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how should a 40gb be partitioned?

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by europanorama

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i partitioned a 40gb-hd like this: 4x10 gb. it has winme and is for a customer. some programs will automatically use first windows-partition. my goal is at least use a second partition to ghost/image windows and leave out saving the programs. e-g. if they will be manually installed on a different than first partition. if they are installed in first they will be saved in the image. what do you think of this idea? what about a seperate virtual memory-partition? its a pentium4-2ghz-ata 133, 7200/40gb/ata 133

12 replies

by thechas

Hi Michael,

While I partition my hard drives, I have found that most users have trouble dealing with multiple partitions.

On my system, I have the 60GB drive partitioned into 7 drives:
C: Operating system, drivers, utilities
D: Application programs
E: Swap / Paging file
F: Personal files
G: Game programs
H: Images and image editing software
I: Internet; saved web pages and downloads

This started when I installed an 8.4GB drive on a Windows 95 FAT16 system.

For clients, I usually setup the drive with 2 or 3 partitions:
C: Operating system and programs
D: Copy of Windows CD, Windows updates, Device driver files
E: Swap / Paging File

One thing I try very hard to do, is to size partitions near the maximum size for the cluster size steps.
For your 40GB, I might do the following:
C: 32.7GB Windows and programs
D: 2040MB
E: 2040MB Swap file
F: 3220MB Copy of setup files

Since fdisk uses binary bytes, use multiples of 1024, and subtract 8MB from the total, as fdisk changes the number you type in slightly.

For more information, check out the partitioning article at www.aumha.org

As to the seperate partition for the virtual memory, I like it as it makes the system more stable. Windows can useall the space it wants, and the file does not get fragmented.

The benchmark tests that I have read say that a fixed size paging file placed at the very beginning of the C: drive is the fastest.
You can use Norton Speed Disk to set this up if youwant to go that route.

Chas

by europanorama

partitions for 40gb
i have two options:

A
1. OS/Prg 6gb
2. Swapfile 2GB
3. Data 26 gb
4. Image OS/Prg 6 gb
or
B
1. OS 3gb
2 swapfile 2 gb
3. Progr 16 gb
4. data 16 gb
5. image os 3 gb

size of 3 and 4 can be changed.

at what moment should i make the image? after installing points 1?norton system works will be installed in same partition like os.

by europanorama

c:32700 minus 8mb =32692 its too big for me
d: 2040 minus 8mb=2032
e: 2040 MINUS 8MB=2032
F: 3220 MINUS 8MB=3212 ?

are the calculations ok. i will use ontrak diskmanager.

WILL SPEEDISK SETUP THE VIRTUAL MEM AT THE RIGHT PLACE ,WHEN I FIRST? MAKE THE CHANGING(FROM TEMP TO FIXED) IN WINDOWS? MAYBE IT WILL CREATE A FIXED PLACE WHATEVER IS SET IN WINDOWS. WHAT IS TRUE?

by thechas

Hi Michael,

I would choose option A of your settings.
You might want to increase the C: and F: drives to 8GB though.

I have not personally used Norton Speed Disk.
I suggest that you use custom settings, or manual mode so that you can set things the way you wish.

If you plan to use the seperate partition for the swap file, you can just set it there in system, performance, virtual memory.

Chas

by europanorama

sorry i rejected your first message and your second too. i had not other choice due to this stupid system. i have tried to use partition magic 6(until now used when system was full). but i had troubles setting up windows me(su0013-error). there wassome space-8mb-left- and windows saw this as compressed or whatever. i could not format or/and join this space to c(first logical partition). after around 4 hours for the partitioning process this was very disappointing. i still cannot recognize what was my mistake. somebody told me new pmagic 7/8 has a better solution. i finally used ontrack diskmanager, made a fast format(check of drive was already made earlier and standard format was made with pmagic. i hope this fast format was right decision. your idea of seperate swap-partion is also discussed here(your link):http://aumha.org/a/parts.htm

i will try these tips out on my new p4 in the near future.
bipolar in sysopt-forum told me use first partition for the bootfiles.

do you think we should definitively use an on-disk(double-cooler for the ata133/7200-40gb-drive?

by thechas

As to the problems with Partition Magic, I can't offer any advice, as I have not used the software myself.

One big reason to switch to the latest version is they improved the support for NTSF drives.
If you begin to use either NT, Windows 2000, or XP, you will benefit from the NTSF support.

As to the drive cooler, I am not using them myself. My PCs are well ventilated, and in a fairly cool environment.

The case for my main PC mounts the drives directly in the path of the front case fan.

I recommend that you look at how much air can flow over the drive as is, and take into account how much drive access will there be and how hot the room the PC will be in can get.

Chas

by europanorama

after discussing the partition-issue on other boards here is a solution:
c: os, swapfile 5 gb
d: programs, 10 gb
e: data 23 gb + 2 gb (compressed image of c: 5gb)
this image could then be transferred to 3 cds.

by europanorama

the latest idea(from discussions on other boards):
c: os, swapfile(fixed by speeddisk/nortonsystemworks) 5gb
d: programs 10 gb
e: data 23 gb + compressed image of c: 2gb(with ghost)

what do you think of this?

by europanorama

from some other boards i received some interesting tips:
here is my final solution:
40 gb

c: os, 3gb
d: programs, swapfile 12 gb
e: data + compressed image of c: 23 + 2 GB(25 gb)
image made with ghost or acronis true image, then burnt onto 3cds.
what do you think?

by europanorama

after the problems with acronis partition expert-see my other question- i switched to w2k.i had troubles running a dcd. after 30 seconds movie stopped. maybe due to small swap of 385mb(max) and maybe because it waws on small c-partition of 3gb. do ihave to increase size of c? maybe i forgot to move swap to d:(12 gb). maybe i moved the swap to d, but there is a fat 32. i will check it out.

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