Upgrading to XP and partitioning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian Gotjunk
  • Start date Start date
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Brian Gotjunk

I am using Win 98SE, and am considering upgrading to XP.

I have 3 partitions currently:
C - Win98
D - all my programs
E - all my documents and downloads

Any suggestions for how best to repartition the system would be appreciated.

Should I move my documents from E to C, so that I only need to backup C?

When I do an annual re-install of my OS, will I need to re-install all of my
programs since they are on D? Or will they run after the re-install of the
OS?
 
Brian Gotjunk said:
I am using Win 98SE, and am considering upgrading to XP.

I have 3 partitions currently:
C - Win98
D - all my programs
E - all my documents and downloads

Any suggestions for how best to repartition the system would be appreciated.

Should I move my documents from E to C, so that I only need to backup C?

When I do an annual re-install of my OS, will I need to re-install all of my
programs since they are on D? Or will they run after the re-install of the
OS?
Click to expand...

- What are the sizes of your partitions?
- How much free space on each partition?
 
Brian said:
I am using Win 98SE, and am considering upgrading to XP.

I have 3 partitions currently:
C - Win98
D - all my programs
E - all my documents and downloads

Any suggestions for how best to repartition the system would be
appreciated.

Should I move my documents from E to C, so that I only need to backup
C?

When I do an annual re-install of my OS, will I need to re-install
all of my programs since they are on D? Or will they run after the
re-install of the OS?
Click to expand...

If your system shipped with 98, you should consider the alternative of
purchasing an entry level system with XP installed. It will most likely be
close to the same price as upgrading and you will have a much faster system
with more features than the system you upgrade.
Keep the 98 system and network it with the new one. You will lose nothing
and gain a new system to migrate your current programs and applications as
desired.
I do not believe upgrading a system more than 3 years old is cost effective
with the specifications and price of entry level XP systems in today's
market.
BTW, with XP you no longer need to do an annual re-install.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
of

- What are the sizes of your partitions?
- How much free space on each partition?
Click to expand...

C - 4Gb - 50% free
D - 8gb - 95% free
E - 8gb - 50% free
 
Michael Stevens said:
If your system shipped with 98, you should consider the alternative of
purchasing an entry level system with XP installed. It will most likely be
close to the same price as upgrading and you will have a much faster system
with more features than the system you upgrade.
Keep the 98 system and network it with the new one. You will lose nothing
and gain a new system to migrate your current programs and applications as
desired.
I do not believe upgrading a system more than 3 years old is cost effective
with the specifications and price of entry level XP systems in today's
market.
BTW, with XP you no longer need to do an annual re-install.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
Click to expand...
I have done the re-install to clean out the accumulation of a years worth of
'stuff'

I setup the system originally with just the OS, added all of the current
updates, then ghosted that setup. When I do the re-install I restore the
ghost file, add the new updates, ghost that setup to use the following year,
then add my programs.

Why will I not need to do an annual re-install with XP?
 
Michael Stevens said:
If your system shipped with 98, you should consider the alternative of
purchasing an entry level system with XP installed. It will most likely be
close to the same price as upgrading and you will have a much faster system
with more features than the system you upgrade.
Keep the 98 system and network it with the new one. You will lose nothing
and gain a new system to migrate your current programs and applications as
desired.
I do not believe upgrading a system more than 3 years old is cost effective
with the specifications and price of entry level XP systems in today's
market.
BTW, with XP you no longer need to do an annual re-install.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
Click to expand...

Another consideration - I have been reading about Virtual Machine, and
wonder if that would be a good way to 'test' the programs I download before
applying them to my 'main' OS?
 
Brian Gotjunk said:
C - 4Gb - 50% free
D - 8gb - 95% free
E - 8gb - 50% free
Click to expand...

You have two options:
a) Make the first partition 10 GBytes and use it for the OS and
for your applications.
b) Leave the partitions as they are.

Which option you select is largely a matter of taste. Having your
apps on drive D: does not give you much of an advantage: If you
need to re-install your OS then you need to re-install your apps too!

While OSs do age, an annual re-installation is probably a bit
of an overkill. I prefer to take a snapshot of my OS once
every six months, using Acronis TrueImage, and I always keep
the two most recent image files. If my installation goes south
then I simply restore it to the most recent image. This is very
fast and totally painless.
 
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