Author Topic: HDD Partitioning (Read 281 times)

NOT · « **on:** August 10, 2006, 06:55:52 AM »

Hey guys, im building a new puter,a first for me:O Anyway, i'm putting a WD 320g HD in it and want to partition it. I've studied up on the subject and understand how to do it, however im a little slow on how to set it up. The OS, and programs and such as that.

I have read where one has set up one partition for OS, another for programs, and a third for data. Does that mean once the parts. are set up and OS installed, that you will be able to choose which part. these items go on? I thought that you would have to install the OS on each part. But thats usually where i go wrong, when i think;) .

Also can you recomend a free partion program or can i do it with XP pro?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Jonathan

Ghosth · « **Reply #1 on:** August 10, 2006, 07:57:39 AM »

Personally, If I'm installing a Western Digital Hard drive, it will either come with a disk of utilities, or I'll download them. And install & partition with that. Changing a partition will ERASE anything currently on the disk.

Changing partitions AFTER the OS is installed takes some specialised software like Partitin Magic. They basicly only work with unused space, to avoid loseing data already on the disk.

You don't HAVE to seperate OS, programs, & data. It does have some advantages. Having more than one partition on a drive also makes it easier to setup & run a dual boot system that can boot into 2 or more Operating systems.

I currently have 2 partitions on my 200 gig HD.
A 50 gig Win 98SE partition.
The rest, in a single 150 Gig for XP Pro.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #2 on:** August 10, 2006, 02:08:30 PM »

i put my OS and programs on a primary partition ... on my other partions I have one thats for back-up /full programs,,, one for movies,,,and one for my docs ect .. around 40 gig is what i use for a primary normally running w/ about 20 gig on it .

make your primary large enough to only be at 50% used anymore then that and alot of pc's start to slow down and try to keep the installs on it clean

now if the primary gets messed up its a easy task to format that partition and reinstall your OS , then pull the other stuff from the other partition.

I've tried running my programs from a second partition and its more of a pain in the tail then its worth in this config and performance has a tendency to get sluggish ..

JTs · « **Reply #3 on:** August 12, 2006, 05:50:28 PM »

if your using xp doesnt it let you setup partitions during the install?