hard drive. I will partition the drive to 30 and 90 Gb,
both NTFS. In the formatting window there are various
choices. What allocation unit size is best, or
preferable, and why? Also, should "perform a quick
format" and "enable file and folder compression" be
selected? I wish in the end to load XP to the 30 Gb
partition, and use the 90 Gb partition for storage. My
older, original drive is going to another computer as a
second drive