New 200Gig HDD

[GeoffH]

Hello all,
I am preparing to do a clean install of XP Pro on Gigabyte mobo with
SATA, 512Mb ram and 2.6MHz cpu.
Had mobo & primary hd failure last month all within a week, and would
you believe it but none of my data backups worked, using Veritas
Backup Exec on CDRWs :-(

Present HDD set-up is:
HD1 80gig partitioned C: 40gig for W98SE/apps & D: 40gig for music &
cad files and whatever.
HD2 20gig - drive E: for data & downloads.
HD3 80gig caddy - for music and video files.
Other on board IDE channel used for CDRW drive.
HD3 12 gig caddy on IDE card - for backups.
Other IDE card channel used for DVDRW drive.

All disks are filling up fast hence new 200gig.
System was first built in 1998 when HDD where small, hence the
caddies.
How do I make the best use of this new drive & existing ones?
Do I use the new drive for XP?
Programs include Autocad, video & music editing.

With the new large HD, I can now consider installing a Linux distro
(flameproofs on) to play around with.
Any help appreciated especially any preparation before installing xp.
Regards

Geoff Halstead - Trustee
========================
Charity for African Education, England
Helping improve education in Africa
www.AfricanEducation.org - Tel: (07904)351143
UK registered 1048943

 

[Guest]

You would always want C: on the newest,faster drive.AS far as the other,set
as storage,then select in system properties as a page file for C:.This
increases
memory and lets C: become less fragmented.

 

[Rich Barry]

Geoff, you have quite a few choices. Depending on the age and condition
of your other drives. If I was doing it I
would move all the files from the D: and install XP as a dual boot.
It's very easy to do and 40G is plenty. This way
you can check out your older Win98 apps. I would also move all the
files from the 20G, format and use it for
Linux. When you get more experience I will show you how to Install
Win9x, Win2K, WinXP, WinXP and Fourteen
Linux Distros on a 80G Hard Drive. LOL.

 

[GeoffH]

Geoff, you have quite a few choices. Depending on the age and condition
of your other drives. If I was doing it I
would move all the files from the D: and install XP as a dual boot.
It's very easy to do and 40G is plenty. This way
you can check out your older Win98 apps. I would also move all the
files from the 20G, format and use it for
Linux. When you get more experience I will show you how to Install
Win9x, Win2K, WinXP, WinXP and Fourteen
Linux Distros on a 80G Hard Drive. LOL.

Thanks Rich.
Sorry for the delay, but been away fund raising.
Still humming and ahhing as to what/how to partition.
Reading as much as I can from the net.
Problem is it just confusses me more Doesn't take much now days.

I assume (my tutor at Uni told me never to use this word in my
profession as it would/could be very dangerous - elect eng) that when
I want to install another operating system, their installer will do
the dual boot set-up, or should I use PM8 beforehand?
Regards
Geoff
GeoffH