Partitioning Hard Drive

[Guest]

Is it possible to partition my 60gb hard drive into two partitions so I can
run Windows Vista and XP? If so, what freeware program can I use? If I
partition my hard drive in two, can I simply go back to having the full hard
drive for XP when beta is over?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

A 60 GB hard drive may not be large enough. It depends on what you are
running under XP. The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
recommended.

 

[Travis King]

I have my basic software set installed on Vista. (The software that I use
the most frequently) and I'm using 15GB. If you're using less than 15-20GB
currently for XP, you'll probably be okay to make two 30GB partitions. If
you're using more than that, it might get risky. If you're using less than
10GB on XP, go ahead and make a 20GB partition for XP and a 40GB partition
for Vista. Another important note though is to backup all your data before
making partitions because unless you use special 3rd party partitioning
software, all data on the hard drive will be erased. Even if you use 3rd
party software that will not erase your data, you'll still be better off by
backing up your files. I would recommend disabling system restore on
computers with smaller hard drives because system restore will eat a lot of
hard disk space on Vista - more so than XP. You should be able to bring
your partitions back together later, but once again, you'll lose your data
on both partitions.

Here's what I have installed on Vista:
Sierra PrintArtist 8.0
Adobe Photoshop 5.5
Nero 5.5
Avast! AntiVirus 4.7
Ares 1.9
ATI Catalyst Control Center
Audacity
Creative Drivers
DAZ Bryce 5.5
DEX Phone Book
Gaim
HP PhotoSmart Photo Printing Software (I like the software but not their
printer. I'm using a Canon i560)
iTunes
Lavasoft Adaware SE Personal 1.06
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus
Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP (Most of it works on Vista)
Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 1
MumboJumbo games - Super Collapse, Super Glinx, and Super Nisqually
Paint.NET
Quake III Arena
QuickTime
Rio Music Manager

 

[Chris Game]

The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
recommended.

By whom?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

By Microsoft.

From:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

a.. 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.

 

[Guest]

I will use very little on XP, i will use Vista as my main. When I create two
partitions I will delete Virtual PC (which is taking a lot of space). I have
an external 160gb hard drive, where i have everything i need. I used to
frequently re-install XP, and all my files were just there. I really need
Nero, so i thought of maybe partitioning. What freeware program can I use to
partition?

 

[Guest]

I would buy another hard drive you can get one for $50 to $100 and it give
you some needed room.

bob

 

[Len Segal]

I agree with this approach (but modified . . . read further), because if
something happens to one OS, it WILL affect the other one if you have both
OS on a single drive. BUT, the approach I'd take is to use a removable tray
and put only 1 HDD in at a time, that way "C" is the installation drive for
each OS but they are totally separate.

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

You can also accomplish exactly the same thing by hiding the existing system
partition when adding the second O/S to a different partition.

 

[Guest]

Norton Partition Magic will do it

 

[John Barnes]

Costs as much as a new drive. Once Vista is installed can do your
partitioning.

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

True, but PM is very handy to have, as it can resize partitions without data
loss (Vista can also do this, I understand, but haven't tried it), remap
drive letters after adding or deleting a partition and includes a handy boot
manager. Also, the GUI is easy to understand for non-tech users.