What size partition for Windows XP?

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Spiff1333

Gawd
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I've got a new 320GB hard drive on the way and I 'd like to put windows on the C: partition and everything else on a seperate partition. I've never done this before but with 320gigs I think its time. So what size should I make the C: partition. I was thinking 10GB but is that too much. Thanks.
 
You'll get a lot of ranges for this reply, so here is my few cents.

Personally, take a look at the number / size of programs that you want to have installed then add some to that to allow for expansion. Say, put aside maybe, 20-50GB for programs and related files, and designate the rest as storage.

You are correct that 10GB is probably a little high for JUST a XP installation. However, keep in mind that, just like previous versions of Windows, any time that you reinstall Windows, you'll have to reinstall the programs due to registry settings and whatnot, despite the programs already being on the second partition (this sentence brought to you by the punctuation mark: comma). That's why I use a larger partition for Windows than some people do.

/personal opinion
 
arkamw said:
You'll get a lot of ranges for this reply, so here is my few cents.

Personally, take a look at the number / size of programs that you want to have installed then add some to that to allow for expansion. Say, put aside maybe, 20-50GB for programs and related files, and designate the rest as storage.

You are correct that 10GB is probably a little high for JUST a XP installation. However, keep in mind that, just like previous versions of Windows, any time that you reinstall Windows, you'll have to reinstall the programs due to registry settings and whatnot, despite the programs already being on the second partition (this sentence brought to you by the punctuation mark: comma). That's why I use a larger partition for Windows than some people do.

/personal opinion
Click to expand...

This is what I do ^^^....

Keeping a nice tight partition for windows sounds good and all, but if you have to format that partition for anything, all your installed progs on another partition are as good as hosed too. Unless you can work some serious registry magic...

IMO, set like 30-60 gigs for XP (depending on how many progs/games you use) and then the rest for storage...

In summation, QFT.
 
My 500GB desktop has a 150GB partition for XP and programs. I have My Documents pointing to a 300GB D: partition and the rest is Linux.

Since I install a lot of games and programs I've found that the 150GB partition is necessary since Windows gets less happy as you near capacity on the volume it's installed on.

I would ponder how much space you think you'll need for Windows and programs and then add 50%.

You could install programs on a different partition but then you need to manually enter a new directory every time you install a program and if you have to reinstall Windows you'll need to reinstall the programs anyway.
 
I''m using a small 5gb partiton for XP this time because that way I can make image backups and they are always only about 1.2gb each. I put the pagefile on the second HDD though so it is not taking up any space on the XP partition. There is over 2gb of free space on the XP partition still which is plenty for system restore and any other growth. I used to always make the XP aprtition 20gb but wanted to try it with just 5gb this time. Been fine that way so far.
 
Child of Wonder said:
if you have to reinstall Windows you'll need to reinstall the programs anyway.
Click to expand...

Yea, usualy you do but not always. I've got quite a few games that will happily keep running even after a reisntall of Windows. They don't require their registry entries to run.
 
I have Windows XP, Office 2009 Beta 2,Adobe Photoshop CS2 + many many plugins, Adobe Audition 2.0, all basic apps like ad-aware, nos32, Nero, nero vision express,etc....and I have 2.7 GB of free space left! that's with hibernation enabled and a swap file of 1.5 GB

my partition size is 10 GB!! so that's the very perfect size for XP I think
 
I just bought a new WD 320 GB drive for my main computer as well. I'm going to create either a 60 or 70 GB C drive, and use the rest for D. This question has been asked many many times on here, and some people still insist on advising others to use a tiny little system volume. There's no justification for it, and when you ask for good reasons, it degenerates into flames. Give yourself room to install the apps and games you want in the right place (Program Files). If you want to save time re-installing software for your next build, create a disc image with something like Ghost.
 
I make my windows partition 10% of the total hard drive. Everybody does it differently though.
 
IceDigger said:
I make my windows partition 10% of the total hard drive. Everybody does it differently though.
Click to expand...
exactly! why would u need more!
 
I probably do about 1/3 for the OS and the rest for data. Of course it really depends how much data I have and the HD I am putting it on. All my programs etc are on C and Data, Music, etc are on D.
 
I usually move my user profiile over to my d: drive, not just the my documents folder. Lots of apps like to save info in your profile by default. I usually do that just before taking a final snapshot of my new machine config with all my apps in it after a full from the ground up rebuild.

If I feel a need to restore my drive image, at least my base applications will keep whatever current settings I have for them. Any additional apps will pick up their user settings as they are installed.

If you have a set up of XP you like on your current drive with all your apps/games installed, take that size and double it. Even with the current growth rate of games, that should hold you over for a while (unless you are already going to be tight on data space, or really need the extra room on the data partition for video editing and the like). It also leaves plenty of space for system restore files is you tweak around with drivers a lot.

I have my 300 split like

XP - 30 Gigs (I normally install all my games on my data partition, all other apps go here, I have 17 GB free right now before pagefiles,hibernation files, and system restore points, a little less than 10 gigs after that, if I moved my games over, I'd be down to about 4 gigs)
Data - 200 Gigs
OS_2 - 50 Gigs (I install whatever other OS I'm playing with at the time here, Vista, 2003 R2, Linux, or whatever)
 
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