how fat is windows XP ?

I keep seeing when people partition their drives they recommend only giving windows (c:\) like 2-3 gigs ! I have a 250 gig drive so i have more then enought room but with stupid MS i cant get all the space anyway since not supported. I did a even 46.9 46.9 46.9 split for 3 partitions , i put windows on c:\ then i install all my "aftermarket apps" on my d:\ then i am going to store all my mp3's on my 3rd partition. Is there a disadvantage to giving windows that much room ??? Also if i do small partitions and more of them will i get all my space ? (just thought of that )

I have a 250 gig drive so i have more then enought room but with stupid MS i cant get all the space anyway since not supported.

Click to expand...

Yes, it is. Google "48-bit LBA".

If you put Windows on that 46.9GB partition and nothing else, then yes, that's a huge waste of space. I have XP installed on a 2GB partition and it fares quite well, even after updates and a few small programs installed.

hahah 2Gigs that crazy !!! Now with all your programs like adobe reader , all your startup programs they are all on your otyehr drives right ? So i should partition 2 gigs for windows then the rest for all my other junk ?

I have a 120gb drive,,,,,,,,,,
5gb = OS - XP
20gb = all apps
the rest for whatever, downloads, temp working space etc

my data is stored on a network drive that is backed up regularly

Ok what i did was reinstall windows "new install" Which wouldnt allow me to delete the old partition of the c:\ since it was the only one left. I reinstall windows then i partitioned the c:\ smaller and also added 2 more partitions. I gave windows 5gig then installed updates and a few small BIOS programs and drivers and now i get low disk space !!!!! Look Whats up with that ?

p.s

The G:\ drive is not a partition its my old HD

Yeah, I used to do 5-6 gigs for XP also, but my latest few installs I noticed XP getting close to that limit, leaving little room for defrag.

So now I use a 10 gig partition for the OS (and whatever miscellaneous junk MS chooses to lump in with the OS - updates and other stuff). I use a separate 20gig partition for installed apps/programs.

well i did have that 111 gig for Mp3's and such , i guesss that is excessive. I will take some from there.

If you play many of the new games, and install them on the same partiton as windows, I would recommend like a 15-20GB partition for Windows and your program files.

I currently have mine setup up like this:

WD160GB #1
15GB - Windows
134GB - Programs, videos, etc

WD160GB #2
149GB - Storage - Mp3s, videos, program installers, and backups of main drive.

Less than 10GB for your windows partiton is too small if you also plan on installing all of the programs there also.

Yeah...2-3 gigs is minimal for XP if you're not installing big programson the same partition. Hardcore gamers do need a good deal more if they're installing their games on the same partition as XP. My suggestion would be 2-3gigs for XP, itself, and a partition dedicated for installing your programs. The rest, of course, would be for storage. It all depends on what you want to do. IMO, though, that suggestion would make it better for defrags since you don't have to worry as much about defragging the XP partition.

Is there any advantage to breaking up your HD into a bunch of partitions? Why not just have one big one?

DSM4Life said:

Ok what i did was reinstall windows "new install" Which wouldnt allow me to delete the old partition of the c:\ since it was the only one left. I reinstall windows then i partitioned the c:\ smaller and also added 2 more partitions. I gave windows 5gig then installed updates and a few small BIOS programs and drivers and now i get low disk space !!!!! Look Whats up with that ?

Click to expand...

Is your pagefile on C? If so, how much are you allocating to it? You can easily move the pagefile to D, or restict it's size by making the min and max allocations the same.

K i gave it 28 gigs of space which is fine since ihave more then enough, but after the install of SP2 I noticed that my splash screen when it starts says windowsXP without the pro now but when i right click my computer and /properties it says Windows Pro Ver 2002 SP2

I give 15Gigs to XP for a partition. Once you are all installed then download required updates and adobe and junk like that you are pushing close to 15.

Just basic windows takes 2-2.5 gigs.

I don't really see a reason for breaking it all up... it's not like your going to reinstall Windows then have all of your apps be ok (could do it but isn't the point of doing it for a fresh start?)

I just keep all of my files in one large folder... it's about 40gigs... I need a way to back it up and dunno where to put it all!

Yeah I never saw an advantage to splitting up one drive. I can see putting My Documents on a seperate hard drive or something but I don't thing it will run any faster in its own partition. I think I read in Maximum PC that WinXP actually runs better on one partition.

DSM4Life said:

hahah 2Gigs that crazy !!! Now with all your programs like adobe reader , all your startup programs they are all on your otyehr drives right ?

Click to expand...

Negative. Even if every other partition on this machine crapped, it would still be possible to get work done. There's still room for a small MS Office installation.

I just run my OS on my 36gig Raptor Drive. Yes I have all my other apps and even 1-2 of the current games on that drive and it runs fine.

On my other computer I have a 160gig drive now taking up my place as my C drive. I use to have a setup where it was 10gig's for the OS drive and major apps that I used. It was easy to defrag and such due to limited writing to the drive so everything was nice and clean, so its faster that way. Other then that I found no true use out of it except the pain in the butt here and there with running close to the limits of the partition for space.

Since you have such a huge drive though, might try spliting it up into 3 partitions at least. 1 for OS/APPs and 1 for games, and 1 for others (the remaining space). A 20/40/190 split would work just fine, unless you got some more games or want to give a little leeway in the OS/APPs drive. A little more never hurts, just remember only put 1 Swap file on that drive, not 1 per partition, that will bog the system down like it was back in the 1990's.

Skeen said:

Is there any advantage to breaking up your HD into a bunch of partitions? Why not just have one big one?

Click to expand...

Yes. It's called divide and conquer. Machiavelli is still revelent!

It's not at all unknown for Windows (all versions) to slowly degrade if you are installing and removing software and hardware. If it's all in one file system when you do that, you either have to not wipe it (which is the best way to do it), or you lose all those useful at installation time files - up-to-date drivers and so on - or you have to remember to put them all on CD.

If, OTOH, you have two or more partitions and only install Windows and what insists on being in C: in the C: partition, there are all your downloads waiting in D: and/or E: for you to install them.

Also, if you reinstall some software on top of where a previous copy was, it will pick up all the settings automatically. Some of it asks you if you want to keep them, some just does.

Finally, if you are searching for specific file, you can reduce the search time by searching the right drive.

HOWEVER with Win2K / WinXP you have to remember to alter the default setting for 'My Documents' from C:\Documents and Settings \%USER%\My Documents to E:\My Documents (or whatever). Personally I'd like to be able to tell Windows to use E: (or whatever) instead of C for this folder, as it also contains things like your IE favourites (if you use IE), your OE data (if you use it), the icons on your desktop, and a few other useful things it would be useful to have preserved in the event of a reinstall.

Someone else in the thread was also hinting at a new maximum partition size limit somewhere in Windows (48-bit LBA) - this would be yet another reason to sub-divide.

My background is Unix and we've been dividing & conquering there for years...

My own PC has C: (8GB, Windows 2K), D: (8GB, other programs) and E: (the rest of the drive, documents, photos, web site development area, CSV when I get and 'aroundtoit' and it will also have the flight simlulator when I get around to reinstalling that, as it's data files are *massive*.

However a lot of PCs (not always just the cheaper ones) these days come with a strange version of Windows which is a restore CD, not an installation CD, so the only way to get multiple partitions with one of those is with something like Partition Magic, and if you have to restore it all gets replaced with one huge C: again.

i wouldnt break up one drive i think u should buy a fast 20 to 40gig drive to install windows and apps on then use your 250gig for storage it would be alot easier and faster

something else you might want to check is system restore. which if left on takes i think 10% of you hard drive by default.

as for partitioning...i dont see the need to seperate windows from programs, but data i put on a seperate partition thats fat32 so its also writable in linux