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What do you think of this HDD setup...

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o0OBruceLeeO0o

Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Location
Charlotte, NC
I am thinking about setting it up in 2 partitions on my 80gig (76gb physical memory). C: will have Windows xp, and all my programs that are not games. It will be 20gb. The other 56gb ( D: ) will be for downloads, games and virtual memory. I am thinking of setting it up like this to make it run faster... especialy for games. I am not real sure what the diffrence is when putting virtual memory on another partition. The reason I am thinking of trying it is because a friend of mine swears by it, so if anyone can explain that I would be happy :). Any input is appreciated....
 
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I would make a 3rd partition for the swap file to help prevent fragmenting. I have a 1.5gb partition on my second HDD for swap usage. I only have the swap file set up as about 700mb though. I just did not want to get that annoying low disk space warning all the time.
 
Yes that all sounds fine, but just as orion25 recommended, I would make a separate partition only for the swap/page file / virtual memory. Since the usage of virtual memory is something you want to avoid or speed up as much as possible, it is good to place the virtual memory partition at the very beginning of the harddrive, before any other partitions. I was able to do this on my computer with PartitionMagic 8.0.

-YB
 
To be honest I doubt you will see a speed increase by having the swap file on another partition. Jumping from one partition to another can slowdown your HDDs performance. What you do gain is a lot more stability becasue of a more robust windows setup. I like having 3 partitions C: = OS, D: = Swap File, *.DBX, Temporary Internet Folder & E: = for data. Basically D: gets all the reading & writing duties to conserve the integrity of C: & E:.
 
I second the idea of separate swap partition. Besides, you don't really need a whole 20 Gb for XP and progs. I have installed EVERYTHING (web design, system tools, CADs, programming IDEs, graphic editors, publishers...), and it STILL takes up some 7 Gb. Go make 10 Gb - it really is enough.

And more: if you're familiar with registry tricks, move your My Documents and Application Data folders to another partition - you'll find it useful in case you'll have to reformat C:.
 
I have four partitions,C: for windows and only windows,D: for games and programs,E: for backups of dvd's and swapfile for photoshop and f: for downloaded files from the internet.
I have it that way for a few good reasons.First you don't want programs residing within the os partition cause it will case problems and slow win down,also fragmenting the partition.If they reside on seperate partitions than neither of them will fragment nearly as fast.Second i have 2x40 gig drives in raid 0 and raid loves 20 gig partitions for the OS,I'm not sure why but they bench faster than any other size.Thirdly i use nortons ghost and backup all partitions to a third drive,also with four partitions.If somthing goes terribly wrong you can ghost C and D back within minutes without losing any data thats on the backup disc.
Keeping windows on its own partition will avoid the dreaded bsod more than any other single thing that i know of.
 
howdy all.......been awhile.....here I go.......

i agree with 3 partition setup.......that's how my abit board is setup.......2-40gigs @ raid0.......1.) c=10gigs for windows,office programs,basically...anything that is windows......2.)d=1.5gig for page file.....3.)e=games,downloads,backups,basically.......everything i dont want to reinstall if windows poops out........

now as for page file size set in drive d is kind of tricky.....for me not to see that aweful low disk message i had to leave at least 5% of drive open....approx......350mbs...somewhere around there.....i just readjusted until properties told me 5% left and then no more messages.......i couldnt tell you of a performance boost with this setup but can tell ya that fragmentation issues are gone........disk defrag runs everytime in about 5 seconds max.....the setup does blaze though.......actually runs smoother than my asus nforce 2 setup with all the goodies........i am switching asus to this method........
 
So is it always a good idea to put your programs with windows? I was thinking of going with a 4 Partition Set-Up....C:Windows, D:Swapfiles, E:programs/games, F:Downloads (movies, songs, and everything I download). The reason I have downloads alone is so if I reformat windows, I will have to reinstall games/programs anyway. This way they can just stay on their own partition. I also will prob have my downloads partition shared on the network. If I DO do this, how big do you think my C: Partition should be. The only thing on C: is Windows XP Pro. Any input on why my setup would be good/bad is greatly appreciated :)
 
your choice

however you want it.........just pay attention when you install each application to which drive and such.........trial and error process basically......i put xp plus, updates, office xp, media player, basically...anything windowish into drive c: cause 10 gigs is alot of space and i wanted to use up some of it so it would leave me more space on e: drive;)
 
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