Need more space, but how?

[ajbrun]

I've currently got 15% hard drive space left, and i'm sure I could easily fill the other 17GB if I wanted to. When I brought my HDD, I thought 120GB was LOADS for me, so I wasn't prepared the other day when it wouldn't defrag as it was too full.

So, my question is this:
I'd like to know how I should get more space. I'm not a big fan of partitioning as I feel like I'd be restricted to a certain amount of space, and it'd be difficult to judge exactly how much I'd need for each. I've heard that putting windows in a separate partition (or even better, in another HDD) is good, and I'm fine with that - I just don't really want my files split up into music, mydocs, video partitions.

I'm currently using a Maxtor 120GB drive that now has about 100GB of data on it.

I'd like to know:
* Is it best for windows to go on another dive/partition?
* Where should program files go?
* What kind of size should a new drive be (small just to store windows, or bigger to help store everything)?

I'm currently thinking of buying a smallish (need help on the size) hard drive for windows only, and having everything else on my current hard drive. Like I said, I have no idea on the size of windows, so I don't know how big a drive to buy, or how much space it should free up on my current drive. Is this a good idea, or should I be doing something else?

Thanks .

[arthurleung]

I've currently got 15% hard drive space left, and i'm sure I could easily fill the other 17GB if I wanted to. When I brought my HDD, I thought 120GB was LOADS for me, so I wasn't prepared the other day when it wouldn't defrag as it was too full.

So, my question is this:
I'd like to know how I should get more space. I'm not a big fan of partitioning as I feel like I'd be restricted to a certain amount of space, and it'd be difficult to judge exactly how much I'd need for each. I've heard that putting windows in a separate partition (or even better, in another HDD) is good, and I'm fine with that - I just don't really want my files split up into music, mydocs, video partitions.

I'm currently using a Maxtor 120GB drive that now has about 100GB of data on it.

I'd like to know:
* Is it best for windows to go on another dive/partition?
* Where should program files go?
* What kind of size should a new drive be (small just to store windows, or bigger to help store everything)?

I'm currently thinking of buying a smallish (need help on the size) hard drive for windows only, and having everything else on my current hard drive. Like I said, I have no idea on the size of windows, so I don't know how big a drive to buy, or how much space it should free up on my current drive. Is this a good idea, or should I be doing something else?

Thanks .

My system drive is a 8GB partition (about 500M free space), with the remaining 270GB as Storage1, all the remaining harddrives have two partitions (usually 50gb for the first and rest for the second). I find myself running out of drive letters. I can't be arsed to burn DVDs so I use HDDs for offline storage (not so offline though). Time to buy some new hdds.

120GB is just tiny....I won't buy any new drive less than 300GB just to save some physical space.

[shaithis]

Personally, I hate partitioning. You already seem to have grasped the concept that no matter how you partition it will almost certainly bite you in the behind further down the road. Its just a way of limiting you.

A good directory structure is all you need.

If you go for a second drive in addition to your current one, I would think about putting your most demanding apps on the new drive and leave the Windows swap file on your current drive.

[ajbrun]

So it the thought so far to go for a bigger HDD (about 300GB) to replace the one I have instead?

[arthurleung]

Depends on how much you want to pay. 120+300 is probably a good choice.

If you do get a 300G, you would probably do something like this:
120G : 10G OS/Program Files + 20G Download/Misc purpose like extract large rars + 90G Files
300G: 30G Installed Games, 270G for files

If you don't think you will use that much space (for the time being), get another 160/200 (since they're just a few quids more expensive than a 120)

Harddrives are always dropping in price and no hurry to upgrade.

Keeping small harddrives does cause problems, especially you don't have enough IDE/SATA ports to connect all of them. Alternatively you could just store the small filled hdds kind of like keeping DVDs

[peterb]

I'm a fan of partitioning - keeping the OS in a separate partition means you can do a re-install really cleanly on the OS section of the drive. Keeping Apps on a separate partition can also be useful - then that keeps the user data completely seperate.

[iranu]

Personally, I hate partitioning. You already seem to have grasped the concept that no matter how you partition it will almost certainly bite you in the behind further down the road. Its just a way of limiting you.

I completely disagree with this for the following reason.

If you partition the drive so that windows xp sits on the c drive and nothing else, then if windows throws a wobbly (for whatever reason) and you need to reformat you do not lose all your data because you only need to format the c partition. The other partition(s) are not affected. I see partitioning as a way of not having to dump everything on the c drive and therefore gives more flexibility, organisation and I can wipe a drive without wiping windows.

A good directory structure is all you need.

A good directory structure is essential on all pc's regardless of partitioning.

[ajbrun]

I think I'm siding more with iranu on this. Arthurleung has suggested way too many partitions imo. Surley I'd only need 2 partitions - one for windows, and one for everything else?

Can somone give me a guesstimated of roughly how big a windows partition should be please?

[BUFF]

I'm certainly a fan of having Windows in it's own partition for eases or repair/re-install.
I usually allow about 10-12Gb & I move my Docs & my email store off of it too.

[arthurleung]

I think I'm siding more with iranu on this. Arthurleung has suggested way too many partitions imo. Surley I'd only need 2 partitions - one for windows, and one for everything else?

Can somone give me a guesstimated of roughly how big a windows partition should be please?

10GB

The choice is completely up to you. Complete winxp64 installation + patches takes 2.5GB, Program files probably 2-3GB if tou install moderate number of small programs. You'll need may be 4GB for your "My doucments" due to many games using that folder to save savegames (which could be like 5~30MB per save, and you got 100 saves for each game?)

IMOH, you just partition a system partition, a game partition and a download/extract partition, where the remaining goes to pure storage. I think this is the most efficient way so that you can defrag easily.

By storage I mean those file you just keep and seldom modify the file. You'll probably only need to defrag it once every 3 months. The download/extract drive should be quite empty most of the time, therefore it will never need to defrag (when you move the downloaded files to storage). Games have large files and you'll probably don't want the storage to mess with the game files, increasing the seek time. Same rule, the system partition ALWAYS get fragmented, and isolating it will save time to defrag.

If you can't be bothered to do all the partitioning just throw them together.
As I say I don't do lots of partitions like the old days since I don't have enough drive letters to keep them.

If you don't want the music and videos to put in different hdds, put them on the same hdd.

Everyone's usage pattern is just too different for a 'general' rule.

[Tobeman]

I gave up on making a partition for Windows, I tried it a few times. First time at 10gb, second at 15, both times they had filled up within about 3-4 months. Anything I need is easily backed up, and getting an extra drive for my next rig so will just use the other as installations for everything.

[Dav0s]

as i cba googling, how do u change the location of "program files" and "my documents". ive come acorss the options before i just cant remember where.