Partition in XP

[markf]

I just set up my new workstation and think I may have made a tactical error.

 

I partitioned my 80 gig drive to have a 3 gig partition for WXP (c:/). The rest of the drive is a big partiion for all of my applications and data (E:/).

 

After installing my printer and scanner the software auto installed into the small c:/ partition that has WXP, without my being able to direct it elsewhere. I now get constant message that c:/ drive is low on disk space.

 

I had to turn off System Restore and only have 143 meg of space left on c:/

 

I wish I would have set a 5 gig partition for WXP.

I don't intend to install anything else on c:/ but alot of stuff seems to end up there by itself.

 

My question- Do I need to re-format the drive and reinstall my stuff to avoid big hassel in future if c:/ runs out of space.

 

Thanks for any advice

[xgarcia]

If it's not too much of a big deal or headache for you, I'd reformat and delete / recreate partitions.

 

If you wish not to do this I suggest buying Partition Magic. You can resize partitions easily with this program without having to reformat your disk.

 

--edit--

FYI:

I leave my C drive at around 8 gigs (on 40 gig drive). I install OS and all my programs here. It sounds like good idea to keep programs off the C drive, but you end up having to reinstall them anyways after an OS format. So basically I keep raw data (max files, textures, DWGs, movs, mp3s, etc.) on my other drives and all programs in the C drive. I would suggest running this method simply b/c it's "cleaner".

 

[ October 15, 2003, 07:31 PM: Message edited by: xgarcia ]

[kainoa]

I strongly agree with Xavier. Either get Partition Magic or re-format and recreate your partitions. My setup is similar to Xavier's. My 80GB HDD is split in two - 20GB for OS and apps, 40GB for data. Although most programs dont have a problem being installed on a drive other than C:, there are a few apps that are just plain stubborn.

 

Also, once you've installed all of your crucial apps and made all of your settings, it's a good idea to de-frag the HDD and use a program like Norton Ghost or DriveImage to save and image of your drive just in case.

 

--edit--

Oh yeah, be sure to use NTFS.

[markf]

Thank you guys for your response!

 

I think I'm going to try to re-format my drive and reinstall windows. Dang orangecry

 

I was looking into how to go about it and got confused. Is it possable for you to point me in the right direction for where one would start, in WXP, at re-formating?

 

I have the machine set to boot from cd so I think that I once it's re-formatted I should be able to boot from the windows cd and go about the partion, driver install, network setup again.

 

Thanks for your help.

[xgarcia]

I've never used XP, but in Win2k you can boot from the CD or make a floopy boot disk, then it gives you options of creating / deleting partitions. Usually you delete all the partitions, create C drive and other partitions(D, E, F...), format windows XP, load into XP and format the other drives (use NTFS of course).

 

Also whenever you do a fresh install of XP or Win2K be sure to defrag the first time you boot into the OS - this makes all the OS files in close proximity. It's just a good disk managment practice. Here are some links for you:

 

WinXP Install

http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/xp-install/

 

WinXp/2K Tweaks

http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/winstartupnew/

--our own Greg Hess's XP Tweaks---

http://www.3dluvr.com/content/article/123

 

XP Services guide:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/winxp.htm

 

One more in depth-XP/2k tweaking guide, I've posted all the pages b/c it's in an archive and the links are screwed up:

 

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 1

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 2

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 3

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 4

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 5

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 6

Readyroom.org Windows XP & 2000 Performance Tuning - page 7

 

[ October 15, 2003, 09:54 PM: Message edited by: xgarcia ]

[markf]

xavier,

 

Thanks for the links etc. It all helped.

 

I re-formatted and partitioned. I split my 80G into 30G and 50G.

 

Installed XP on the 30G and will install apps there as well. Keeping 50G for data.

 

I defragged after getting XP set up. Network is setup. Now installing pshop, max, scanner, etc.

 

Thanks for your help!

[xgarcia]

Sure Mark. Glad to hear you know what you're doing.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

a friend said he recently read an article/thread suggesting creating a small partition and only put the paging file on here. it was supposed to increase the speed that windows was able to access files. somehting about keeping your disk from becoming to fragmented.

 

anyone else hear of this?

[xgarcia]

Yes - I've seen this before. Never tried it. Makes sense b/c it would keep your other partitions less fragmented. I wonder though how much performance is affected by latency, if any.

 

I keep my pagefile on my mp3 partition (20 GB partition: 13 gigs storage / 1 GB page file).

 

[ November 07, 2003, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: xgarcia ]

[Wilson Iwazawa]

Someone in another forum told me that the write speed of a partition fomated in FAT 16 is faster than a FAT 32 or NTFS one.

So i create tree partition here on one of my comps: one FAT 32 for win and apps, other NTFS for files and a 2 Gigs FAT 16 to serve as swap space only.

I didnt had a chance to compare if it is better or not, maybe someone with deep knowledge can tell us something about it...

[Tuninho Prieto]

Hi Everybody,

I always use 3 partitions in windows

Drive C I use for windows and a permanent size pagefile (4096 maximum size)

Drive D for job files

Drive E for installing programs and download files

 

I create a permanent size pagefile to keep it from being fragmented and I use the maximum size allowed per drive wich is 4096. if you wish you can set another pagefile in other partition (D or E)

 

When possible ($$$) I use Drive D in a separeted hard disk. This way you can increase file storage without having to reinstall windows & softwares

 

After installing windows I set the pagefile size to zero, run a defrag program (norton) and after I set the pagefile to 4096. this way I am sure that the pagefile is created in a continuos space.

 

Some programs (like Photoshop & MAX)uses a particular pagefile other than windows, so I would sugest you let some room in drive C.

 

Having a separated hard disk for paging files will increase performance.

[DapperDanJelly]

Tuninho , you're right !

 

minimum recommended for full performance if you have one hard drive :

 

- 1 partition with pagefile.sys (the first one because, it's the faster accessible one). Adjust it to 2x RAM.

- 1 partition for Windows (5 gigas is ok if you plan to reinstall each 6 months)

- 1 partition for program files

- 1 partition to store raw data and archives.

 

Better performance with FAT then with NTFS. Anyway, I use NTFS because I use some programs that require NTFS like EDS I-DEAS or Patran.

 

No dougth that 2 hard drives will make the difference. The first one with 2 partitions (pagefile and OS).

 

Also add a second pagefile in a second partition sized at what you want to prevent from loading problem due to crash in the first partition.

[xgarcia]

I usually skip on the partition for programs, because I end up having to reinstall them after a format anyways (you lose all your registry keys for the progams when you format).

 

So I would do it this way:

 

1st hard drive

c: system drive and programs

d: page file

 

2nd harddrive

e: data storage

f: data storage

 

Great thread. Good to see many suggestions.

[Tuninho Prieto]

Hi DAPPER,

 

Why set up the pagefile 2x RAM?

Is there any relationship between them?

 

If you´re not planing reinstall windows, how much

you think is a good windows hard disk size?

 

Hi XGARCIA,

 

You install all programs inside windows or you

create a separate folder? (just to know)

Anyway I always like to run windows in a special

partition to give it a big room.

we are always installing some programs and so the hard disk space is always going down

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Originally posted by DapperDanJelly:

- 1 partition with pagefile.sys (the first one because, it's the faster accessible one). Adjust it to 2x RAM.

c:\ = page file

d:\ = windows?

 

do you run into any problems with windows running off of d, rathe tthan c? i doubt there would be, but i wonder if any apps are written to always look on c for windows by default.

[DapperDanJelly]

Tuninho and others,

 

Do something simple like this if you have 1 HD :

 

- c:\ windows + pagefile

- d:\ your proggies

- e:\ your work

 

The minimum pagefile is sized by default by windows to the exact amount of your RAM. If during a job, you need more pagefile, windows will increase it progressively -> it dramatically slows your work. RAM is always function of 2 so I decided x2 can be a good choice, that's all.

 

I separate my work from the partition where I install the proggies to prevent to allways defragment this disk, it 's just for this reason and because I like to organize

 

It's good to separate like this because each partition is easily defragmented.

 

I also reinstall Windows each 6 months because it's easy and because the windows folder always grows !

[Tuninho Prieto]

Okay Dapper (just Dapper is fine?)

 

I understand your point. I like to keep things

organized and with fast mantainance too.

For the pagefile I use the maximum size just to give room to windows. If it don´t use it, that´s fine, it won´t make any bad.

For the installation I think it´s a good idea

reinstalling windows from time to time.

but ...

on the other side...

If things are working fine...

let it be ! ! !

 

That´s why I give a lot of room to windows for it

grow old (wise, fat and maybe a little slow) :ebiggrin: :ebiggrin:

[DapperDanJelly]

[HeDaCoM]

I think it is better to have only one partition for everything and defrag every night.

 

If you have two hard disks you can have documents in the second disk. this can increase performance. also if you put the pagefile in the second disk can improve performance. But this is another real hard disk. Not a partition. Having multiple partitions in one disk does not improve performance. it is to have multiple operating systems etc.

it's a big mistake to make a 3Gb for windows. all programs also put dll and other shared files in the system folder, restoring, temp files.. etc. everything grows in the windows partition... it's better to defrag every day

[DapperDanJelly]

Originally posted by HeDaCoM:

I think it is better to have only one partition for everything and defrag every night.

 

If you have two hard disks you can have documents in the second disk. this can increase performance. also if you put the pagefile in the second disk can improve performance. But this is another real hard disk. Not a partition. Having multiple partitions in one disk does not improve performance. it is to have multiple operating systems etc.

it's a big mistake to make a 3Gb for windows. all programs also put dll and other shared files in the system folder, restoring, temp files.. etc. everything grows in the windows partition... it's better to defrag every day

not sure, beleive me :

- if your system crashes -> you loose all your content in your unique partition

- defrag in a large partition takes time

- everything grows in windows partition -> this is what we said and this is the reason why you can choose to give windows 5 Gigas or more in a unique partition.

 

My first computer in '99 was an HP kayak XW SCSI raid0 partitionned in several parts when I received it. Do you think HP did it for fun or for speed and securisation ?

[xgarcia]

You can always reinstall programs....you can never reinstalled data unless it's backed up (something not all people do habitually). I've been running my four partitions they way I described for 3 years now - no problems whatsoever. Clean format of Windows every 4-6 months is incredibly easy because of this.

[Tuninho Prieto]

Well...

for obvious reasons I have to agree with the guys above.

I think putting everything in the same basket takes longer to organize (have to make it over night) especially if you have an 80 or 120 Gig.

And if you share your HD in an office is good to have some partitions protected.

Sometimes I defrag my partitions at lunch time.

 

But sure it´s a different aproach for the problem.

 

I usually like to format DRIVE C(SYSTEM)and make a clean installation. If you have a lot of things there how do reinstall the system?

:???: :???: :???:

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

well, a couple of months ago i set up a partition just for the pagefile, and to my surprise that partition never becomes fragmented. it always look just like the image attacthed to this post. i have a 10gig drive for my main drive, with 3 gigs of that partitioned for a paging file, and the rest for my operating system and a few apps. i started installing my apps on another drive because i am running out of space on my main drive. i try and keep it clean of needless information, but i still struggle to keep over a gig available. my question is...

 

if i change the location of the paging file partition from my primary drive to my secondary drive, will i notice a decrease in performance? i assumed by keeping the paging file partition on the same drive as the os, i would improve performance.

 

...anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Greg Hess]

Here's what I generally do with page files.

 

1) Set the min/max to the same #. This prevents windows from increasing/decreasing the size of the page file, thus decreasing the fragmentation of the drive the page file sits on.

 

2) I usually set the page file to the same size as the amount of physical ram. Many people have different ideas of what to set it to, but when your pushing 2 gb of ram, you really don't need to follow the microsoft 1.5x rule...

 

3) I keep the page file on the system drive. Why? Because even if you move the page file to another drive, windows STILLS has page requests on the system drive. So regardless, the system will always page the system drive, at least before it goes to the main page file. Might as well just keep them in one spot.

 

There are few thousand different thoughts on page file optimization...its generally found that even if you go ballz crazy on your optimizing, your still only talking about 1% difference.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

thanks for the response greg. i guess what surprised me the most about having the page file on its own drive was that it never fragmented. even though in my screen shot it shows i just defragged the pagefile drive, it looked like that (all of the files in the center) before i defragged it. i have this partition set to twice the size of the page file i am using. i might try and re-create the partition to be 1.5gb, rether than 3gigs. i have 1 gig of ram, and i think i have my page file set to be 1.5gb.

 

do you think that 1gb of ram, and a 1gb page file is adequate? ...or should i stick with a 1.5gb page file?