Partitioning a hard drive

[Len Watts]

Could someone out there please help with this one.

What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets say a
40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and loading
Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up the loading of
Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on the larger partition
of the two?
My understanding although very little, is that the operating system will
only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
Please help as I am totally confused

[JDavid \(reverse the d and k\)]

No, the OS will access both partitions. Usually, the OS and all programs,
etc. go onto logical drive C: (10 Gb) and your "data" (picture files, text,
music files, etc.) you put onto D: Example: when you bring up or acquire a
picture file, the default is to use "My Pictures" which is on C: so you will
have to copy these off to D: for archiving -- preparatory to backup.

One advantage of this is that it is easier for you to backup your data
because it is all on one partition, so you don't have to chase all over C:
looking for it (exception: stuff like email, which is embedded in the
structure of OE on C:). And, if you need to re-install XP, you can do it on
C: without having to redo D: (not so sure about this part -- someone else
will have to chime in on this). Your programs will also have to be
re-installed, but normally, you should be able to do that with media at hand
(CD's) and downloads.

The default is for the C: to be FAT and the D: to be NTFS. There might be
speed advantages to this, but someone else will have to comment on that.

--
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
"Len Watts" > wrote in message
...
> Could someone out there please help with this one.
>
> What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets say a
> 40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and loading
> Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up the loading of
> Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on the larger
partition
> of the two?
> My understanding although very little, is that the operating system will
> only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
> Please help as I am totally confused
>
>

[Len Watts]

Many thanks for your help dave, the picture is much clearer now
Cheers and best regards. Len.
"JDavid (reverse the d and k)" <dkrugeratpacifierdotcom> wrote in message
...
> No, the OS will access both partitions. Usually, the OS and all programs,
> etc. go onto logical drive C: (10 Gb) and your "data" (picture files,
text,
> music files, etc.) you put onto D: Example: when you bring up or acquire
a
> picture file, the default is to use "My Pictures" which is on C: so you
will
> have to copy these off to D: for archiving -- preparatory to backup.
>
> One advantage of this is that it is easier for you to backup your data
> because it is all on one partition, so you don't have to chase all over C:
> looking for it (exception: stuff like email, which is embedded in the
> structure of OE on C:). And, if you need to re-install XP, you can do it
on
> C: without having to redo D: (not so sure about this part -- someone else
> will have to chime in on this). Your programs will also have to be
> re-installed, but normally, you should be able to do that with media at
hand
> (CD's) and downloads.
>
> The default is for the C: to be FAT and the D: to be NTFS. There might be
> speed advantages to this, but someone else will have to comment on that.
>
> --
> Dave Kruger
> Astoria, OR
> "Len Watts" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Could someone out there please help with this one.
> >
> > What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets say
a
> > 40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and loading
> > Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up the loading
of
> > Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on the larger
> partition
> > of the two?
> > My understanding although very little, is that the operating system will
> > only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
> > Please help as I am totally confused
> >
> >
>
>

[Len Watts]

Many thanks for your help Dave.
Regards. Len.
"JDavid (reverse the d and k)" <dkrugeratpacifierdotcom> wrote in message
...
> No, the OS will access both partitions. Usually, the OS and all programs,
> etc. go onto logical drive C: (10 Gb) and your "data" (picture files,
text,
> music files, etc.) you put onto D: Example: when you bring up or acquire
a
> picture file, the default is to use "My Pictures" which is on C: so you
will
> have to copy these off to D: for archiving -- preparatory to backup.
>
> One advantage of this is that it is easier for you to backup your data
> because it is all on one partition, so you don't have to chase all over C:
> looking for it (exception: stuff like email, which is embedded in the
> structure of OE on C:). And, if you need to re-install XP, you can do it
on
> C: without having to redo D: (not so sure about this part -- someone else
> will have to chime in on this). Your programs will also have to be
> re-installed, but normally, you should be able to do that with media at
hand
> (CD's) and downloads.
>
> The default is for the C: to be FAT and the D: to be NTFS. There might be
> speed advantages to this, but someone else will have to comment on that.
>
> --
> Dave Kruger
> Astoria, OR
> "Len Watts" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Could someone out there please help with this one.
> >
> > What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets say
a
> > 40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and loading
> > Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up the loading
of
> > Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on the larger
> partition
> > of the two?
> > My understanding although very little, is that the operating system will
> > only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
> > Please help as I am totally confused
> >
> >
>
>

[Don Burnette]

Len Watts wrote:
> Could someone out there please help with this one.
>
> What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets
> say a 40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and
> loading Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up
> the loading of Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on
> the larger partition of the two?
> My understanding although very little, is that the operating system
> will only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
> Please help as I am totally confused

Hi Len,

Think of partitioning a hard drive as organzing it better, keeping certain
things seperate from others.
For instance, for me, I prefer just to have the Windows XP os on it's own
partition. I keep my data files on a seperate partion. I keep my
applications on even another partion, and I also have a partition dedicated
to backups. However, I do have plenty of hard drive space - 2 each 120 gb
hard drives. I even keep the my documents folder on a seperate partion.
Then, if anything ever goes awry, I can do a clean install of XP on the
partition it is installed on, and still have all my data files intact on
their seperate partitions.

If you have only 1 40 gb hard drive, you might consider say a 7gb partition
for XP, and the remainder for your other stuff like data files.



--
Don Burnette

remove clothes when replying via email

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I'll chime in ...

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"JDavid (reverse the d and k)" <dkrugeratpacifierdotcom> wrote in
message ...

> No, the OS will access both partitions. Usually, the OS and all
programs,
> etc. go onto logical drive C: (10 Gb) and your "data" (picture files,
text,
> music files, etc.) you put onto D: Example: when you bring up or
acquire a
> picture file, the default is to use "My Pictures" which is on C: so
you will
> have to copy these off to D: for archiving -- preparatory to backup.
>
> One advantage of this is that it is easier for you to backup your data
> because it is all on one partition, so you don't have to chase all
over C:
> looking for it (exception: stuff like email, which is embedded in the
> structure of OE on C:).

The problem is that you have to tweak XP settings to move your data from
C: to D:.
And a lot of setting information is stored in the registry, which is
hard to backup.

> And, if you need to re-install XP, you can do it on
> C: without having to redo D: (not so sure about this part -- someone
else
> will have to chime in on this).

That is correct. If %windir% is on C:, then only C: is touched for a
re-install. However, you will need to re-tweak your My Documents and
other settings to re-attach the data on D: to the system on C:. For this
reason, it is a good idea to save registry tweaks in .reg files on D: so
that you can re-apply them if needed.

> Your programs will also have to be
> re-installed, but normally, you should be able to do that with media
at hand
> (CD's) and downloads.

Anytime you re-install the OS, the apps have to be re-installed, whether
they are on C: or D: This is mostly to redo the registry settings.
>
> The default is for the C: to be FAT and the D: to be NTFS. There
might be
> speed advantages to this, but someone else will have to comment on
that.

The default option for XP is NTFS. The only reason to use a FAT32
partition is if you are dual-booting with 9x and need 9x to be able to
read partitions that are shared with XP.

All in all, partitioning large disks is a lot of extra work and if you
use NTFS, you don't gain much advantage by partitioning. OSes used to be
a lot less reliable than they are now and it used to be that multiple
partitions would protect some data against disaster elsewhere on the
disk. The best reason to partition now, in my opinion, is to share
partitions among several OSes that are bootable on one system or to
create partitions that can be copied or imaged by partition image
software and stored in other partitions for quick recovery of damaged
partitions. Developers like this option.

[Frank Jelenko]

Not clear that the default file systems are FAT and NTFS for C: and D: If
you have the Pro version, I can't think of any reason to not use NTFS
[unless you're dual booting with an OS that doesn't support NTFS - e.g.,
Win98]
"JDavid (reverse the d and k)" <dkrugeratpacifierdotcom> wrote in message
...
> No, the OS will access both partitions. Usually, the OS and all programs,
> etc. go onto logical drive C: (10 Gb) and your "data" (picture files,
text,
> music files, etc.) you put onto D: Example: when you bring up or acquire
a
> picture file, the default is to use "My Pictures" which is on C: so you
will
> have to copy these off to D: for archiving -- preparatory to backup.
>
> One advantage of this is that it is easier for you to backup your data
> because it is all on one partition, so you don't have to chase all over C:
> looking for it (exception: stuff like email, which is embedded in the
> structure of OE on C:). And, if you need to re-install XP, you can do it
on
> C: without having to redo D: (not so sure about this part -- someone else
> will have to chime in on this). Your programs will also have to be
> re-installed, but normally, you should be able to do that with media at
hand
> (CD's) and downloads.
>
> The default is for the C: to be FAT and the D: to be NTFS. There might be
> speed advantages to this, but someone else will have to comment on that.
>
> --
> Dave Kruger
> Astoria, OR
> "Len Watts" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Could someone out there please help with this one.
> >
> > What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets say
a
> > 40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and loading
> > Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up the loading
of
> > Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on the larger
> partition
> > of the two?
> > My understanding although very little, is that the operating system will
> > only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
> > Please help as I am totally confused
> >
> >
>
>

[Raffaello]

Forgive me, I'm a beginner, but I think that some unusual programs will not
run under NTSF..... is it right?
If is a lie and you are sure of that tell me!!! So I will convert everything
in NTSF!!!!
Thanx RAF from Italy!!!



"Frank Jelenko" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...
> Not clear that the default file systems are FAT and NTFS for C: and D: If
> you have the Pro version, I can't think of any reason to not use NTFS
> [unless you're dual booting with an OS that doesn't support NTFS - e.g.,
> Win98]
> "JDavid (reverse the d and k)" <dkrugeratpacifierdotcom> wrote in message
> ...
> > No, the OS will access both partitions. Usually, the OS and all
programs,
> > etc. go onto logical drive C: (10 Gb) and your "data" (picture files,
> text,
> > music files, etc.) you put onto D: Example: when you bring up or
acquire
> a
> > picture file, the default is to use "My Pictures" which is on C: so you
> will
> > have to copy these off to D: for archiving -- preparatory to backup.
> >
> > One advantage of this is that it is easier for you to backup your data
> > because it is all on one partition, so you don't have to chase all over
C:
> > looking for it (exception: stuff like email, which is embedded in the
> > structure of OE on C:). And, if you need to re-install XP, you can do
it
> on
> > C: without having to redo D: (not so sure about this part -- someone
else
> > will have to chime in on this). Your programs will also have to be
> > re-installed, but normally, you should be able to do that with media at
> hand
> > (CD's) and downloads.
> >
> > The default is for the C: to be FAT and the D: to be NTFS. There might
be
> > speed advantages to this, but someone else will have to comment on that.
> >
> > --
> > Dave Kruger
> > Astoria, OR
> > "Len Watts" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > Could someone out there please help with this one.
> > >
> > > What advantages are to be gained by partitioning a hard drive, lets
say
> a
> > > 40Gb to two partitions. one at 10Gb and the other at 30Gb and loading
> > > Windows XP onto the smaller of the two? Does this speed up the
loading
> of
> > > Windows, and where do you load your other programs? on the larger
> > partition
> > > of the two?
> > > My understanding although very little, is that the operating system
will
> > > only cover the smaller partition and not the larger as well.
> > > Please help as I am totally confused
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>