Re: Disc Partitions

Yes and No:
While it's true if you re-install Windows then no matter where your apps are
located they will need to be re-installed also. Except in the case where (as
I do) a Ghost backup of the C partition (the most likely to be corrupted,
infected, Patch Tuesday issues, Etc.). Once you restore the C partition
using Ghost your applications on the D partition should work just fine. On a
less frequent basis I also backup the D partition.

Jim

"Kerry Brown" <kerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx*a*m> wrote in message
news:OJ3unt3cGHA.1324@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ntuser wrote:
After doing a little research i've come to the conlusion that I want 3
partitions on my hard disc instead of my current singe large one. The
structure I wanted to implement would be as follows:
Partition 01 = Basic - system (bootable XP installation) - C: drive
Partition 02 = Basic - program files - D: drive
Partition 03 = Basic - documents/user created files - E: drive

My questions are:

1. What minimum amount of megabytes should my system (C:) partition
be for the optimum performance of XP? And what should the maximum
amount be?
2. Can the registry handle the XP installtion in onc partition, the
programs in another and the documents in yet another? E.g. If I
installed Office on the programs partition (D:) will I see it in the
Start menu afterwards indicating that Windows knows its there. This
is probably a stupid question but an important one nonetheless! :) I
did read somewhere that having the programs and the Windows
installation on seperate partitions makes Windows 'unhappy' whatever
that means o_O.

There isn't a good argument for separating Windows and programs. They go
hand in hand and if you restore one you will need to restore the other.
There are no performance reasons for creating partitions. The main reason
is to make backups easier. With this in mind it is the normal practice to
create two partitions. One for Windows and programs and another for data.
You can then use a disk imaging program or backup program to backup both
partitions. You should have at least two backups of both partitions. At
least one of each backup should be on external media that can be stored
somewhere other than with the computer. The windows/program backups only
need to be updated if you update windows or add new programs. The data
partition can be backed up as often as you feel comfortable with. The
reason for separating the data is so most backups will be faster and
smaller. It is not a good idea to create a partition for backups. The most
likely reason for needing your backups is a hard drive failure. If the
drive fails your backups will not be available. Another thing that is
often overlooked is restoring the backups. You want to test this procedure
before you actually need it. You don't want to be figuring it out in the
heat of the moment. You aso want to make sure it works.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Making Windows images from Linux
    ... restore Windows every now and then, ... the ability to restore a blank disk using backups and simple tools to ... of all partitions and have the ability to setup the bootloader. ... It holds the primary partition tables, ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: not accessible due to inpage error" <-- Why is this happening?
    ... I had an older one that was working, but he needed more disk space. ... But the reason why I started doing backups to an hard drive was I could gobble up even Blue-Ray disks -- and I don't have a Blue-Ray drive and just 250 GB on the internal drive. ... Each time usually at least means reinstalling Windows. ... What corrupted the old Backups partition was G4L. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: XP DRIVE SPACE PROBLEMS
    ... fix problems after you have an Image. ... I've also tried with Partition ... but it cannot for some reason ... Windows has it set *way* higher than is needed ...
    (alt.os.windows-xp)
  • Re: Partitioning a back up drive--request for comments.
    ... Since you are only using the partition ... If in the future, for some reason, you want to convert to ext3, you can. ... If you want to backup Windows or transfer files between Windows and/ ... backups on one partition, Windows backups on another, file transfers, ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Desperate! Whats the best way to partition 160GB hard disk
    ... reason is that Windows Vista won't install unless it sees ~30GB of free space. ... I know you said Windows XP, but re-partitioning later can be a real PITA. ... This active partition is where you will ... There is little reason to waste 10 GB for a 1-2 ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)