hello again

tomorrow i'm going round a friends house to set up his desktop for some video editing apps

we are re-formatting the hdd and reinstalling windows on a 150gb drive

He wants 3 separate partions one for windows roughly 10gb

one for video apps 15gb

and for storage/temp files 125gb

does this sound like a good idea it makes sense to me as it should run smoother

am i ok using the windows disk to make the partions or should i use something better like partion magic

any thoughts/tips/advice/ramblings would be good thanks

Sounds ok although I would recommend him buying another 300gb drive or something to add as a second drive for the temporary stuff and maybe have the original partitioned at about 15 - 20gb for windows and the rest for apps.

When running the windows xp setup you can specify the partition size for the installation of xp. Then when installed you can partition the rest off as you wish.

I reckon if he is going to be doing a lot of video editing he might well struggle if streaming off the same drive as xp, and 125gb nowadays might not be enough space for him.

that was quick

sorry iforgot to say theres another 125 gig hdd in there plus hes got a 250gb and 500gb external

are you saying the 1st partion should hold windows and the apps or can the apps go i partion 2

that was quick

sorry iforgot to say theres another 125 gig hdd in there plus hes got a 250gb and 500gb external

are you saying the 1st partion should hold windows and the apps or can the apps go i partion 2

MS's wisdom is that Windows and "Program Files" should be on the same drive to minimise installation errors. Having said this, it's not essential and any bugs caused by installing an app on another partition / drive can be fixed by the odd chop and hack here and there in the registry.

Doing it that way has the advantage that if you get a virus or some other problem with Windows, it'll only affect the partition with Windows on it, and so in theory everything else will be OK. Using a different partition on the same drive shouldn't affect data access speeds AFAIK, which'll obviously be important if editing video.

Also, I'd personally avoid using the external drives for anything other than storing files. Do any editing from one of the internal drives. Maybe that's just me being a bit old-fashioned, though...

bearing in mind that ill be the sorting these bugs out would it be easier to have the apps in the windows partion then or could we just try them on the 2nd partion then if they go pear shaped uninstall them and reinstall on the 1st partion

i don't like the sound of chops/hacks in the registry as i can see a future of midnight phone calls

Me again.

You can always MAP Folders so that they appear as Drives.

E.g you create a folder c:\my folder

you can then MAP that folder as any letter, e.g H: Drive.

So when you go to my computer it appears as a H: drive and you only have 1 partition on the whole drive.

hang on you sort of lost me

if i create 3 partions i can then change them to see them as 1 drive

am i right

hang on you sort of lost me

if i create 3 partions i can then change them to see them as 1 drive

am i right

ignore what i said.

you can only do this over networked drives.

im not up to scratch on partitions.

ok ignored

You can mount drives to appear as folders though if you use the XP disk management tools.

TBH I would put a bit more space for XP and i'd try and put the swap file on a seperate physical hard disk.

swap file is the same as page file yes/no

i get your point about moving it to the second hdd

how much space for xp do you think

also whats your view on where to install the apps

You can do what i said before about MAPPING a drive, just googled it.

Is simpleton: this means you can have say 3 folder on your c:\ drive called for example:

c:\my pictures

c:\my music

c:\my videos

you can then assign them as a drive e.g

c:\my pictures = H: Drive

c:\my music = J: Drive

c:\my videos = Z: Drive

There is only 1 partition on the drive. (no partitions)

They all then appear in My Computer as Newtworked drives.

good show but do you think this applies to what we are trying to achieve

i.e. more/smooth performance for video apps

You can do what i said before about MAPPING a drive, just googled it.

Is simpleton: this means you can have say 3 folder on your c:\ drive called for example:

c:\my pictures

c:\my music

c:\my videos

you can then assign them as a drive e.g

c:\my pictures = H: Drive

c:\my music = J: Drive

c:\my videos = Z: Drive

There is only 1 partition on the drive. (no partitions)

They all then appear in My Computer as Newtworked drives.

Personally theres no point doing this and it's pretty useless. Any problem with the drive and your formatting the lot. THe idea of seperate partitions is so you can reinstall windows from scratch without wiping the rest of the data.

Personally I would have a seperate partition for your apps and I would move the my documents folder across there too that way a fresh install doesnt result in data loss.

You shouldnt need to fiddle with the registry at all to be honest as in the past however many years I have been using this method I havent had to touch it once for any software.

The only thing you may have to do is re-install a program over the top if you do re-install windows at any point.

i would recommend moving the page file to a seperate physical drive too and I believe it should be either 1.5 times physical ram or 2 times physical ram. So with 1gb of ram you should go for a 2gb page file etc..

Personally theres no point doing this and it's pretty useless. Any problem with the drive and your formatting the lot. THe idea of seperate partitions is so you can reinstall windows from scratch without wiping the rest of the data.

Personally I would have a seperate partition for your apps and I would move the my documents folder across there too that way a fresh install doesnt result in data loss.

You shouldnt need to fiddle with the registry at all to be honest as in the past however many years I have been using this method I havent had to touch it once for any software.

The only thing you may have to do is re-install a program over the top if you do re-install windows at any point.

i would recommend moving the page file to a seperate physical drive too and I believe it should be either 1.5 times physical ram or 2 times physical ram. So with 1gb of ram you should go for a 2gb page file etc..

Very good point about possible loss of all data. Never thought of that.

The only thing you may have to do is re-install a program over the top if you do re-install windows at any point.

that was my nexyt question if we did need to reinstall windows the apps on the other partion would need reinstalling as well yes/no/maybe

you would have to reinstall the programs if you reinstalled windows at any point.

that was my nexyt question if we did need to reinstall windows the apps on the other partion would need reinstalling as well yes/no/maybe

You'd need to make a copy of the registry once all of the apps were installed, and then if you did need to reinstall Windows, you could just replace the registry with the copy you made, and (in theory) everything should be back to how it was...

The other option with all those HDDs floating around is to make a backup of the Windows partition on one of the external drives, and then if the worst happened, you could just do a fresh install of Windows, restore the backup, and then (in theory again) all your registry entries AND Windows Updates etc. will be restored...

[edit] As mluton's said, it might turn out that the apps need reinstalling (although they shouldn't do really on a separate partition AFAIK), but as long as you still have the original disks, it's not all that much of a problem... [/edit]

cool so really the separate partions are good for saving data files

thanks for all your help on this subject you have helped me clear up a few things in my head as this is something i have not tried before

ill let youknow how it goes

once again cheers

p.s. if you think of anything else that may help let me know

you would have to reinstall the programs if you reinstalled windows at any point.

this really depends on the program and how it installs. I find the majority of programs I use dont need a re-install. You get some that do like office etc.. but a lot of third party apps will work just by double clicking the icon. A few even re build their registry entries when you do this.