On my WD250 HD I'm going to do 3 partitions...1) XP PRO 2) Programs & Apps 3) Music and Movies....Right? And when I down load drivers do they go to the 1st OS partition or 2nd partition? Or will they automaticly go to the partition that their needed? Sorry for the nOObish Questions..tryin to learn..

Set up your Browser to always ask when to put any downloads and save them to a Folder on partition 3, your storage drive. Personally I always put my programs on the same partition as the OS. If you have to do a clean install, you'll have to reinstall all your programs anyway. I know others prefer to do what you are. Regardless, you want to store everything, downloads, docs, photos, on a storage partition

So whats your recomeded aproch to settin up a 250 HD?Size for OS and Programs...and such?

I allocate about 30GB for OS and programs, like to keep about 40% unused, which is overkill but it's my overkill. I have a 2nd partition of about 10GB for documents, and the rest for downloads, Photos. This is on my office machine with 2 hard drives, the 2nd is unpartitioned backup drive. On my other machine I have 3 hdd, one for OS and programs that is partitioned and use the 2nd partition for documents and downloads. The 2nd drive is for music and photos and the 3rd drive for videos. There is probably no rational reason to have a smaller partition for documents and downloads. The key to partitioning is to do it in a way that makes sense for you, e.g., makes it easy to find things and your comfortable with. Personally, I think it is always a good idea to have a 2nd hdd to storage be it internal or external, especially for things that are not replaceable like photos, video you haven't burned, or documents or downloads, especially programs you've paid for.

Hey g-paw,
What are you sayin are "downloads"? Like what? I know what I download but what do you think needs to be downloaded to a sepret partition?

There is absolutely no reason to partition your drives like that. This is 2007 you know, not 1992. It's just a fucking great hassle to have all those drive letters and navigating them all the time. It is simply not very smart to do such a thing. There are no advantages whatsoever.

Mobius gets my vote! Through long and hard experience I've learned that partitions are nothing but trouble.

I have one HDD for OS/Apps, 2nd HDD for the rest.

I diasgree. I like having a partion in place so that I can have the OS on a relatively small partition and everything else on the second partion. Of course, a person could just buy one small hard disc for the OS and have all other data on a second or even third hard disc. The effect would be the same. I only partition the first hard disc and don't partition any secondary drive. This way, if I have to reinstall the OS, I don't wipe out any data or loose downloads, etc. I think it saves me a lot of time and headaches doing it this way. But to each his own.

So do you put OS only on one partition and all programs on another? heard this really speeds things up. And do the drivers go on the same partition as OS?

By Downloads I mean programs be they free or paid for, not music, movies, etc. As i said, partitioning is a very personal thing and obviously people have different opinions although I would guess everyone would agree that keeping data on a separate partition from the OS and programs is a very good idea. As to how stupid any particular partition set up is ranks up there with saying putting mustard on a burger is stupid compared to using ketchup. The "right" way to partition is what's right for you.

On the same drive you have, I did 4 partitions. C is @ 20gb for windows, drivers and swap. D is @ 60 gb for applications and downloads. E and F are @ 77 gb, one is for games and the other for media. This has been working out well for me, but I realize I would need to increase the size of C if I ever go to Vista on this system to @ 30gb.

Maybe I'm just lazy or don't care about my unimportant data as much as you guys. I save my docs to a thumb drive and have everything else on one HD. I keep anything I'm worried about losing on the thumb drive. If I have to reformat then so be it. To each their own I suppose.

The drivers will automatically install to where they need to go. As far as partitioning goes it would be best to keep the programs on the same partition as the OS, as g-paw stated you will have to reinstall all programs after you reinstall the OS anyway.

Ok, for what I do in more detail. I put the OS and programs such as Microsoft Office on the C: partition, along with some games. On the D: partition, I put all saved data and along with a temp folder to hold downloaded patches and drivers. This way, if and when I have to re-install the OS, the data is still there and I don't have to download the various patches and drivers, but just run them. I also have to re-install MS Office, but the data is saved on the D: partition and thus is usable and safe.

Some patches and drivers will go to the C: partition by default, as well as OS updates. For those, I just have to tolerate the hours spent online downloading them and getting things going again. If Vista is going to be the OS, I'd suggest a C: partition of at least 50 gig; with XP, a partition of at least 30 gig, but this size is debatable and is dependant on how many office type apps you run.

I've got the same disk and I partitioned it:
1) 70 GB for OS, programs and games
2) 180 GB for everything else (downloads, documents, mp3...)

That way I can keep the OS partition defragmented all the time and I don't have to make any backup when I format and re-install the OS

Works fine for me...

That sounds good to me. 8)

It will not speed things up and could result in a performance hit. You are using the same physical disk for the partitions. Keeping your disk organized and defraged will result in optimal performance - whether you partition or not. Seek times will kill you on disks that are not defraged and there is a seek penalty for partitioning (you are forcing data and programs further away from each other when you create the partition). For best performance frequently accessed programs/data should be contiguous and at the front of the disk.

[quote="Sailer"]

I think you may be confusing updates that are directly installed from the web site, e.g., Windows Updates or driver updates that you get when you d0 Windows Update, and drivers, program updates, or new programs that are downloaded to your computer and then you install them. In the latter case, you can set up your Browser to always ask where to save a file when downloading and these can be saved anywhere you want, e.g., a partition other than the one your OS is on. This is one of the things that make re-installing Windows so much fun, waiting for all the Windows Updates to install from the web site, although XP updates are not nearly as much fun as Windows 2000

I don't think I have it confused in my mind, but I may well have it confused when I try to type out what I'm thinking. Sometimes my mind and my fingers don't talk very well to each other.

I've starting partitioning hard drives for my friends and relatives machines so that all their documents are safe on the 2nd partition after they hose their windows install with malware on the 1st partition. So when I say time to reload, they don't cry about losing everything(that should've been backed up, but that's another story) and I look like a hero for the quick reload.