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Thread ID: 38989	2003-10-24 01:22:00	Partitions	Jester (13)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
186063	2003-10-24 01:22:00	As some of you may be aware I was looking at putting together a new system, well I took the plunge and bought all the components. All bits and pieces put together last night, and yes it boots! Will be installing XP Pro O/S on it tonight, and have a question on partitions. The HDD is 80 Gig. I heard that it is preferable to have a separate swap file at the start of the drive, the O/S on another partition, and maybe programs/documents/music etc on another. I also understand that fat32 doesnt like more than 32gb per partition, and that you can have up to four partitions under windows? I would like to have fat32 to preserve accessibility with my otyher win 98 system. Should I look at: 1 gig swap file 9 gig windows 30 gig programs 40 gig documents/files/music etc Thanks in advance J :D	Jester (13)
186064	2003-10-24 01:52:00	> The HDD is 80 Gig. I heard that it is preferable to > have a separate swap file at the start of the drive, > the O/S on another partition, and maybe > programs/documents/music etc on another. A separate swap partition is a waste of time IMO. I have never seen any proof that it improves performance. Trying to separate windows and your programmes doesn't really work. You programmes will all be very much tied to windows (registry etc) so you don't gain anything. Keeping your data on a separate partition is a good idea though. If you need to reinstall the OS you can just wipe the OS partition leaving the data partition untouched. > I also understand that fat32 doesnt like more than > 32gb per partition, and that you can have up to four > partitions under windows? I would like to have fat32 > to preserve accessibility with my otyher win 98 > system. You will only need FAT if you are going to be dual booting with win98 on the same machine. And then only partitions that you really need access to would have to be FAT. The filesystem you use doesn't affect sharing files over a network connection. > Should I look at: I would use 40 OS/programmes, 40 docs/data etc. Vary the split if you think one will need more space.	bmason (508)
186065	2003-10-24 02:06:00	I would personally use 10gig partition NTFS for OS, with balance for programs and general data. Make an image of your 10gig partition and you're away laughing. Cheers, Lo.	Lohsing (219)
186066	2003-10-24 02:14:00	> As some of you may be aware I was looking at putting together a new system, well I took the plunge and bought all the components. > All bits and pieces put together last night, and yes it boots! B-) :x :D > The HDD is 80 Gig. I heard that it is preferable to have a separate swap file at the start of the drive, the O/S on another partition, and maybe programs/documents/music etc on another. tweak'e did a FAQ on partitions (pressf1.pcworld.co.nz) but left the Swap file partition for "another day" so that bit is no help to you. :p Personally I have 10 gig for Windows and programs and there is still nearly 3 gig spare and the other three partitions are roughly just under 22 gig each with Data being on one, Ghost images on the second and my music files on the third. If I run out of room on one I can "borrow" some space from the Ghost partition but haven't had to so far. Or I could just delete some of my junk. :p :D Note that I have a second hard drive with a copy of all the partitions' contents, apart from the C: drive, as a backup. I initially thought it a good idea to have my programs on another partition separate from Windows (apart from Office, which needs to be on the same drive) but when I reformat I like to wipe out the programs as well as Windows to start again so there is no point in it for me. Will you be dabbling in Linux sometime on the new machine? If so, leave some unallocated space (around 5 gig) for it. You never know.... ;-) Have fun. :-)	Susan B (19)
186067	2003-10-24 02:45:00	Thanks all for the comments, very much appreciated :) I am sitting in the office at the moment, itching to get home and get started... just an hour and a half or so to go, yay. bmason ... >The filesystem you use doesn't affect sharing files over a network connection. Cool, so I can take advantage of larger partitions and not be concerned about access to files by others on the network Lo, thanks for the advice Susan ... see, I didn't wuzz out, I put it all together myself, hope I attached the heatsink to the CPU properly ... the square patch on the AMD cpu looked like paper, wonder if I should take it off and use paste instead ... (will be watching CPU temperature closely). I put the Knoppix PC World CD in it last night to see whether that worked and it did, so maybe I will keep some space spare later for Linux. J :D	Jester (13)
186068	2003-10-24 03:38:00	One last thing for file sharing over the network with XP Pro... I hate it... basicall you need to create users on your XP machine which have the user name and password the same as other people use to log into their machines. Also, each machine has to have a password, and leaving a blank password on it means difficulties connecting... I had this problem with the XP pro machine able to see others on the network, but others couldn't access my files... all other machines running Win2K Pro. Guest account was enabled, but ended up creating users with the same passwords and ID as their login info on their own machines. Food for thought?! Best of luck. Lo.	Lohsing (219)
186069	2003-10-24 03:54:00	Lo, I currently have an XP Pro machine which is my main PC, and the other PC is win 98. They file share without any special users set up on the XP machine, you simply open explorer on the 98 PC and navigate to the networked/shared folders on the XP PC. I have read about people having issues and setting up guest accounts, users and having access to desktops but personally I have never had to do this. I simply set up a TCP IP network and it finds all the folders :) The main PC was set with a static LAN ip of 192.168.1.1, the other just creates its own, generally 192.168.1.133 Proxy Plus does the ICS, I use VNC to remote desktop if I need to see what the kids are doing ;), and Kerio keeps the gremlins at bay. I also had (till it died) a win 95 PC which was able to access the XP PC thru network neighbourhood. When the new machine is up and running I will have 2 x XP plus the 98 one, and don't expect I will have to set up user accounts on them all, but we'll see I guess :| J :D	Jester (13)
186070	2003-10-24 05:49:00	> I initially thought it a good idea to have my programs on another partition separate from Windows (apart from Office, which needs to be on the same drive) but when I reformat I like to wipe out the programs as well as Windows to start again so there is no point in it for me. Umm I have Office Xp Pro running off my separate Programs partition running fine (Its not installed to my windows partition). No problems here :D > A separate swap partition is a waste of time IMO. I have never seen any proof that it improves performance. Well you have to add a few performance counters for the pagefile, under Performance, in Administrative tools. Go run a few tests to see your proof. It also stop fragmentation of the swap file. If you have it on C, drive with windows you'll notice bits of the swap file are everywhere. If you have the swap file on the first partition on the hard drive (quickest access time) then it is much faster than having it spread out down the disk. Also if you aren't running Photoshop with massive files or editing 1Gb+ video, or running large apps & games, then you won't see any performance increase with swapfile optimisations. Anyway, the latest craze out, is to get heaps of ram and have your swapfile put on that inside a ramdisk. > Trying to separate windows and your programmes doesn't really work. You programmes will all be very much tied to windows (registry etc) so you don't gain anything. Actually if you do have the programs on a separate partition, and you drive image just the C drive once everything is set up it is much better. If you install more software you just make another image. Advantage, the image is much smaller. Also with games etc, the userdata and savegames can be stored in the Program's folder itself. So if you format C drive then you lose all your savegames and settings, if you had all the programs installed to the windows drive.	PoWa (203)
186071	2003-10-26 05:16:00	Hey Jester, I meant to ask you the other day what "bits" did you get? Specs please, if I may have them. :-)	Susan B (19)
186072	2003-10-26 05:47:00	> Hey Jester, I meant to ask you the other day what > "bits" did you get? Specs please, if I may have them. > :-) well, it's all up and running, sweetly too, I must say :):) Theses are the bits I purchased Gigabyte Mobo 7N-400-L AMD 2600+ CPU 512 DDR RAM ti4200 8 x AGP Card 80 GB HDD - Samsung (really quiet) 52 24 52 CD RW (had a 8 / 12/ 48 or something before , this is so much faster!) Case and two extra fans The rest (mouse, fdd, keyboard monitor etc) I had already. I'm a happy chappie now :D Hey Susan, I downloaded Americas Army off Jetstream Games realm last night, went thru the training etc and then tried to play online ... looks like I need the version 1.9.0 (rather than 1.7.0 that was on the Jetstream FTP). I remember that you used to play it ... and my old PC couldn't handle it. Before I download the 300 meg update, can you or anyone tell me if it's worth it? Does anyone play it now? Cheers J :D	Jester (13)
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