Partition Size for Windows XP Pro install?

T

Tordek

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 9, 2003
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What is a good partition size for a clean xp pro install?

I want to put the os in one partition and every program in another partition and i have a 80 gig sata drive.

I thought to use 5 gig for the os and everything else for my programs...

Thanks
 
You'd better relocate your user profiles, else they'll all be fighting for that same 5GB. I installed on a 10GB partition on one machine, and even that feels a bit smallish, despite saving most of my documents on different partitions...

Personally, I prefer to use at least 2 hard drives per system for better performance. If you install your programs on a separate partition(s), later on you can copy them to a different drive(s), change the drive letters, and be right back in business. Pile everything into the system partition and life gets much more difficult when you want to move your programs elsewhere.
 
For nothing but OS functions, anything over 2gb should be fine.

But yeah, you should defintly move the profiles over to the larger partition.
 
2GB?

XP takes like 1.5 for a clean install and programs love to stick shit in the windows directory, even when you tell them not to. Every service pack and update you apply is going to take more space. Every IE plugin you install is going to take up space.

...and then there's the retarded programs that don't let you install them anywhere but c:\program files.


Really, making separate OS and app drives is a storage management nightmare; you're either going to waste space or run out of it. Considering that most modern windows apps aren't going to survive reinstalls of the OS anyways, there's little to gain from this.
 
I think my brain is reverting to W2k server requirements of 2gb.
 
So the conclusion would be that its dumb to make a partition just for the OS right?

What about making a partition for music, videos and other files?

Im guessing that is a good thing....

Thanks
 
yeah dude. i have an 80 gig. I have 13 gigs set for operation system and programs together and the rest of the space for all my files. Videos, Music, Pictures, and Documents. It's without a doubt better having the os and programs on one separate partition from everything else. Then you can do separate defrags, you can use different file systems, windows boots faster for one being on a smaller partition, and everything is just much more neat and organized. I run FAT32 on the os drive because it runs faster using 8kb clusters, and then I run NTFS with 4kb clusters and indexing on the files drive because it's more stable, secure, and offers security. I've wondered myself previously about just putting the os on it's own partition and the programs on another, but then i figured well, why do that, because the programs still wouldn't survive an os reinstall anyway. At least I don't think, I'm curious about this too though, so I'm with you on looking for an answer to that question as well. I have partition magic 8 and it's killer. I thought about making seperate partitions for; my music, my pictures, my videos, and my documents. I still might do it, but then I thought I would just wait until i get a bigger drive, like a 160 gig. I do keep all my downloaded application setups in their own folder though on the partition away from the os. Then just install them to the os drive. You know what I mean though? That way they stay safe and organized on the files drive. Also just a note, if anybody wants to use a partition manager to alter their partitions, well DO NOT alter your C boot partition. It will screw everything up and you will have to redo it all. All other partitions are ok though. that's just been my experience anyway. ;)
 
i just did a fresh install and after installing a majority of the programs i need (not done yet ;)) and updates/drivers etc, my boot drive has about 5 gigs worth of stuff on it. of course i have plenty of hd space though. my boot drive is 40 gigs, one partition. i have an 80 gig drive, also one partition, that i use to store my documents, downloads, that kind of thing. when i install games, i install them to the 80 gig, all other programs to the boot drive. i also have 2 30gig drives in a raid 0 array, for video editing/capturing, and an external 160 gig drive. <drool>
 
I have my machines boot up from 18gig SCSI drives that I use for the OS and program files and store my data files on other drives.
If I install games, they go on one of the other drives since some of the games are quite large.
 
Originally posted by BlownFuse
How do you relocate the user profiles in XP?
Click to expand...
i would also like to know this. the closest i've come is moving my documents/start menu/desktop folders via tweakui. i wouldn't dream of moving the whole c:\documents and settings\<user>\ folder without knowing exactly what i was doing.
 
i have a 40 gig dedicated to winxp + office + win apps + etc, all games run off another 40, downlloaded crap (unsorted) has its own 40 and i have an 80 for my mp3's
 
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