Need suggestions on how to organize hard drive space

i have 2 hard drives, this is how im thinking of organizing it:

HD 1: WD 3200AAKS - 320GB
C: ~100GB --> Windows XP + applications etc
D: ~150GB --> music, videos, downloads..stuff i frequently use/playback
E: ~50GB --> i install games here, so i don't have to reinstall if i want to reinstall windows

HD 2: - Seagate 7200.11 500GB
F: Xgb --> this is where i will ghost my C drive/windows installation with all software etc
G: 500-XGB --> this is where i will backup everything important, in .rar format, highly compressed

oh and btw, this is what it looks like atm:
http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=89736089jq7.png
I have xp sp3 installed currently on C drive.
I have all my data in D drive.
The 46.9GB of allocated space that you see is a deleted partition that im trying to recover some data from, once thats done, im gonna do what i stated in this thread.


any suggestions?

Do you really need 100GB for OS and apps? 50GB should be enough.

I would move C: to the front of the HDD, you will get a bit better access/load times.
Swap D with E for same reason.


Other then that it looks fine.

AFG34 said:

E: ~50GB --> i install games here, so i don't have to reinstall if i want to reinstall windows

Click to expand...

You can not just copy the games with a new OS install. They will have to be reinstalled with the new OS.

billb said:

You can not just copy the games with a new OS install. They will have to be reinstalled with the new OS.

Click to expand...

Depends on the game. And if he does an Image of his OS with the games pre-installed, then OS image will have the DLL files that were pre-installed by specific game.

so i should get rid of E and install games on C?

edit: and how do i move C to the front? I have Acronis Disk Director and i cant figure out how to do it.

Format the entire drive and start from scratch.

Then make new partitions on your main 320GB drive; C: D: E:

C :~50GB --> OS and Apps
D: ~50GB --> install games
E: ~200GB --> music, videos, downloads..stuff i frequently use/playback


or.

Move everything from D: to your new 500GB drive.

Then Format D:
Combine all partitions on main 320GB drive in to one partition.
Defrag the 320 drive so all the OS and App files move to the front of the 320 drive.
Then use Acronis to make new partitions on your main 320Gb drive.

UglyChild said:

Format the entire drive and start from scratch.

Then make new partitions on your main 320GB drive; C: D: E:

C :~50GB --> OS and Apps
D: ~50GB --> install games
E: ~200GB --> music, videos, downloads..stuff i frequently use/playback


or.

Move everything from D: to your new 500GB drive.

Then Format D:
Combine all partitions on main 320GB drive in to one partition.
Defrag the 320 drive so all the OS and App files move to the front of the 320 drive.
Then use Acronis to make new partitions on your main 320Gb drive.

Click to expand...

whats the point of installing games on a seperate partition if i have to reinstall them if i reinstall my OS? you said it depends on the game: UT2004 was installed on my D partition in windows XP that i had before. Now after a fresh install, it won't let me play, tells me to reinstall. so i think i should just put games and OS together and create an image of that on other hard drive.

Thanks for your replies

AFG34 said:

i think i should just put games and OS together and create an image of that on other hard drive.

Click to expand...

Now you're getting smart!

while you guys are here, post how your drives are organized.

300GB VR split in half w/ 1st half XP-32, and 2nd half Vista-64. This is the only HDD in my main rig. I just install games and such on the same drive as the appropriate OS.

Everything else is on the File Server w/ 4 x 640GB in unRAID (1.92TB of usable storage), and a 250GB cache drive. I keep images of my OS here along w/ all my movies, pics, music, install files, etc. Adding new drives for increased storage is a breeze, and the unRAID gives me some decent redundancy.



XP can run a little better if you put the pagefile on a separate physical HDD. It might be beneficial to create a small partition (preferably at the beginning of the HDD) on the 2nd drive the same size as whatever size pagefile you want to use.

AFG34 said:

while you guys are here, post how your drives are organized.

Click to expand...

Like This:

The only thing tricky is a single Page File for all three OSs.