Hi John,
Partition size is determined by your own needs. The advantage of having a
separate partition for the operating system, away from your program files,
is mostly found in the time it takes for regular maintenance i.e.,
defragmenting, cleanup, etc., plus in searching a drive for files. In light
of your having said, "I'm trying to make it as user friendly as possible.",
I would suggest that you use no less than 6 Gig's for the OS partition,
preferably 10. With the extra space, you can always put something on that
partition if you run low on another.
The programs partition will depend on what programs you have and how you
choose to install them. Some examples of this are in the ones your wife use
for "her work" If she uses Office, for example, does she need all the app's
installed, or just Word? For the games the children play, will you install
them to run from the CD or full install them to run from the hard drive?
(some have the option)
For the data partition, you will need to determine that by what kind of
files you want to keep on it. This is where you will want your music and
video files, as well as your document type files. Video files are very
large. Music files aren't all that large, if in MP3 format, but, first thing
you know, you will have thousands of them.
I don't have any games, or for that matter, other people to consider in the
way I have my machine set-up and, I experiment quite a bit and don't mind
re-formatting. What I have now is an 80 Gig drive set for 10 C, 10 D and the
remainder E. I have system restore turned off for the D and E drives to
conserve space on C and protect them.
I'm afraid I can't be more helpful. This is just my opinion and I'm sure
others have their own.
The best, JAX
