How is your installation organized?

Q

quietRiot

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2003
Messages
1,109
Since us [H]'ers are always, arranging, rearranging, reformatting (etc.) or Windows Xp installations, I thought that I would ask for your organization that you have found best for speed/efficiency.

I bring this up because im going to be setting up my new rig soon, and was hoping to find a new, better way to keep my box organized.

This question is quite vague, but any description could help us less-organized people

For instance, is your set-up more like A or B ? Which one is best for organzation and/or performance


A) e.g. 2 Partitions (or 2 Hard drives)
*****Partition 1- Windows installation and program installations.
*****Partition 2- Files (Documents, music, etc. etc.) <- Could be split into multiple partitions (e.g. 1 for games)


B) e.g. 2 Partitions (or 2 Hard drives)
*****Partition 1- Windows installation
*****Partition 2- program installations, documents, music, games, etc.



also- is it possible to keep old program installations if kept on a separate partition than windows? (can you redirect your new installation to use the program files?)
 
Disk 1 : Windows+office+antiv+regular stuff

Disk 2: Games+movies+music+etc

Disk 3: Ubuntu linux <-- great distro for linux illiterates :D

oldmx
 
Personally I lean more towards option 'A' just for the sake of it being simple to manage. That way I dont have to reformat 2 partions/drives; I can do just 1. Also if you do 2 drives, you can run windows, games, programs, etc off of the first drive, and use the second drive for your pagefile, documents, videos, whatever. The 2 drive setup will give you added performance as well. (also keep it more organized I feel)

As for redirecting a new installation at old files.....some stuff might work, most will probably not. Problem lies with missing registry information, dlls and such no longer there, etc.
 
HDD Primary: Windows, Programs, Games
HDD Secondary: Storage

I'm not really happy with it, because when I reinstall Windows I'll have to do everything else all over again. Plus, Primary is a 74GB Raptor and it's nearly full, mainly from games. :eek: So I'm thinking about getting a 36GB Raptor for Windows, then programs and games on 74GB.
 
General Crespin said:
HDD Primary: Windows, Programs, Games
HDD Secondary: Storage

I'm not really happy with it, because when I reinstall Windows I'll have to do everything else all over again. Plus, Primary is a 74GB Raptor and it's nearly full, mainly from games. :eek: So I'm thinking about getting a 36GB Raptor for Windows, then programs and games on 74GB.
Click to expand...
And I can see you're on the path to buying into the myth. There's absolutely no reason to separate apps and games from the OS partition. When you re-install Windows, you will still have to re-install the apps and games as well.

Since this gets asked so many times, and people still insist on making more work for themselves, I'll give a summary of what's been decided in these past threads. Keep your OS, games, and apps together as intended. If you are so concerned about time it takes to rebuild, invest in drive imaging software, such as Ghost. Then, when you want to rebuild, it's as simple as laying down the new image. If you add in Sysprep, you can migrate this image to a new PC when you upgrade.

As far as General Crispin's example, that's how it should be done. Ghost would let you take an entire image of the C drive, and store it on D. You could then very easily burn that ghost image, along with the necessary files to a DVD, to make your very own customized restore disc.
 
Disk 1 Raptor --> Windows, Programs and Games
Disk 2 SATA --> Work files (photoshop, AutoCAD, Office etc) & music files
Disk 3 IDE --> Backups and videos...
Disk 4 External --> Backup the backup :D

Disk 1 only has the 1 73GB partition...my SATA has 2 partitions of equal size...just for organising sake...work files on one side, music and digicam pictures etc on the other. IDE is also in 2 partitions...backups and movies on one and tv series on the other...
 
74GB Raptor
Part0 - Windows Installation & nonGamin Apps
Part1 - Games, Benches, other gaming programs

250GB WD SATA!!
Single Part - movies, music, Pr0n, d'loads, etc,
 
Disk 1 (300Gb):

C: OS and Programs
D: Documents
E: Files (browser cache, email data, databases, etc.)
F: Music

Disk 2 (80Gb):

G: Swapfile
H: Ghost Images
J: Setup files, Backups, etc.
 
74GB Raptor: Windows XP MCE 2005
200GB WD: 3 Partitions
Part. 1: Windows XP Pro x64,
Part. 2: Windows Small Business Server 2003 (about to get rid of that)
Part. 3: Document, pictures, music, anything worth keeping
 
I use a setup like the "A" example. Windows, applications and games are all stored on a single partition, and data is on seperate partitions or drives. That way when Windows borks and needs a reinstall, I can just wipe a single partition and start installing without worrying about any user data being lost.
 
djnes said:
And I can see you're on the path to buying into the myth. There's absolutely no reason to separate apps and games from the OS partition. When you re-install Windows, you will still have to re-install the apps and games as well.

[snip]
Click to expand...

Now that I think about it, you're right. Registry entries and all that. Ah well. :p

I'll look into those programs you mentioned, thanks.

Out of curiosity, how does it work on Linux? Same deal?
 
Right now ATM

C: Raptor 74gb, windows, programs, Games (jsut about 60gb filled with my major apps and games)

d: WD 200gb 16mb cache, Docs (about 109 gb used, mostly pictures, about 30gb of music) its not that there is that many, but I like to save the 66.0mp RAW files as well and the jpegs.

x: WD 400gb 16mb cache, Backup drive. I keep a monthly full backup of d:/ and a differntial when ever I feel like it (once or twice a week, depending how many pictures came off my D50) some stuff on C: gets clicked ofr backup like some Bf2 stuff, and the regestry, jsut in case. But generally if I screw it up I jsut reinstall windows.

I have another 80gb SATA disk I use for fedora core, but I took it out when i moded my case, all my HDDs are not in a new cage than only holds 3 HDDs. the linux HDD will go in a 1.8Ghz Dell box when I get it


All and all, it works well. 3 drives fits in my case wery well. I finally got a setup I will be keeping for a long time I think. I was changeing RAID arrays every month it seems.. but thats all behind me now.
 
Main Rig:

Disk 1: (WD 74gb Raptor) OS, Programs, and Games Installation files

Disk 2: (Hitachi 160gb) Storage (Music, video, data files, etc)

Disk 3: (Maxtor 80gb) Backup drive - weekly backup of disk 2 using acronis true image.


Server:

Disk 1: (WD 80gb) OS, Programs, Services

Disk 2: (WD 200gb) Partition 1 (150gb) Storage, backup, fileserver stuff, etc
Partition 2 (50gb) VMware images
 
At the moment: 2 x Segate barracuda's in RAID 0. One big partition with everything on it.

For my next build, probably exactly like your option A.

 
i have just always felt that my computer wasnt organized to my liking. i guess this just shows that is a personal problem :p

i like seeing your guy's set-ups though, great for ideas
 
I thought I'd reply with my system setup:
HDD1: 2 Partitions 250GB
20GB to Windows/Swap
230GB To Games/Programs + My Documents
HDD2: 200GB for Music and ISOs (Disk Images)
HDD3: 200GB for Movies and Whatever Else

Most games and other programs can be run from the exe and I don't like to search for save files nor have to copy my documents over from the windows drive for when I format. It really is quite useful also it doesn't appear to affect performance either way. Anyway I would go with option B.
 
How i do my installs:

Download all drivers and all windows updates sense my last install and store them on my storage drive. 4 hdds, 2xraptors in raid, 1 media drive, and 1 drive for drivers and program installers.

Make a fresh os install disk with nlite that includes all current windows xp updates (i keep a ongoing storage of all updates that nlite is able to install) and drivers for network card only.

install os, drivers, then updates, programs, games, done(alot of the programs i have kept the installers on the storage drive
 
General Crespin said:
Out of curiosity, how does it work on Linux? Same deal?
Click to expand...
I really wish I knew Ubuntu well enough to give an answer...I'm still learning.
 
General Crespin said:
Now that I think about it, you're right. Registry entries and all that. Ah well. :p

I'll look into those programs you mentioned, thanks.

Out of curiosity, how does it work on Linux? Same deal?
Click to expand...

This is true, you do have to reinstall the games anyway, but you can, in case of emergency, get your game saves off b4 losing them due to a reinstall and I think it keeps me more organized. Its a personal preferance. I actually have two seperate logins I use, one for everyday use, the other for gaming. It lets me minimize the background apps running while I game. Just something I do, prob the diff isn't even noticable, but I do it, because I want to. It makes me feel more organized.
 
disk one: 80gb 7200 rpm WD, formatted in 2 partitions, one 60gb with windows xp pro 64-bit, and one 20gb for ubuntu breezy badger 64-bit (there is a 5gb swap partition in the 20gb, but i just grouped it together


disk two: 200gb western digital se, one partition used for storage of music, videos, ISO's, etc.
 
[Primary Workstation]
Disk0: 120GB, 7200RPM, 8MB buffer, WD Caviar => OS and Application Install
Disk1: 80GB, 7200RPM, 8mb buffer, WD Caviar => storage of user data (My Documents, save games, etc), Media, and any needed drivers

[Trustix Linux Webserver]
Disk0: 6GB, 5400RPM, 8MB buffer, Maxtor DiamondMax => /, <swap=512MB>
Disk1: 60GB, 5400RPM, 8MB buffer, Maxtor DiamondMax => /archive (centralized user shares, symlink to /var/www, nightly cron backups of critical .confs)
 
Raptor 150: OS + Games/Programs
WD 320GB: movies, music, general storage
 
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