Recommended Size for XP OS Partition ?

[JAD]

10 gigs is what I use as a size for XP. However I do not load my system up
with trials, games, stupid third party 'make my machine faster' crap. Why
partition? If anything goes belly up on the OS partition, all your data, if
stored on another partition is safe.

 

[John Weiss]

Great question, because as we all know, and for reasons that remain a
mystery, MS makes management of OE data a royal pain in the arse. God knows
why MS can't store the data, profiles, etc., in a format that would
facilitate backup and relocation. Nope, they make it as convoluted as
possible. I'm aware there are third-party apps/gimics, but the fact they
exist at all is a testament to how bad OE is constructed.

Actually, relocation and backup are relatively straightforward. The first is
done in the Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder tab. The second can be
done by merely copying the contents of that folder.

OTOH, recovering a bad database file from OE can be near impossible... OTOOH,
it's not as bad as Outlook, where you can lose EVERYTHING with a single
corrupted file!

In a nutshell, I avoid OE as much as possible. But I do have to admit that
I like its NG management compared to other tools, which is the ONLY reason I
continue to use it.

Since I once lost my Outlook pst file, I use OE for all e-mail. By
synchronizing my desktop and laptop regularly, I have a relatively current
backup of the latest archives, and I manually excise and archive older messages
every 6 months. That plus my regular data backups, and I should be relatively
safe...

I haven't gotten a virus in many years -- ever since I got smart about them
about 10 years ago. I find OE no worse than any other MS product in that
regard.

 

[Ray Cassick \(Home\)]

That is only my C drive:

I have 2 200Gig IDE drives in my system and room for 4 SATA drives

I do major SW development work here and I have a source code repository that
grows every week.

 

[Jim]

Huh? Who said anything about compacting files? I'm talking about BACKUP!

And I was comparing web-based email to OE in terms of backup, NOT access.
The former is not an issue for backup, since the files are stored REMOTELY.
The latter *is* an issue for backup since files are stored LOCALLY. That's
the point.

Get your facts straight before commenting.

Jim

 

[JAD]

Huh? Who said anything about compacting files? I'm talking about BACKUP!

Why would you archive email anyway? to save space on the drive or what? You
run a business or you get tons of flash cartoons? I was wondering what is so
special that one would keep them. address book/networking, spamming, love
letters?

And I was comparing web-based email to OE in terms of backup, NOT access.

"First, I like the idea of being able to
access my mail ANYWHERE I might happen to be. "

1st Jim, the FIRST thing you adore about web based email................

The former is not an issue for backup, since the files are stored

REMOTELY.

Exactly, so why did you even make the comparison?

The latter *is* an issue for backup since files are stored LOCALLY. That's
the point.

Get your facts straight before commenting.

Seems the facts are straight..

 

[John Doe]

Troll

 

[Jim]

You're totally missing the point. I told him that I keep the OS and DATA
separated, so that I could backup the OS much more quickly, use different
formats, etc. And that even if I lost the OS partition, it's not the end of
the world, the OS can always can be rebuilt. But then he asked a very
pertinent question, what about something like OE?!

IOW, if I'm routinely backing up the OS and something goes wrong with the
current OS, and I retreat to an prior image copy of the OS, what do I do
about the data changes that are inherently part of the OS, like OE data!!!
Despite the fact that I place my data files (audio/video, word/excel docs,
etc.) on a separate partition from the OS, there are still things that are
*data* that reside on the OS partition, regardless of my wish to keep most
of the DATA elements on a separate partition.. In those cases, he's asking
what do I do!

Answer, if I have to go back to a prior OS image copy, I backup the OE
database using the Files and Transfer Settings wizard first. I then restore
the prior OS, then run the wizard again to restore my email, NGs, etc.!
IOW, if I want/need to retreat to a prior OS image, I STILL WANT MY EMAIL
AND NG CHANGES SINCE THAT IMAGE WAS MADE! If some software installation
screws up my OS, and I decide to chuck it and work from a prior image copy,
I don't plan on throwing all the email I've downloaded to-date out the
window. I want to recover it!

Get it?! That's the point, and that was the question at hand. You keep
making the mistake that I'm somehow archiving my email for no good reason.
You're missing the context, it involves recovery of my email when restoring
a prior OS image.

Why has this proven so hard to understand?

Jim

 

[Leeb18509]

That's why I keep an image on an external HD.

I think "guessing" how big an OS partition you're going to need now
or in
the future is futile and/or ridiculous. But I guess there are those
out
there that feel they have to format and reload every month for whatever

reason. With all the system restore, recycle bin, my documents, my
whatever, page files and the hidden crap that Windows saves space for,
you
will run out of room. Of course, you can move all that crap off the
partition but then it's just a different kind of work. As opposed to
waiting 30 extra minutes to restore an image. Whoooppee...
I ran almost 2 years on the same XP install with dozens of programs
there
and gone, then decided to one day to reformat because the install "must
be
all clogged". Didn't make one bit of difference speed wise and
actually
borked up some hardware that I HAD running the way I wanted.
When partition size dictated cluster size there was a reason to size
your
partition, at least for performance. I tried the 6G "C" drive and just
got
sick of having to move files off the partition when I kept running out
of
space. The straw was a large file that took forever to download and it

couldn't unpack to the windows temp folder because I was low on space.

FWIW, I have a 74GB raptor C drive and a separate HD for "stuff" along
with
the external HD that I use to Arconis Image the C drive to which took
maybe
an hour the first time and 15 min. a week incrementally for about 40GB
of
data.

YMMV..

 

[Conor]

I want to place my OS on a partitioned small, fast hard drive (Raptor) and
would like some advice on the size of the partition for the OS. How much
room do I need for XP Pro and all its bells and whistles? I plan to put my
major apps on the remaining partition. TIA

Just stick the whole lot on the Raptor. Partitioning it is pointless
and I hope you meant to install the apps on the Raptor otherwise you
might as well not bother.

 

[Conor]

It does when you have to restore all your data after reformatting/re-installing
the boot partition...

ROFLMAO...

BAckup to DVDR.

 

[Conor]

stupid advice

Its perfectly reasonable advice. Anyone stupid enough to keep a backup
on the same drive should be shot.

 

[Conor]

Where do you get this crap from?

The school of HOW TO DO THE JOB PROPERLY. You've already shown yourself
up as a clueless ****wit on here so many times, people just humour you
now.

 

[Conor]

10 gigs is what I use as a size for XP. However I do not load my system up
with trials, games, stupid third party 'make my machine faster' crap. Why
partition? If anything goes belly up on the OS partition, all your data, if
stored on another partition is safe.

ROFL..assuming that the partition table doesn't get hosed.

You're really ****ing clueless...

 

[The Outsider]

Where do you get this crap from?

From the crap tech websites, of course!

 

[John Doe]

Conor <conor.turton gmail.com> wrote:

....

[having only one partition per hard drive is] perfectly reasonable
advice. Anyone stupid enough to keep a backup on the same drive
should be shot.

You are missing the boat if that would be your use for multiple
partitions.

 

[John Doe]

ROFL..assuming that the partition table doesn't get hosed.

You're really ****ing clueless...

Ignorant troll from a Linux user.

Only once in my vast experience with Windows has my disk been messed
up to the point that my disk manager could not work with the disk,
when I tried dual booting with Linux. With that exception, the
partition table has never gotten hosed on my systems. But Windows
does get hosed (much less frequently since Windows XP though).