I am about to reinstall win2k. Currently I have my hard drive(40gig) partitioned(due to what someone told me)10 gig and 30 gig. My OS is on the 10 gig. is it good to have OS on diferent partition like this or does it really matter.

Also my motherboard has a built in raid driver...is it really better using 2 or so smaller drives in this situation?

it could help depending on where your swap file resides. and with the os on a different partition, if anything ever crapped out and you had to reinstall, but had things on the other partition. you only need that small partition for the os. all other partitions/drives will stay intact. i run it on it's own partition mainly cause i'm just used to it from nt4 days. where at least for me, nt4 was a lot more stable on it's on partition. we all have our own quirks i guess.

[insert philosophical statement here]

It sure makes life easy when ya keep OS and primary software on one partition, and critical/personal data on another...

It can indeed come in handy to be able to reinstall/replace/upgrade OS without worry of loosing data... (or at least having a place to keep data when upgrading...)

Better??? Convieient and very managable - Definitely!!!

ok so the partition is a good idea but do i only install the OS or do i also install all of my programs on the partition(c...if i only install the OS and my programs on another partition(dwill they work properly(will the OS recognize them as being installed?

Software(programs) can be installed in any accessable partition and run fine...
A personal choice where ya keep em...

A sorta conventional setup to put the OS and Primary(or critical) software(like anti- virus, office, acrobat, SQL Server, media players, burn software, etc) on the system partition. Usually if there is a requirement that the software MUST reside on the system partition it will tell ya so and just wont install anywhere else...

For accessory stuff( like Audio catalyst, Clip'nSav, WinZip, WinAmp) put em anyplace ya want. Personally, I keep stuff that I've downloaded and installed on non system partitions, and stuff I have CD source for on system partitions. It makes it simple, upgrade the OS and ya dont have to go find WinZip download again... But feel free to roll your own for personal convieience and organization here...

Most important is to keep DATA off the system drive.. Like change the default location of Word docs, SpreadSheets, Music/MP3's, source zip packages and downloaded software... Then all ya have to do to upgrade/replace the os is drag a couple of needed files(like your email repository, ie: outlook.pst) off the system partion and then format/install all ya want... your DATA is on another partition...

The rules are: A much as possible - Make it easy on yourself!
(and keep those source zip downloads of required drivers off the system partition also - they come in real handy for reinstalls also)