Partioning XP Pro - How many partions, how big and why? - Page 2

i like the idea of the S drive -- scratch space. nice.

While that's a valid reason to have an extra partition, reformatting a drive/partition is very rarely a necessity, since most HDD/partition operations can be done lossfree (fresh installs, minor changes to the file system etc) one way or the other. Assuming your file system is NTFS and you need to access the drive/partition from outside Windows you can use a bootable CD (maybe some compilation of Windows PE, semilegal, or a Linux CD like Knoppix, fully legal), use boot disks (the licensed version of NTFSDOS with read/write access) or a second HDD (not applicable on most laptops though) to do the things you want to do. Of course, this is just a suggestion but it covers all my needs

um it's easier to set a different partition to save the files instead of doing what you explained. after all, this is for convienence.

Do what??

Since it wasn't clear to me exactly what he needed to do and how he needed to do it I simply made a few assumptions and mentioned what the different options available are - not that you need to use all of them nor in detail how to use any of them...

To me, booting up a CD and within seconds getting a working NT environment with useful system utilities that enable me to do whatever I want to do outside of my Windows installation (clean up the HDD for a fresh install, change partition data etc) is extremely convenient - and above all, no need for any other partitions. But, like I said, just because it's easy and convenient for me doesn't mean it's the optimal solution for everyone...

isn't it more convienent to set up another partition once only, so you don't ever have to boot the cd? and what if you lose that cd, or it gets damaged? im not exactly sure what you're saying.. what's NT environment? are you talking about windows nt?

NT environment = any operating system working on an NT kernel (= NT, 2000, XP, PE)

If the CD gets damaged you can always burn a new one prior to doing the clean install or whatever you wanted to do, just like you would need to do if the Windows XP install CD itself gets damaged or lost. How you would solve it and whether the need to do that would arise depends completely on yourself and your habits regarding CDs. I'd always recommend having an extra backup of any important CD like the XP install CD, any system diagnostics CD, etc, especially if they are at any obvious risk. Same goes with important hard drive content for that matter...

If it's more convenient to keep your personal files on a separate partition than to boot into WinPE/Knoppix and delete a few system folders and files on your Windows partition? It's a matter of preference and my preference is to have a single partition because you don't NEED any more partitions than one, not even when doing frequent clean installs of XP which was my point all along. Keeping a single partition you don't have the need to constantly keep track on whether all your "personal" files are on your "personal" partition (especially prior to making the clean reinstall) or not, you don't have to spend time transferring files between the two partitions in everyday use and you don't have to reformat the partition during the XP reinstallation process. On the other hand you do have to spend 2 minutes of your time to boot into WinPE/Knoppix and delete a few system folders and files prior to the clean install of XP...

i still don't get how booting a cd and then going through a few other steps is more difficult than double click "my computer" and then double clicking on "d:" or whatever the name of your partiioned drive is. but, i guess that's your own cup of tea...

i do not get the idea of why people need to constantly keep track on whether all the personal files are on the personal partition or not, and even need time to transferring files.

i set "my documents" folder point to the D:\my_data, and everytime when I save a personal file, or a file, it goes to d:\my_data. i do not need to keep track, because it is done automatically. i do not need to transfer files because i save the file directly to the personal partition.

i *want* to reformat the partition because I want to have a complete clean partition to begin with.

again, as you mentioned, it is just a personal preference.

you know about partition magic right?

yes i do. but i do not have a copy of it, nor i will use it

what would you want to suggest?

not i care to use it? what do you mean? PM me if you want a hookup...

Oh man.. .i guess it is late and i should go to sleep.. hehe

well i've got partition magic if you meant to say that you want it.. not sure what you said though.

i was trying to say i did not use partition magic thou. but thanks anyway.
reinstalling the OS now. not sure what went wrong of the DB. so i figured it out it would be easier to reinstall OS and load the orcl 10g then try to figure it out. :P

but somedays i will try to learn more the db things. ehhee

Huh? You can't format the active partition from within itself, you'll need to do it outside of Windows anyway - in your case most likely through the XP reinstallation process. Maybe you're thinking of having two separate XP installations on two separate partitions? That would be a complete overkill IMO for the intended purpose. And I really DO NOT think reformatting the partition saves you any significant time. If you have the time to reinstall XP on a frequent basis, you won't be nitpicking about +/- 30-60 seconds anyway. Really, how hard is it to boot a CD and in one single move delete a few system folders and files before booting the XP install CD (if we're nitpicking, then you should subtract the time needed for formatting the partition i.e. your preferred way of doing it)? If you're *really* lazy deleting these system files and folders can be done through an automated batch script restricting your effort to inserting and ejecting the boot CD. There really is no advantage to using two partitions for frequent clean reinstalls unless of course you can't boot the system any other way than with the HDD Windows is installed on...

your way is good if you do not need the format the HD.

my way is nice if someone needs to FORMAT the HD and reinstall the OS.

reformatting does not save time, but it gives a chance to format the HD and start the installation from the ground with CLEAN HD. I do not think he and I are lazy by not deletng the OS systems. but, at least, I think it is a cleaner way to handle it.