how should a 40gb be partitioned?

Inquiring about how the system will be used from the customer would be a good idea,then you would have an idea as to how to setup the system partitions,

A number of options would be available
Making 2gb partitions are rather small, this would beokay to create a dos boot partition.
you would then create a larger partitions for the remaining space on the harddrive

Consider loading the .CAB files on the machine,Applications and Programs could be set up on different partitions

Five by 8g would be okay,when using Fat32 and 2000 in a dual boot donot convert the partition to NTFS,you will not be able to access the fat32 partition,you can convert the partition after the drive has been setup if you determine that you will not need access to the fat32 partition.

Hi,

Obviously the final answer really depends on what your client wants to do with the PC, but here are my thoughts on the situation.

I would think that most of the work will be done on Win2K rather than WinME and that the WinME installation would only be there in case of problems with software compatibility on Win2K.

So having said that I'd allow 4Gb for the partition to install WinME into. Obviously this will be FAT32.

Then... Win2K is the big one. I'd allow lots of room for this one and I'm going to suggest 16Gb for reasons I'll cover in a moment. Make it NTFS.

I'd suggest your client installs all his software directly into that partition...

...but the data is another matter entirely. I'd suggest a third partition of 10GB for the data - ensure the client knows how to specify that databases, files and documents are written to this partition. Also put in place a scheduled task to backup to here, various areas of the Win2K installation - such as "documents and settings". This should be FAT32 to enable WinME to access it.

And finally... a fourth partition also 10Gb to keep the ghost image on. I'd image the Win2K partition to here after its been correctly installed and configured and a base set of software has been added - for example MSoffice along with the standard business software he uses. 10Gb should be easily big enough for a compressed image to be stored. This also needs to be FAT32.

And Yes, I think the ghost image idea is a good one. You could also script up and supply to your client a bootable floppy to reinstate the Win2K partition in the case where the client really stuffs it up.

Make sure he understands the implications of doing that, though!

Hope that helped,
Cheers,
Tim.

Hi,

I have found that unless the user is fairly computer literate, setting up multiple partitions for the user is a waste of time. The average user will not access a second hard drive until the C drive is full!

What I do is similar to what you are considering.
I make a large partition for the C: drive, and a couple of smaller partitions for software installation and backup.
I copy the Operating System CD, any downloaded updates, device drivers, and utility programs to either the D or Edrive.
(I haven't ghosted, but that would be a good idea!)

I also setup a partition for virtual memory (paging / swap file) and allow Windows to use the entire partition.
(This applies more for Windows 9X/Me than it does to W2K.)

One thing that I watch for FAT32, is that I don't create a partition that is just larger than the point where the cluster size changes.
4096 MB
8192 MB
16384 MB
32768 MB
I subtract 5 from those maximum numbers as fdisk has a habbit of adding a couple of MB.
Also, for Windows 98, keep the maximum partition size at 32768 or below.

Their is a good article on partition stratagy at www.aumha.org

As to ntsf, I know that XP has a conversion utility built in. (don't know if W2K does)
The advantage of ntsf is file security, and data integrity.
If the system will only have Windows 2000 on it, I would format the drive as ntsf.
I might leave the partition with the copied installation files, as a FAT32, so that you could access it from a DOS boot ifneeded.

As soulrider suggested, you must use FAT32 for any partition that you need DOS or Windows 9X access to.

At www.systeminternals.com there is a utility to allow you to access a ntsf drive from DOS.

Chas

the shop has mounted the system plus cd-rom driver. when i start i will have to decide whether i want windows(dos-prompt) or windows 2000. i have fat 32 and will leave this. and will not mount any other system.
would this be a good idea, together with my image-idea, or should i make a special sized swap-drive?
2x 4096 and 4x8192

i think i must ask my customer if his programs are windows 2000-compatible. or, are all win98-program win2000(fat 32)-compatible?

i want to keep the partition as small as possible to keep the scanning-times low(scandisk/defrag etc.) 8192(8187) to be the biggest partition. bootdisc.com has a ntfs-dos-tool tool.

i would use partition magic(win2k is already installed) to make 2x4096 plus at least 2 of the remaining partitions to be equal. how big should be the swap-partition?
2x4096
2x?
swap`?
?
where would you put the complete win2k-cd?

This question was closed by the author