partitions

[pak000]

I seem to remember years ago that it was recommended that you partition your hdd for reasons that i didn't fully understand at the time. I still do it to seperate my work, media and os files, but now i'm thinking of getting a drive for storing films on it.

At 250GB it should be big enough for my short/medium term needs, but how should i go about partitioning it? is it even necessary? I was planning on putting a very small partition, somewhere in the region of 5 or 10 gigs on it for the pagefile which currently runs in c, but that would be all

What are the advantages of partitioning or not partitioning?

[asteroth]

i think partitioning you page file separately is a good idea, it stops the page file from fragmenting the OS partition. a fixed size page file is also good so windows doesnt use resource to resize the page file. partitioning will also save you pain if your OS install borks and you have to reformat.

[jamena]

i think partitioning you page file separately is a good idea, it stops the page file from fragmenting the OS partition. a fixed size page file is also good so windows doesnt use resource to resize the page file. partitioning will also save you pain if your OS install borks and you have to reformat.

can you tell windows not to put the pagefile on the windows partition? That'd be a good thing to do indeed!

p.s. does it matter if the pagefile is fat32/ntfs do yuo know? (XP partition is ntfs, spare small partition is fat32)

[mrbanana]

To change the pagefile in XP once you've created a new partition or added a new drive:

control panel/system/advanced/performance/advanced/virtual memory.

click the change button and select a new partition or new size for the pagefile (it doesn't matter whether the drive is fat32 or ntfs).

I tend to set my pagefile to 1500mb minimum and maximum, that also reduces fragmentation.

I create a C: drive of 10gb for windows, a D: drive of 5 gb for programmes, an E: drive of a couple of gigabytes for data, word docs etc, and an F: drive for downloads, everything else.

Using BootitNG (Trueimage is easier if you're new to this), I make a backup image of the C and D and E drives, then burn the images to disk. If I have a virus or hard drive failure all I do is restore the images. Saves hours of painful reinstallation.

Once a month, rather than defragment the C: drive (or if I've installed something in the meantime that's screwed Windows up or slowed it down too much) I simply restore the image of the C: drive I've made. Drives D: and E: rarely need defragmenting or restoring.

It's also a good way to remove spyware and tracking cookies you've accumulated that month.

Only restoring the C: drive keeps the size of the image you've created down to the absolute minumum, especially if you move the pagefile off the C: drive. I stick mine on F:

You just have to remember never to install any programmes to the C drive and always save all your word docs to the E: drive.