Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro

Thanks Terry. Yeah, I've been thinking of upgrading to a larger HD.
However, WindowsXP, and all my program files including SP3 and all other
program updates are only using 9 GB right now. I want to partition it so
that the "SYSTEM" drive will be 12 GB in size. I think the extra 3 GB will
suffice as a free space cushion. Does that sound crazy? Personally, I think
it's good use of disk partitioning. If a restore is ever done (and I've got
a recent image of the HD) then I can restore the system files ONLY and leave
the second partition alone which may contain recently updated documents,
photos, ect.

"Terry R." wrote:

The date and time was 9/3/2008 7:18 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out
on the keyboard:

Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup....

HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition)
Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig

HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions)
Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig
Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig
Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig

Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on
it)?
Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E
partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the
active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think!
Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Dan,

First, two 40 gig drives is very small. You could partition C using a
3rd party program like Partition Magic, but chances are you need at
least 40 gig for the OS & programs and data.

Usually logical drives are created in an extended partition. So E and F
should both be logical drives within an extended partition. If you have
Partition Magic to do the C drive, then you can easily remove partitions
from HD2, so you could extend drive F to the full space of HD2, which
sounds like you want to do.

XP's disk management can create and delete, but PM can resize and do
much more. I use PM for partition backups in addition to resizing when
needed.

In addition, I suggest you get an external backup drive, to back up your
entire system. You don't realize how valuable your data is until you
lose it without a backup.

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Dual Boot Instructions
    ... If "drive" means a single partition or logical drive, then the negatives you've heard are very true. ... But if "drive" means a physical hard disk drive, then I'm in big trouble because I have SIX versions of Windows installed on my 1 TB Disk 1, my second HDD! ... The name stuck when we added hard disk drives, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices)
  • moving boot drive to new HD & recovering data from corrupt HD
    ... been running with two IDE drives (61 Gig & 82 Gig respectively) and a WD ... partition; the D partition which contains other ... disk and decided to move everything from the old WD to the new WD, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: BootIt NG high level steps - best approach??
    ... backup boot strategy. ... As far as BING, I should tell you I've been using this software ... make managing your bootable options and partition management so much easier. ... drives) and the DATA partition on a mirrored array. ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage)
  • Re: Dual booting
    ... of Microsoft's dual boot scenario. ... The extended partition is not assigned a drive letter, ... BIOS reserves letters A and B for floppy drives, ... If WinXP Setup ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Dual Boot Instructions
    ... OS on a separate partition. ... the PHYSICAL DISK number, ... You should, at any one time, see ONE System Partition and ONE Boot ... The name stuck when we added hard disk drives, ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices)