partitioning a 40gig hdd

[ripken204]

i would like to partition my 40gig hdd with partition magic, how should i split it up? like how much for OS and for any other sections?

[KamiQuazi]

Depends on what u need the hdd for. What ya using it for?

[ripken204]

well what do u mean, i do a variety of thing on my comp, gaming, photoshop, enconding/decoding, writing java programs

unless u mean something else?

this is my main and only drive b/c this the comp is a laptop

[Lost Soul]

it really depends on what youd like to do with your hd,, me i like to give my hd 3 partitions but im on a 80g,, 1 for my os and installed pros, 2 games and stuff i like to dl, and 3,, anything i do with programming html, javascripting, xpcd

so you can partition your 40g it just depends on what you want the partitions for and how much room do you want on them,, and is that room enough,

things like that is what you decide on,,, or if you just want a small couple g partition to hold drivers, thats kool to,,

well any ways just decide on what you want,, how you want it organized and how much room do you want for each partition.. final choice is yours

but id say 40g you got a good amount of room to work with so partition the way you want it

[Zxian]

My general rule of thumb is as follows:

Open up C:\ and highlight the Program Files and Windows directories. Find the total space of these two folders (right-click=>Properties). Add about 3-5 GB to this and make that your system drive.

The rest, split it up as you see fit. I always make it a habit of mounting a partition (even a small one) to the "My Documents" location, in the event that something gets buggered in Windows.

[ripken204]

add 3-5? am i able to install games on a different partition or only unde program files? b/c alot of games are a few gigs like UT2004

[Railman5]

I would do as has been suggested. make the c drive as small as practical.

most games etc allow you to choose a directory to install to

it usually defaults to c:program files/ your game...

but you can easily change the directory to D/: program files/ etc......

[ripken204]

so u recommend around 8-10 gigs for the OS partition?

and is it safe to use partition magic with info on the hdd? ive got about 20gigs used so will it erase anything?

[Railman5]

OK. No expert with XP here so PLEASE TAKE THE ADVICE Carefully.

First off a good tip would be to reassign your cd/dvd drive to say U,V,W etc so that you can create smaller partitions D,E,F etc. this way when you run a program from the CD it will not search for D:/ prog files etc if it was prevviously installed there.

Be very careful using Partition Magic. Especially on the fly. Also make sure you have the correct version to use.

As a matter of course BACK UP EVERYTHING if you can to CD DVD etc should all go wrong.

I understand that there is a facility in xp to use a disk manager.

its located from memoryat

ControlPanel/Performance and Maintenance/ admin tools/ then the computer management Icon

under storage there is an option disk mana\gement.

this I think might only work in XP Pro .

Please do some researce on this before going about parttitioning.

I think the best way is to back up your files then use FDISK to partition up the allocations then do a unattended install or (Reinstall if you have to.

but again be careful of thje dreaded activation code if you do.

there is ways around to circumvent this if you are reinstalling to the same machine hardware but again research.

hope that has not put you off.

best way to learn is to do it. but do be careful.

good luck

REMEMBER

Back up and proceed with caution.

B)

[ripken204]

i have read alot about it and know pretty much all u told me, i am backing things up and plan to do a clean install

[Railman5]

Good luck then.

I think you are going about it the safest way.

[Technoguy]

well @rip i suggest just keep around 6gb space for ur OS and others as u desire like 8-10gb for appz and remaining for games.the 1 thing while partitioning thru partition magic use NTFS type and just set the cluster size to 4k instead of default 16k that wud save u some space.btw don't go for 2 many drives that's confusin and u r unnecessarily wastin space

[ripken204]

now how do i actually do it, im have partition magic and the turoral video said to split my c: drive but it is grayed off

[ripken204]

nvm, i got it, i had to change the size of my c: drive to whatever i wanted it to be, then with the space left over i just made a new part

[os2fan2]

My reccomendation is this:

Make c: a small fat partition, say 1/4 GB

If you plan to run bartPE, make another primary partition. This becomes the X: drive. It can be quite small too, eg 1/2 GB

The rest becomes extended partition.

1. Make one or two OS partitions, around the 4G mark. You can use one to rescue the other, if need be.

2. Create the rest into about three partitions (games, work, scrap). The idea here is that most of the stuff gets done in the scrap partition, and it is quite easy to reformat it and start again, without fussing with your setup. Most user data should go onto the work partition, leaving the OS partition largely free for other things.

W