Partition size

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I recently asked notebook manufacturer about partitions, he say me that 20Gb
partition would be more than enough for Windows XP,

Be very wary of his advice. Depending on exactly what you keep in that
partition, it may or may not be enough. Assuming that you keep your
installed programs there (which is best for most people0 it is very
likely not enough.

and recommend to set two
or three partitions, "but not one".

As I said in an earlier message in this thread, that's very poor
advice. There is no single answer that's right, and two or three may
be best for some people, but one is best for others.

 

[Bill in Co.]

If you keep your installed programs in the same partition, 30 GB, or even 40
GB (I'm using that), would be much more appropriate. 20 GB is too small.
(unless that partition is ONLY used for the operating system, which I
wouldn't recommend).

 

[Gerry]

Terry

My worry with your suggestion is restoring an image of the operating
system without the related programmes stand to break links from registry
to programmes and from programmes to registry. Would it not be better to
do all at the same time?

I also have difficulty with your proposition that more than one
operating system can share a programme.


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[SANTANDER]

Did it really bad use (C partition for operating system only? Is there any
reason to keep installed programs in the same (C partition?
As far I understand the new laptops with windows XP come with 2 partitions,
where operating system is in (C partition, 20GB?

S.

 

[Gerry]

Bill

My operating system partition is 24.4 gb. It contains Windows XP SP3,
programmes and pagefile. Used space 10.9 gb and free space 13.5 gb. Data
files elsewhere.

--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry]

Santander

Yes but not for the reason you are thinking.

Laptops often have two partitions solely because the computer provider
chooses not to supply a copy of the operating system on CD. The copy is
in the second partition. If you have not copied it to CD before the hard
drive fails you have to buy a new copy of the operating system. It is
not uncommon to find a computer supplier split a large disk into two
equal parts, which wastes a lot of disk space. Whenever you buy a new
computer you should insist on a proper operating system CD.

--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was Tuesday, December 30, 2008 2:54:50 PM, and on a
whim, Gerry pounded out on the keyboard:

Terry

My worry with your suggestion is restoring an image of the operating
system without the related programmes stand to break links from registry
to programmes and from programmes to registry. Would it not be better to
do all at the same time?

I also have difficulty with your proposition that more than one
operating system can share a programme.

Hi Gerry,

I suppose if I restored an OS partition going back several months, there
might be programs that were installed that don't run. But if I had to
do that, I would just restore both the OS partition and the programs
partition. But I only had to go back that far once, after installing
SP3 for a few months and deciding I didn't want IE7 locked in to my OS.
So I restored a partition prior to SP3, uninstalled IE7, reinstalled
SP3 and moved forward.

I've done it this way for so long, it's not a big deal for me. For most
users, I don't see it being necessary, as they wouldn't understand the
process, but it has worked well for me. I do it all using 3 hard
drives; two 120 gig and one 300 gig. I keep data (D backed up daily
between two hard drives, and I keep partition copies of the OS's and
programs drive on each of the two other drives. That way if a drive
fails, I can replace it, copy over what was on the drive and quickly get
back to work. I had 3 hard drives fail in one year once (IBM
Deskstar's- remember the class action suit?). I also back up to two
different external drives each month in case an emergency exit would not
allow taking the workstation, I could quickly grab the external drive
and have everything I need (at least within a months time).

I have been sharing programs between OS's for years. Started when I
installed Me when I was still using Win9x. Then installed W2K, then XP.
I have never experienced any issues. If I ever wanted to uninstall a
program from an OS, I simply make a quick copy of the program folder,
uninstall the program from the OS, then rename the copy back to the
original name so the other OS's still have access to it.

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Daave]

Santander

Yes but not for the reason you are thinking.

Laptops often have two partitions solely because the computer provider
chooses not to supply a copy of the operating system on CD. The copy
is in the second partition. If you have not copied it to CD before the
hard drive fails you have to buy a new copy of the operating system.
It is not uncommon to find a computer supplier split a large disk into
two equal parts, which wastes a lot of disk space. Whenever you buy a
new computer you should insist on a proper operating system CD.

I recently worked on a Sony Vaio. It had three partitions (this was the
original factory configuration): One was the recovery partition (G:, I
believe). The second was C: (used for the OS and programs) and the third
was D: (which was the largest partition, used for data). If the the Vaio
recovery utility is run, C: gets reinstalled from scratch, but D: is
untouched. That's actually not that bad of an arrangement (as long as
the user makes a recovery CD).

This scenario sounds like what OP is talking about.

But if there is no recovery partition, I see little need for a D:
partition (i.e., just for data).

 

[Bill in Co.]

Well, maybe I have more programs and files than you do (collected over all
the years, including some stuff brought over from my older Win98SE
installation), as mine currently has about 20 GB of USED space! So, if I
had a 20 GB partition, I'd be "cooked" at this point, and would need to
expand the partition. So I think 30 or 40 GB is much more reasonable for
the operating system, programs, and data files ((like Word documents, etc,
but NOT music and video files), and yet still allows plenty of room for
adding new programs, as time goes on.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Looks like some others have already answered this, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[Gerry]

freewaremaster

Please learn to direct your advice to the person needing it! Neither
Anna or I have the problem. Your problem could be related to the
newsreader you are using namely: X-Newsreader: vBulletin USENET gateway.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[dadiOH]

I also have difficulty with your proposition that more than one
operating system can share a programme.

Well, they can.

I have Win98 on C:, XP on L:. I probably have close to a thousand programs
on C:, just 15-20 on XP. I can use most of the programs on Win98 partition
from XP (not vice versa as XP is NTFS, Win 98 FAT32).

When a program installed under one OS is being used via a different OS it is
using a different registry. Naturally - initially - it has no entries in
the registry of the different OS but that doesn't mean the program won't
run, merely that the data it stored in the registry of the original OS isn't
available to it. In most cases that data has to do with the relationship of
the program to the user...trivial things like window position/size/color
etc...less trivial things such as user desired settings, registration key,
etc. The lack of those data is resolved both automatically by the program
( the trivial things) and by input from the user (the less trivial) by
writing them to the registry of the different OS.

Sometimes a program won't run from a different OS because the naughty
program stuck a needed file somewhere other than its folder. That can be
resolved by copying the needed file from the original OS to the different
one.

And sometimes the damn thing just won't run period. Which is why I have a
handful installed on XP as well as Win98.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[dadiOH]

I recently asked notebook manufacturer about partitions, he say me
that 20Gb partition would be more than enough for Windows XP, and
recommend to set two or three partitions, "but not one". 20Gb will be
enough for win XP SP3 also?

1. My XP partition is 8.87 GB

2. Windows folder (WinXP + SP3) uses 1.77 GB

3. Most of my programs are on a Win98 partition. If I installed the lot to
XP they would use another 2 GB.

So yes, 20 GB is way more than enough. Why people feel that they need that
much - or even more - for OS and programs is beyond me. Unless they are
massively into games, especially online games...those can suck up a LOT of
bytes.

IMO, Anna has given you the best advice (her advice is always good, ditto
Ken Blake)...don't bother with partitions, have a second physical drive to
which you can backup.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Guest]

New laptop without OS, 250GB hard drive. I plan install windows XP.
Does it make sense to divide hard drive into two partitions, one 20GB
for Win XP and programs (C), and the rest for data (D)?
Will 20GB enough for C partition? Or better just create one partition at
the maximum size possible? so the default number provided will be the
maximum space available and the best choice?

Santander

Carefully consider your backup strategy.

It's important to IMAGE your C: drive. The others
can often be backed up by a simple synchronization with
a copy on an external drive.

Your C: drive should be as small as you're comfortable with.
My C: partition is 8GB for XP. Mapping programs, Visual Basic, Office,
Freedb, VirtualPC images, mp3/video collections, databases all go on D:.
I can PAINLESSLY and FREQUENTLY image C: to a file on D:.
If you have a DVD writer, you can often fit an 8GB partition image
on a single bootable DVDRW.
You don't have to deal with little issues like the bootable imaging
program disc
not being able to get usb2.0 speeds out of the chip in your laptop.
Think about imaging a 250GB partition to a USB drive at 1.0 speeds.
Periodically copy the image to offline storage to protect against
drive failure.
A backup strategy that you're too lazy to do isn't a good one.
Make it quick and easy...you'll always be backed up...and you'll
be able to restore it instantly on the road with no additional hardware.

 

[Gerry]

Thanks for an interesting reply.

I have used a shared data partition and a shared pagefile partition.
Using a shared data partition -excel files from Windows 98 and Windows
XP created some poblems. Links are messed because of confusion over
drives in file paths. I dropped Windows 98 as it gave me little or
nothing. Now I have Windows XP and Vista dual booting but I have not
tried using a data sharing partition. I much prefer Windows XP to Vista.

I have come across recommendations to hide operating systems from each
other. Thus Vista can mess up System Restore in Windows XP. It looks
like when I get the inclination to experiment your thought are some I
could explore.

Thanks again.


--



Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[SANTANDER]

I plan install a few bulky apps like Office2003, Photoshop CS3, Illustrator
CS, TMPGEnc DVD Author, Nero, etc
Is it better keep it with Win XP on (C partition or move them to (D? No
games.

Santander

 

[SANTANDER]

If we will create a mirror image of operating system then we need save it on
a separate partition (E, so this wlll require to set 3 partitions C, D, E
?

Santander

 

[Daave]

"dadiOH" wrote:

I plan install a few bulky apps like Office2003, Photoshop CS3,
Illustrator
CS, TMPGEnc DVD Author, Nero, etc
Is it better keep it with Win XP on (C partition or move them to
(D? No
games.

What do you think? dadiOH just told you that the best advice was not to
bother with partitions!

Or is D: an external hard drive?

What is the make and model of your laptop? As you stated in another
post, many laptops already come configured with several partitions. What
does yours currently look like? Are you thinking of performing a clean
install? And if so, what method do you plan on using? The laptop's
restore/recovery utility? Or an XP installation disk?

 

[Daave]

If we will create a mirror image of operating system then we need save
it on
a separate partition (E, so this wlll require to set 3 partitions C,
D, E
?

That plan is better than no backup plan at all, but it is flawed. If
your entire hard drive dies, having an inaccessible hard drive image
archive on E: (or D: for that matter) will be of no use. (That's why
spamme0 also stressed the importance of periodically saving your OS
partition image elsewhere -- he mentioned offline storage -- *in
addition to* D:. Then again, you will also need to periodically back up
all the data to an external source, too.)

Generally, it is better to save your image archive to an external hard
drive.

In case you missed Ken's article, here it is again:

http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

excerpt:

Conclusions:

1. If your backup scheme is to image the entire drive, have just a
single partition (usually C. [Daave's note: And house this image on an
external hard drive.]

2. If you just backup data, set up two partitions: one for Windows and
installed application programs (usually C, and the other for data
(usually D. [Daave's note: Also good advice, especially if you want to
decrease the amount of time it takes to restore the C: partition. But it
is important that you keep your backups of D: current!]

In my opinion, except for those running multiple operating systems, you
seldom get any benefit to having more than two partitions.

 

[David B.]

All a matter of opinion again. Over an expected period of use of 4 or 5
years I would do no less than that.