Partitioning Data Drive

I'm adding a new 200GB data drive to an XP home machine. Should the
partition in the new drive be primary or extended?

"mcp6453" wrote in message
...
I'm adding a new 200GB data drive to an XP home machine. Should the
partition in the new drive be primary or extended?

It does not matter in the least.

Just so you have the complete picture and can work out how to partition,
format etc:

Windows XP supports up to four partitions per hard disk.
Windows XP supports two main partition TYPES: Primary and Extended.
A primary partition is one from which one can boot up an Operating System.
All four partitions can be designated as Primary [or bootable, should one
wish to install more than one Operating System, such as XP, 98, Linux etc].
One primary partition at a time must be marked as ‘Active’ designating it as
the one from which the computer will boot: in almost all cases this should be
the ‘C-Drive’.
One partition can be allocated as an Extended Partition. These differ in
that they are not formatted with a file system or assigned a specific drive
letter [‘D’, thru to ‘Z’].
An Extended Partition is then a dedicated area of disk space in which one
can then create a number of Logical Drives.
Logical Drives are similar to primary partitions in that they are
individually formatted with a file system and assigned a drive letter: thus
an extended partition can have an unlimited number of Logical Drives each
with its own drive letter, none of the Logical drives is bootable.
Use for logical drives can be to assign a specific drive letter [logical
drive] for each file type [word document, email, MP3] or on a computer with
many users, one or more logical drive per user.
Windows XP supports three file systems NTFS, FAT32 and FAT [the latter 2
being introduced with earlier Windows systems].
Of the file systems, NTFS is the most versatile and the newest, with a 32
bit address structure which gives it the ability to access the very large
disk drives available now [200Gb drives generally available] and in the
future.
Limitations for each file system a
FAT – only addresses up to 4Gb of disk space [Windows XP, 95 and earlier
Windows versions only]
FAT32 - only addresses up to 32Gb of disk space [Windows XP, Me 98 and 95
Second Edition]
NTFS - addresses up to 2,000Gb of disk space [Windows XP]
One would use a partitioned hard drive formatted as FAT32 or FAT should one
wish to accommodate a dual boot system [running XP or an earlier Operating
System].
Should one have Windows XP Pro, a further benefit of NTFS is that files can
be encrypted.


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:


"mcp6453" wrote in message
...
I'm adding a new 200GB data drive to an XP home machine. Should the
partition in the new drive be primary or extended?

It does not matter in the least.

BAR wrote:
Just so you have the complete picture and can work out how to partition,
format etc:

Windows XP supports up to four partitions per hard disk.
Windows XP supports two main partition TYPES: Primary and Extended.
A primary partition is one from which one can boot up an Operating System.
All four partitions can be designated as Primary [or bootable, should one
wish to install more than one Operating System, such as XP, 98, Linux etc].
One primary partition at a time must be marked as ‘Active’ designating it as
the one from which the computer will boot: in almost all cases this should be
the ‘C-Drive’.
One partition can be allocated as an Extended Partition. These differ in
that they are not formatted with a file system or assigned a specific drive
letter [‘D’, thru to ‘Z’].
An Extended Partition is then a dedicated area of disk space in which one
can then create a number of Logical Drives.
Logical Drives are similar to primary partitions in that they are
individually formatted with a file system and assigned a drive letter: thus
an extended partition can have an unlimited number of Logical Drives each
with its own drive letter, none of the Logical drives is bootable.
Use for logical drives can be to assign a specific drive letter [logical
drive] for each file type [word document, email, MP3] or on a computer with
many users, one or more logical drive per user.
Windows XP supports three file systems NTFS, FAT32 and FAT [the latter 2
being introduced with earlier Windows systems].
Of the file systems, NTFS is the most versatile and the newest, with a 32
bit address structure which gives it the ability to access the very large
disk drives available now [200Gb drives generally available] and in the
future.
Limitations for each file system a
FAT – only addresses up to 4Gb of disk space [Windows XP, 95 and earlier
Windows versions only]
FAT32 - only addresses up to 32Gb of disk space [Windows XP, Me 98 and 95
Second Edition]
NTFS - addresses up to 2,000Gb of disk space [Windows XP]
One would use a partitioned hard drive formatted as FAT32 or FAT should one
wish to accommodate a dual boot system [running XP or an earlier Operating
System].
Should one have Windows XP Pro, a further benefit of NTFS is that files can
be encrypted.


Excellent response. Thanks for taking the time!