What is your partition set up? - Page 2

If you know what your doing you can install linux first. Windows likes to set the active partition to itself when you install it, so all you have to do is change that back to the linux boot partition, and add windows to your lilo or grub bootloader.

I've given this much thought and here's how I'll partiton my 2 60gig hds on the 8890 in RAID-O.


3 gig - WinXP primary (NTFS) - Program Files elsewhere
3 gig - WinXP secondary (NTFS) - minimial install, used for ghosting primary XP
1 gig - Win98 (Fat32) - For old games
.5 gig - Win95 (Fat) - For very old games and just to have it
10 gig - Red Hat 9.0 - For work and fooling around
16.5 gig - Applications (Fat32) - Program Files / Development Apps
15 gig - Storage (Fat32) - Essential drivers / System files / Backup images / WinXP i386 directory
24 gig - Games (Fat32) - Games for both linux, 98se and XP
20 gig - Games (NTFS) - Games for XP only
10 gig - Downloads (Fat32) - Downloaded file Storage
15 gig - Media Drive (Fat32) - for pictures movies and music files

I'll use OSL2000 Boot Manager to install all the different OSes, it's freeware and easy to use (www.osloader.com).

I also use DrvImagerXP (http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/13/2/13-2-39.shtml) which is freeware and its used to ghost my XP setup when it's working smoothly so I have a way to quickly re-install XP when things go bonkers (which they always do) that way I'll still have all my proggies on other hds.

My goal is to use as much freeware / opensource software as I possibly can on my computer. I don't want bloatware / spyware / adware / or insane startup programs. WinXP, fine but for text editing Gvim, webbrower-mozilla/opera,Gaim, f-prot (free dos antivirus), openoffice, putty, ghostview (for acrobat viewer), filzip (for winzip), etc, etc.

Looking for free graphic viewer, mp3player, realplayer replacement, dvd viewer, and explorer replacement.

whatca think?

Damn... that's a sh*t load of partitions! I thought I was bad... hehe. Thanks for the link to OSloader. I'll give that a try.

Im not getting why you guys are having a seperate partition for programs.

Heres the thing, if you have to reinstall winxp your going to have to reinstall most of the programs. So your causing your self more work.

What I do is usually just two partitions. On my 120gb drive I do it like this. 30gb for os, and programs 90 for data, and a ghost backup of the 30gb drive which I try to keep fairly current. I also ghost to a dvd right after I have the os, and all essential programs settings ect running perfectly. Keep the dvd backup safe. Makes for 5 to 10 minute fresh installs. Just the way I do it. Saves me a ton of time not having to reinstall the whole os, and redo all my settings ect.

I've never partitioned before..... I just put it all on the same harddrive with no partition on my present computer..... of course right now all I have is a 13.6GB HDD. I'm getting the 60GB 7200RPM HDD on my 5680.... should I partition? Will it help in anyway? I've never had any harddrive problems or had to reformat before, so I'm not worried about losing stuff..... What's the general concensus about partitioning? 8GB for OS and programs, 2GB Swap File and 50GB for data? Should I even partition at all? THANKS!

I install programs on another drive to keep the ghost image very small, that way all I have to ghost is the smaller WinXP partition. I don't have to reinstall any programs because when I restore the Image, XP already knows where to look for the proggies because it's an exact copy of the partition!.

This makes making ghost images easier because it'll take allot less time if its a 3-4 gig partition than if it's a whooping 30gig partition. Of course I'll make them often...

Well, I cannot speak for ALL ghost programs. The freeware one I use (DrvImagerXP,DrvClonerXP) only allows you to image a entire partition which is very much the point of a ghost image. It'll handle the NTFS and the hidden and system files. If you just make a copy of c:\windows from within windows you'll have problems because you won't get protected system files and may miss other important files. Xcopy (cmd prompt) comes with windows and is good for this if you boot from a different OS than the one you are copying.

As for backing up non-system files, just zip them up and burn them to an dvdrw or cdrw...

I've never partitioned before..... I just put it all on the same harddrive with no partition on my present computer..... of course right now all I have is a 13.6GB HDD. I'm getting the 60GB 7200RPM HDD on my 5680.... should I partition? Will it help in anyway? I've never had any harddrive problems or had to reformat before, so I'm not worried about losing stuff..... What's the general concensus about partitioning? 8GB for OS and programs, 2GB Swap File and 50GB for data? Should I even partition at all? THANKS!


Also, will I be able to partition (using WinXP's partitioning) when I receive my computer with XP already installed, or will I have to reformat and reinstall to get it done?

Programs like Partition Magic allow you to create partitions even if you already installed the OS... shouldn't be a problem at all.

But I don't partition either so I don't really know all the benefits, besides reduced fragmentation which i never suffer from anyway...

EDIT: And I didnt even know WinXP had partitioning software!

-Jx

Hehe.... It might not, I don't know...... But, I assumed you could....


Also, is it wise to put the OS and Programs on the same Partition, or have the OS on one and Programs on another?


What's the best partitioning software? Partition Magic? Thanks again

I am definatly one of those FDISK people!!!!! I dont trust those OTHER fancy partitioners....

i am very new to partitioning. But it sounds intriguing.

What is the advantage of having the OS on a different, smaller (ie 3-6 gb) partition than the programs??

When i get my system i will ask more, but for now i want to get my feet wet. It might be something worth looking into on my 8890.

la paz

I like having small partitions because I can backup that OS easily and also I like to have multiple OSes on one machine. Plus, for me, it helps me keep organized where I keep my stuff.

Found a table at this site http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...partFAT32.html

I was looking for a simpler treatise on disk drive partitoning but this is what I've found so far.

The table shows cluster size in relation to hard drive partition size for FAT 32 system.

so up to 8GB partition gets you 4KB clusters.

8GB to 16GB partition gets you 8KB clusters

16GB to 32GB partition gets you 16KB clusters

32GB to 64GB partition gets you 32KB clusters


The clusters are the smallest storage space on your hdd partition.

If you had 8KB clusters, the smallest amount of space a file could take is 8KB. If you created a text file and put one letter in it "L" for example it would take up 8KB of space on your disk. The ascii char "L" would only take up one Byte so the other , essentially 7999 Bytes would be wasted space that cannot be used to store anything else.

Just storing a text file with "Hello, my name is John." on a 32KB cluster drive would fill 23 Bytes of the 32000 Byte storage unit. The rest of the 32KB would be unused "wasted" space.

Having large sized clusters can potentially make disk space usage very ineffecient, meaning you have a significant amout of your hdd that ends up not usable.

Also the partition sizes are not stated exactly here. For example a 4GB partition is really 4096KB not 4000KB. (used 4GB 'cause I remember the actual size off the top of my head.)

Hope this helps.

Oh, btw

I prefer 8k clusters.
Use NFTS exclusively. (not running any unix/linux flavors)
In systems were I have more than 1 hdd, I put an minimal static swap on the drive with OS, and put my main static swap in its own separate partition on the hdd which resides on the 2nd controller. That way OS calls and swap calls can be made simultaneously.

could you briefly explain what a "Swap" is and what "Swapping" entails?

thanks

la paz

Swap is using part of the harddrive space as "virtual" memory when you run out of actual RAM memory...

so would it be 800 mhz (as is the bus) or the clock speed of the Mem (ie 400 mhz on the 8890.)?

and what is a nominal amount of hdd space to use for swap?

I don't know the speed, but usually it's a good idea to double your RAM.