Formatting a hard drive

[THEpiGUY]

Partitioning a hard drive

EDIT: Dang, wrong name. I meant for it to read, "Partitioning a hard drive." ...please read on

I received Windows XP Home today because I got tired of the driver conflicts on X64. Please, I know I could've waited for Vista, but I have an upgrade coupon that I may use (yeah, I know, it's not free) and the main point is: I didn't. Now back to the partitioning part. I have backed up all files but my Windows X64 files, and am preparing to format as soon as I get some advice. I want to be able to run either or. Basically, what I'm considering is this: How should I partition it? I have a 160GB (149GB in reality) HDD which is plenty for me. Is there any disadvantage speed-wise on having many partitions? I was thinking about doing 2 5GB's for the Windows XP's and 1 140GB for everything else. There'll be no way I run out of room on the 140GB of space anytime soon, so lack of space is completely out of the question. Is that a good idea to have Windows on its own partition, and does 5GB sound like enough to hold XP Home? My XP X64 reads 3.03GB. Thanks for any help/advice.

 

[bullzi]

alrighty, well i agree with your decision to format, i do this as well, so if a file is corrupt you can simply reinstall and you still have everything, as far as sizes go, i would make a couple 30gb's for the system partitions, and the reason i say so big is because of updates and caches, i used the minimum required and it didnt work, i kept getting an error saying "disk space critical" and then it would shut down, so i say two 30's and then the rest can be for extra stuff, like programs, documents music etc.

good luck! any probs. lemme know

 

[THEpiGUY]

alrighty, well i agree with your decision to format, i do this as well, so if a file is corrupt you can simply reinstall and you still have everything, as far as sizes go, i would make a couple 30gb's for the system partitions, and the reason i say so big is because of updates and caches, i used the minimum required and it didnt work, i kept getting an error saying "disk space critical" and then it would shut down, so i say two 30's and then the rest can be for extra stuff, like programs, documents music etc.

good luck! any probs. lemme know

Alright, sounds good to me. Thanks for the quick response and that added bit. Anyone else have anything to contribute?

 

[bullzi]

Alright, sounds good to me. Thanks for the quick response and that added bit. Anyone else have anything to contribute?

not a problemo! like i said, let me know if any problems arise

 

[kjman87]

I did the minimum on my laptop a while back...bad Idea...I went to DL SP2 and then it unzipped itself and there was not enough room...yeah Def go with atleast 15-20, 30 is better if you can spare that type of room...even do 2 20s that way you still have 109GB free for stuff...

 

[THEpiGUY]

I did the minimum on my laptop a while back...bad Idea...I went to DL SP2 and then it unzipped itself and there was not enough room...yeah Def go with atleast 15-20, 30 is better if you can spare that type of room...even do 2 20s that way you still have 109GB free for stuff...

Alright, you think 2 20s would work? I'd like to save as much space as I can, but I'd much rather have Windows run nice and clean. I could almost definitely get by on 89GB, but the extra 20 would be nice. And I didn't plan on putting anything else on the Windows partitions. Thanks again, heh, it sounds like I'd have been screwed on 5GB.

 

[bullzi]

Alright, you think 2 20s would work? I'd like to save as much space as I can, but I'd much rather have Windows run nice and clean. I could almost definitely get by on 89GB, but the extra 20 would be nice. And I didn't plan on putting anything else on the Windows partitions. Thanks again, heh, it sounds like I'd have been screwed on 5GB.

yea if you cant do 2 30's, 2 20's will work as well

 

[THEpiGUY]

yea if you cant do 2 30's, 2 20's will work as well

Ok, thanks for everything. Off to format.

 

[bullzi]

haha k,

 

[Raffaz]

You should always have about 20% more than you will ever need, this helps for speed, and it helps for defragging ya drive, so the computer has somewhere to move the files around to. I know im probs a bit late, but thought id add it anyway