Partitioning a new drive

G

Gary C

Assuming one installs a new 100gig SATA hard drive,
(using 100 for ease, i.e. gigabits or percentage)
what have you folks here found, as your best partition(s) set up,
for an everyday, average, power user?

FWIW, My main goal is to isolate WinXP for optimal performance,
read - less headaches.

Should it have any bearing, currently running and upgrading:

WinXP (sp1) upgrade on Win98SE
InWin full tower
Thermaltake 480 watt PSU
Abit AV8 (sckt939)
AMD 64 3000
2 X 512mbs PC3200
80gig 7200rpm Maxtor (master - no partitions)
10gig 7200rpm IBM (slave - no partitions)
NVidia G Force3 Ti200
Creative Audiology Gamer
CD-RW drive
 
C

Chris

Gary C said:
Assuming one installs a new 100gig SATA hard drive,
(using 100 for ease, i.e. gigabits or percentage)
what have you folks here found, as your best partition(s) set up,
for an everyday, average, power user?

FWIW, My main goal is to isolate WinXP for optimal performance,
read - less headaches.

Should it have any bearing, currently running and upgrading:

WinXP (sp1) upgrade on Win98SE
InWin full tower
Thermaltake 480 watt PSU
Abit AV8 (sckt939)
AMD 64 3000
2 X 512mbs PC3200
80gig 7200rpm Maxtor (master - no partitions)
10gig 7200rpm IBM (slave - no partitions)
NVidia G Force3 Ti200
Creative Audiology Gamer
CD-RW drive
Click to expand...

Partitioning a drive is just a waste of space, it slows drives down and even
if the OS goes tits up you still have to install all your software again as
installing software on a partition does not stop the DLL files and registry
entries being written to the boot partition containing windows. I certainly
would not store critical data or files on a partition, only on a second
drive as if the drive fails then you've still lost the lot.




--
Chris
Technical director CKCCOMPUSCRIPT
Apple Computers, Intel, Roland audio, ATI, Microsoft, Sun Solaris, Cisco and
Silicone Graphics.
Wholesale distributor and specialist audio visual computers and servers
FREE SUPPORT @,
http://www.ckccomp.plus.com/site/page.HTM
(e-mail address removed)
 
I

IDIDIT

Clip

Partitioning a drive is just a waste of space, it slows drives down and even
if the OS goes tits up you still have to install all your software again as
installing software on a partition does not stop the DLL files and registry
entries being written to the boot partition containing windows. I certainly
would not store critical data or files on a partition, only on a second
drive as if the drive fails then you've still lost the lot.
Click to expand...


Interesting. Then again opinions are like as...les, everyone has one,
AND people make statements as if they are facts. I guess I'm at a
disadvantage because my 300G drive is set up with C at 15G, D and the
rest around 75G each for MPs and photo storage, each pic I save are a
total of 10-15meg, eats up storage. The drive image (backup) for C is
around 5-7G, it would be huge if all were on 1 partition besides the
large time frame to image and reinstall. Every few months I like to
install a fresh XP image made when first installing XP, before a lot
of clutter was put on C. Takes about 15 minutes and I'm rolling again,
fresh and clean, just have to U/D SP2. To each his own.
Good thought on using a second drive for critical data, but that one
can go belly up in a heartbeat so has to be backed up also.
 
J

johns

I like the 160 gig drives partitioned C - 60gig, D - 100.
I use disk imaging, and I keep the images on D: along
with manual copies of important docs, pictures, etc.
That way if a virus or something trashes the OS, then
I can restore it in minutes by reimaging. For secure
backups, I use a 160 gig external USB drive, and keep
that turned off except when I do copies of the D-drive.
That way, power surges don't whack my work. That
way, I can totally trash my system .. including hardware
failures, and be back up and running in 30 minutes.
Have no idea what you mean by "isolating" WinXP
for performance. Just putting XP on its own drive
won't do that. Moving Apps to their own drive is a
good way to have those Apps make wrong default
paths to files.

johns
 
C

Chris

Gary C said:
Assuming one installs a new 100gig SATA hard drive,
(using 100 for ease, i.e. gigabits or percentage)
what have you folks here found, as your best partition(s) set up,
for an everyday, average, power user?

FWIW, My main goal is to isolate WinXP for optimal performance,
read - less headaches.

Should it have any bearing, currently running and upgrading:

WinXP (sp1) upgrade on Win98SE
InWin full tower
Thermaltake 480 watt PSU
Abit AV8 (sckt939)
AMD 64 3000
2 X 512mbs PC3200
80gig 7200rpm Maxtor (master - no partitions)
10gig 7200rpm IBM (slave - no partitions)
NVidia G Force3 Ti200
Creative Audiology Gamer
CD-RW drive
Click to expand...

What people fail to see here is harddrives are mechanical and if you split
the drive in to sections with partitioning the read heads have to move up
and down the platters further to gain access to data, whilst the running OS
is still on the first portion of the drive. Until solid state devices like
compact flash and SD memory cards become lager and faster your stuck with a
device that has changed very little in 20 years except for pushing the
boundaries of it's performance which does in effect increase the chance of
failure. I still have working 40Mb drives from when I worked at IBM some 17
years ago and they have been in use every day.


--
Chris
Technical director CKCCOMPUSCRIPT
Apple Computers, Intel, Roland audio, ATI, Microsoft, Sun Solaris, Cisco and
Silicone Graphics.
Wholesale distributor and specialist audio visual computers and servers
FREE SUPPORT @,
http://www.ckccomp.plus.com/site/page.HTM
(e-mail address removed)
 
G

Gary C

I use disk imaging, and I keep the images on D: along
with manual copies of important docs, pictures, etc.
That way if a virus or something trashes the OS, then
I can restore it in minutes by reimaging.
Click to expand...

Something like Norton's Ghost?
Have no idea what you mean by "isolating" WinXP
for performance. Just putting XP on its own drive
won't do that.
Click to expand...

Am I incorrect in assuming that in creating two partitions:
one for operating system and one for applications,
if I ever need to do a clean install of Windows in the future,
I can reformat the OS partition, and reinstall WinXP,
without losing data on the other partition?

WinXP would then be isolated to that partition.
Moving Apps to their own drive is a
good way to have those Apps make wrong default
paths to files.
Click to expand...

Even after a fresh install of apps, to a new formatted partition?

What are your thoughts on running OS on a slave drive,
and then installing my kids games on a slave drive, such as
a WD 10,000 RPM Raptor?

WinXP would then be isolated to that slave drive.
 
G

Gary C

Chris said:
Partitioning a drive is just a waste of space,
Click to expand...

Well, today's drive sizes are MUCH bigger than the average user would ever
need.
it slows drives down
Click to expand...

How so?
and even
if the OS goes tits up you still have to install all your software again as
installing software on a partition does not stop the DLL files and registry
entries being written to the boot partition containing windows. I certainly
would not store critical data or files on a partition, only on a second
drive as if the drive fails then you've still lost the lot.
Click to expand...

Understood.
 
G

Gary C

IDIDIT said:
{snip}
my 300G drive is set up with C at 15G, D and the
rest around 75G each for MPs and photo storage, each pic I save are a
total of 10-15meg, eats up storage. The drive image (backup) for C is
around 5-7G, it would be huge if all were on 1 partition besides the
large time frame to image and reinstall.
Interesting.

Every few months I like to
install a fresh XP image made when first installing XP, before a lot
of clutter was put on C. Takes about 15 minutes and I'm rolling again,
fresh and clean, just have to U/D SP2.
Click to expand...

Yes! This is what I want to do. What do you recommend?

Your shorthand of "U/D" means uninstall and download of service pack #2?
 
J

John Doe

Gary C said:
Am I incorrect in assuming that in creating two partitions:
one for operating system and one for applications,
if I ever need to do a clean install of Windows in the future,
I can reformat the OS partition, and reinstall WinXP,
without losing data on the other partition?
WinXP would then be isolated to that partition.
Click to expand...

Yes, and it is hidden until you need it.

The tool you can use is called Partition Manager. It will copy
Windows XP partitions.

Others have other methods, this is how I do it (currently).
Produce/format a partition and install Windows XP. Do not install
any applications except Partition Manager until you have configured
Windows XP to your liking. While you are configuring Windows,
periodically make copies of that partition. That way, if something
goes wrong during the configuration process, you can restore the
most recent clean Windows XP partition. Why not install applications
to a different partition? Because the operating system has become so
large and cumbersome to configure, it takes up the greatest amount
of time during a reinstallation. Getting Windows configured is the
major task for me. I also add my favorite applications first and
continue doing back ups of that partition which includes Windows.
How advanced I want my backup partition, takes into consideration
how soon I think my next mainboard will be. I should probably keep a
more basic installation than I have been lately. My other partitions
or for data and personal files, things I consider most important.
The smallest partition holds whatever data I consider most important
and the size matches my writable CD size (750MB) so I can easily put
that data on a backup CD.

One good thing about having a backup Windows partition is that you
can troubleshoot Windows problems simply by restoring that
partition, or just switch/boot to that partition and (without
lingering) determine whether the problem exists there.

Good luck.
 
I

IDIDIT

Yes! This is what I want to do. What do you recommend?
Click to expand...

The way I install the OS is to install XP with all the updates I need.
Then make a image and label it something like IMAGE #1 of the name of
the C partition, Then perhaps load Photoshop and label the image as
such, then scanning software then another image etc. all told I have
6-8 working applications, that's how many images that I keep
permanently. I then make a weekly image, keeping about 3-4 then
culling the oldest. Lately I've gone to using a dedicated drive for my
film scanning which uses a lot of storage space and because so much of
it has a lot of value to me I just have a duplicate firewire scanner
drive for back up. I'm thinking of a new firewire unit that holds 2
drives and is fan cooled for my digital photos. I suggest making sure
the firewire enclosure has chips that will allow large drive usage and
has good drive cooling. Most of the above is a result of cheap drives,
around $/50 a gig. compared to my first 40 meg PC.
Your shorthand of "U/D" means uninstall and download of service pack #2?
Click to expand...


Up Date Explorer and applications.
 
J

John Doe

I wrote:

< snip >

By the way. Using a disk manager, I go through Control Panel --
System -- Advanced -- Startup and Recovery (Settings) and delete the
contents of boot.ini immediately after beginning the Windows XP
installation. I think that allows the disk manager to determine the
boot partition without complications.
 
G

Gary C

John Doe said:
Yes, and it is hidden until you need it.

The tool you can use is called Partition Manager. It will copy
Windows XP partitions.
Click to expand...

John, just to clarify things during my senoir moments,
Partition Magic not only does my partition work, but will also
make a copy of my OS on drive _ , to be placed onto a separate
partition for safe keeping?


{snip}
One good thing about having a backup Windows partition is that you
can troubleshoot Windows problems simply by restoring that
partition, or just switch/boot to that partition and (without
lingering) determine whether the problem exists there.
Click to expand...

I like this idea!
 
J

John Doe

Gary C said:
"John Doe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
Click to expand...

(I realize I did a bad job of snipping in my last reply)
John, just to clarify things during my senoir moments,
Partition Magic not only does my partition work, but will also
make a copy of my OS on drive _ , to be placed onto a separate
partition for safe keeping?
Click to expand...

Talking about a whole partition, the partition Windows resides on
(almost always referred to as drive C). Besides making partitions, a
disk manager copies partitions to the same or another disk drive.
Those partitions can be hidden from Windows.

PartitionMagic 8 has been problematic in Windows XP, for making
copies of the operating-system partition, I have to use it from the
boot CD where disk work is much slower. You need a disk manager you
can use from within Windows, like 7tools Partition Manager 2005. You
have to buy it, the demo doesn't do anything.

Yes, you can make backup copies of your Windows partition. By
"Windows partition", I mean the partition you install Windows to.
While you are learning, be sure to keep proper removable media
backups of your important files.

Immediately after you install Windows XP (PartitionMagic or
Partition Manager), as already explained, delete the contents of
boot.ini and save it empty. To test whether the backup will work,
delete the Windows XP partition, restore the copy, and then boot to
it. Do that test before you do too much work on the installation, to
be sure you can restore the backup.

Disk managers rock (always backup your data).
 
J

John Doe

I wrote:

(I really like disk managers)
PartitionMagic 8 has been problematic in Windows XP, for making
copies of the operating-system partition, I have to use it from
the boot CD where disk work is much slower. You need a disk
manager you can use from within Windows, like 7tools Partition
Manager 2005. You have to buy it, the demo doesn't do anything.
Click to expand...

The Partition Manager boot CD uses Linux. So I guess that makes me
a Linux user now [playing]. So far so good. If it continues to do
what it is supposed to do without serious bugs, it is a
steal (downloadable for $30). It puts up a nag prompt when you
want to produce an NTFS partition, there should be a setting to
disable that prompt, it sounds anti-Microsoft.

If you need any real-time help with disk manager stuff, feel
free to add me to your MSN messenger contact list (lshaping
hotmail).
 
L

leach

Assuming one installs a new 100gig SATA hard drive,
(using 100 for ease, i.e. gigabits or percentage)
what have you folks here found, as your best partition(s) set up,
for an everyday, average, power user?

FWIW, My main goal is to isolate WinXP for optimal performance,
read - less headaches.

Should it have any bearing, currently running and upgrading:

WinXP (sp1) upgrade on Win98SE
InWin full tower
Thermaltake 480 watt PSU
Abit AV8 (sckt939)
AMD 64 3000
2 X 512mbs PC3200
80gig 7200rpm Maxtor (master - no partitions)
10gig 7200rpm IBM (slave - no partitions)
NVidia G Force3 Ti200
Creative Audiology Gamer
CD-RW drive
Click to expand...


I like to have a couple of smaller partitions (5-10gigs) for
downloading files and unzipping things. You can use "Search for
files" then on the partition and quickly extract things you want like
*.jpg, *.png, *.par, etc files and leave the junk files and unzipped
directories behind for later deletion. This way you can quickly and
easily deal with incompetent file naming issues (1.jpg 2.jpg) by
junior league uploaders ;)

I use a two hard disk system so I can transfer files in process from
one drive to the other. Works well with Newsplex and agent and binary
zipped conglomerations of all sorts.
 
J

John Doe

Major correction.

Do not delete the contents of boot.ini

When using PartitionMagic to make copies of the Windows XP
partition, somehow, deleting the contents of boot.ini seemed to
prevent a critical boot error.

"Autochk program not found - skipping autocheck"

According to the Usenet archives, some solutions have been found
but nobody understands what causes that error.

Apparently Partition Manager handles the boot disk stuff correctly
without any adjustments to Windows XP. But, to uphold my prior
suggestion, even though the system was booting my new
installations of Windows XP just fine, I deleted the contents of
boot.ini there. That locked me out.

So, from outside of Windows, I restored the contents of boot.ini
to the new installation, and just for fun also restored the
boot.ini to my old installation which had been manipulated with
PartitionMagic. Surprisingly, that installation would not boot.

The old installation will not boot with boot.ini and the two new
installations will not boot without boot.ini. Go figure.

Apparently there are other factors involved with this error
besides boot.ini.

"Autochk program not found - skipping autocheck"
 
G

Gary C

Thanks for your reply.

John Doe said:
(I realize I did a bad job of snipping in my last reply)



Talking about a whole partition, the partition Windows resides on
(almost always referred to as drive C). Besides making partitions, a
disk manager copies partitions to the same or another disk drive.
Those partitions can be hidden from Windows.

PartitionMagic 8 has been problematic in Windows XP, for making
copies of the operating-system partition, I have to use it from the
boot CD where disk work is much slower. You need a disk manager you
can use from within Windows, like 7tools Partition Manager 2005. You
have to buy it, the demo doesn't do anything.

Yes, you can make backup copies of your Windows partition. By
"Windows partition", I mean the partition you install Windows to.
While you are learning, be sure to keep proper removable media
backups of your important files.

Immediately after you install Windows XP (PartitionMagic or
Partition Manager), as already explained, delete the contents of
boot.ini and save it empty. To test whether the backup will work,
delete the Windows XP partition, restore the copy, and then boot to
it. Do that test before you do too much work on the installation, to
be sure you can restore the backup.

Disk managers rock (always backup your data).
Click to expand...
 
Top