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Windows XP (New Ins.) and HDD partitioning

Name: Anonymous 2006-10-07 17:55

Quick question. What is the best way to partition 2 hard drives to get the most efficient use of both for a new Windows XP installation?

I'm asking because I have 2 hard drives, a 150 GB and 250 GB, both 7200 RPM. As of now, I have Windows and some program files (mostly drivers and the software for that hardware, such as mouse, keyboard, etc.) on the smaller drive, and the pagefile, other program files and all of my data (graphics, music, etc.) on the larger HDD. I have 1.5 GB RAM, so a second question might be how large of a pagefile should I use? (currently using 1.5GB). I'm mainly reformatting because the smaller hard drive is only about 10% used, while the larger one is almost 90%, so if this isn't the best setup I'd like to start installing programs onto the first HDD instead after the reformat.

I've heard it's smart to put program files on another drive because while Windows is accessing system files such as .dlls that are in Windows' directory, it can load programs at the same time since they're on another physical drive. I don't know enough about how I/O on 2 drives works, so I'm not sure how true this is. Also, would it matter that both drives are on the same IDE channel, or should I put one on the primary and one on the secondary?

Basically I just want to reformat and set up the file system and hard drives with the most efficient setup possible. Any tips are appreciated. Thanks.

Name: Anonymous 2006-10-07 19:01

i won't answer every question, but what i usually do is
- a ~10gb partition on one HD just for windows and its drivers
- a partition on the other HD just for the swap file
- a partition (or more) on the other HD for frequently used programs (such as browser, email etc)

this still leaves a lot of space to be partitioned, but i guess it covers the important part.

Name: /comp/ revolution sage 2006-10-07 19:16 (sage)

Name: Anonymous 2006-10-07 19:18

bump

Name: Anonymous 2006-10-07 23:14

OP here. Any other suggestions? I'm more looking for some of the technical aspects of it... what order should the partitions be in so access times all around are the fastest (ie: pagefile, then OS files, then program files, then data?), and physically how should the drives be connected if I have 2 HDDs and 2 optical drives, using only IDE (no SATA on this motherboard)? Can 2 drives on the same channel read/write at the same time? Can 2 channels read/write at the same time? etc. Thanks

Name: Anonymous 2006-10-08 3:41

ITS WINDOWS
THERE IS NO FASTEST.

250mb to /boot
/ = 10gb
/etc =10gb
/var =10gb
/opt =50gb
/usr =50gb
/lib =50gb
/home = the rest


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