Partitioning HDD - help with boot.ini*

*SCROLL DOWN FOR boot.ini issue*

I'm about to reformat and partition my Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drive. I've never partitioned before, but I've read some guides online including this one http://partition.radified.com/. However, I can't decide how to divide it up.

What I have in mind at the moment is this:

1. 15GB OS (Windows XP, I've read it can go as low as 5GB but I'd rather play it safe)
2. 4GB Swapfile (again it can go a lot lower, but on my previous system with 1.25GB RAM I was using 1.7GB of my pagefile when working with graphic-intensive programs e.g. Flash, playing it safe once more)
3. 100GB Apps (random stuff such as Office, Flash, Photoshop etc.)
4. 40GB Games
5. 80GB Data and Music (data includes images and rendered vids etc.)
6. ???GB Backup (There's 80GB remainder at this point, not sure how much of this I should use for backup images).
7. ???GB Temp directory (for temporary internet files etc., not sure if I will need this but I heard it helps avoid fragmentation)

7 partitions seems like too many, I'm leaning towards combining 3, 4, 5, and 6 in one way or another. Also, I plan on getting OSX for iPhone app development and installing that on a second older 80GB IDE drive, would there be any interactions between the 2 drives that I should worry about?

Any recommendations are welcome. Thanks

Just keep it simple.

1) 4gb pagefile
2) 100-150gb OS/apps/games
3) rest for storage

Keep a backup on another drive. It's not very helpful if the drive crashes with the backup on it.

Interesting, a bunch of the guides that I read said to keep OS on its own partition to avoid fragmenting, but I can definitely see why that could be a problem.

Another question, if I order the partitions as

1. Swap
2. OS/APPS
3. Data

upon reformatting, will the OS/apps partition automatically get the "C" drive, or does it become another letter and have to be renamed. I've read something about boot drives not being renamable? Thanks.

AND here's another silly opinion On my present hdd I have partitions from C to K,my first partition 10G's is for windoze and any programs that I run,but only for system stability and drivers I use no microshaft programs,D E,F nd G are used for some specialty programs,,H is 4G's for the swapfile never get defragmented so never needs defragging, I is for Ghost files sometimes have more than 2 ghosts,and last but not least,are J and K for storage and the usual junk..Total hdd size 320G's,wait'll I get my hands on a 500G,,I'll use the same protocol,because it is fast,efficient,and reasonably trouble free,and when there are problems,,well that's what Norton Ghost is for..
I have used this or a similar pattern since "way back when" I never have to give any thought as to what the swapfile is doing it is set at 700 to whatever,it used to be a problem on the "C" drive as it would get all fragmented and louse up the whole operation,windoze needs no help in THAT department,,the point to all this rambling is,,that the primary "OS" partition is the one that needs to be given priority,it needs to be fast ,stable,easy to defrag no more crap on it than needed,and BTW many programs will run on another partition without having to be reinstalled,and if they do need to be well then it is no problem,at least their user created contents are still there ,point,,replacing user created content is far more difficult and time $$$ consuming than simply reinstalling some crashed program,windoze simply cannot be trusted with MISSION CRITICAL programs or data,love that Norton Ghost..
Anyhow for what it's worth [$2.00 ,, inflation y'know ] you now have a few choices,use the one that suits your needs and enjoy your experience....:>

I didnt see anyone mention that a MBR disk can only have 4 partitions. But you might want to make that part of your plans.