I have a 20gb partition, the first of four on an 80gb HDD.. presently, a
little over 11gb is being used up..
A breakdown of the used space
25.8% is taken up by the Windows folder
13.5% is taken up by Documents and Settings
17.6% is taken by the Windows pagefile
31.4% is taken up by Program Files
8.4% is taken up System Restore
3.3% is taken up by MSOCache and other bits and pieces..
The Windows folder is what it is..
Documents and settings would be considerably larger if I kept saved files in
their default folders.. I don't..
The pagefile size is Windows Managed based upon the 2gb RAM installed..
Windows Managed is the best way in a general purpose home or small office
system..
Program Files would be smaller if I installed programs to another partition,
except that there is little point in doing that.. if the OS takes a dive, so
do all of the programs as they are so embedded in the OS.. I do have games
installed to another partition, but they still place entries into Program
Files.. there is a full complement of MS Office applications installed..
System Restore I have used only ever twice, and that was to a point some
48hrs backwards, so I could save some space there.. however, it is safer to
leave a few points..
The rest of the used space is again what it is.. little can be done, or
saved by messing with stuff..
Also note that I remove all of the uninstall files for updates etc..
A hard drive works better if at least 25% is kept free, regardless of the OS
installed or the size of the pagefile.. it is just the way of hard drives..
Windows, all versions, requires 15% free space to defrag with any accuracy..
Anything less than 15% on a primary boot drive, and you risk losing all of
the contents simply because the hard drive can't cope..
My system works because I have approx 9gb free which gives me a little more
space for stuff, while still allowing me to keep at least 25% free space..
I would be hard pressed to remove 5gb of files etc, and still have a
productive computer that could be compressed into 8gb and still work
according to the parameters set by XP and the hardware..
An 8gb partition is good for 6gb of files et al, and if you look at the size
of some of the folders above relative to 11gb, you can see that it doesn't
leave a whole hell of a lot of space for anything..
I would not install XP in partitions smaller than 15 to 20gb if any kind of
reliability is required.. hard drives are cheap enough these days such that
a user has no need to try to install an OS like XP into a tiny partition..
Now I will just sit and wait for the inevitable flak..
