Advice please

Michelangelo

I have just purchased a samsung spinpoint 160gb hard drive as I have run out of space with my 40 gig seagate barracuda. I am just wondering should I do a clean install of Win Xp on the new one and then partition it into sections like Mp3's, Games, Films etc and use the 40 gig for downloads or what should I do. I just do not know how to organise the space properly?

Any ideas or tips greatly appreciated. My hard drive is just like my head - A ****ing mess! lol

jabberwock

partition it first - then install a clean XP.
my 120Gb is 10/10/10/20/70
xp/2k/linux/music/program files
have a second 20gb for all my sh!t.
thats partion down into 5gb chunks

unkel

Originally posted by jabberwock
partition it first - then install a clean XP

Yes and then decide how to use the non system partition(s) on your new drive. I would either use the old drive for the stuff you need the least, or sell it as it still has some value. Probably virtually worthless in a year or so

That way you can always subsidise upgrades

Michelangelo

I will only have one operating system on it. win Xp. Should I give the xp partition 10 gig. If so, how come so much space.

For file swapping is it?

How much would I get for a 8 month old 40 gig seagate barracude 7200 rpm drive roughly?

Thank you.

Mike

Mutant_Fruit

an XP installation can take up 3 gigs of space by the time all those critical patches are installed, so you'd want at least 6 gigs in that partition, so you don;t run out of space.

Personally, i have 2 harddrives, and this is my setup
160gb harddrive: 2 partitions-> 6gb Windows, the rest in Files
80GB hardrive-> Just one partition.

The thing with loads of small partitions is that you can get "wasted" space... supposing you have 1 gig free on each of 6 partitions, but you want to install something that takes up 1.1gigs.....

unkel

Originally posted by Michelangelo
How much would I get for a 8 month old 40 gig seagate barracude 7200 rpm drive roughly?

New it's about 50-55 now so a bit less than that

Michelangelo

Then I would keep it.

So I will give win xp say 6gb partition. And say if I have to reinstall widows into that partition at a later date, will it be any harder to do or just as simple?

Thanks guys

Michelangelo

Also, Will I be able to transfer all programs from my 40 gig onto the new one, or will i have to reinstall everything from scratch? Cheers.

leeroybrown

An XP install will need:

Over a gig for the system
1 x RAM Size for hiberfile.sys
1.5 x RAM for pagefile.sys (can be tuned down)

That's almost 2.5Gigs with 512Mb or RAM (without tweaking the pagefile).

Some programs might be transferable but it's probably best to backup the files you need and just reinstall everything from scratch.

aaf

Originally posted by Michelangelo
Then I would keep it.

So I will give win xp say 6gb partition. And say if I have to reinstall widows into that partition at a later date, will it be any harder to do or just as simple?

Thanks guys

I just did a clean install of Win XP Pro on my new machine. If I were you, I'd give about 10GB to the Win partition you're thinking of setting up. I too have a Samsung 160GB SATA HD and after I installed XP Pro and all the updates, I was left with 149GB so to futureproof your XP install to include Service Packs and patches, I would recommend giving 10 GB's over to the Win Xp partition

unkel

Originally posted by aaf
I would recommend giving 10 GB's over to the Win Xp partition

So would I. It forces me to keep things reasonably clean and I will never need more than 2 DVD's for a ghost image

TKK

Would you guys recommend installing your programs on the same partition as Windows.....would it be any easier for ghosting....would a seperate partition for programs be a better idea....I'm about to start partitioning a 120GB drive and was thinking of leaving a 20GB partition for windows and programs....

padraigmyers

Thats what I've done, all "Program Files" and the XP installation are on a 20Gb partition, the rest is on the remaining 100Gb. Definetly makes backing up easier, because what installed and stored under "Program Files" is just as vital as the XP installation to me.

Michelangelo

Surely you will have more than 10gig of programs considering win xp will take as much as 10 with updates and service back 2 etc...??

unkel

Originally posted by Michelangelo
Surely you will have more than 10gig of programs considering win xp will take as much as 10 with updates and service back 2 etc...??

10GB is plenty for me but I don't use swapfile / hyberfile, have recycle bin limited to 1% and temp internet files on other partition. Using 3.5GB atm

Michelangelo

When you say programs, what do you mean? Stuff like Ms Office, web browsers and anti virus etc?

I assume you have games on seperate partitions. Actually should I give games their own partition???