[Jisatsu]

I was told that if i partition a large hard drive to have one small 6gb (or thereabouts) partition, I can install XP on that and in the event that i need to reformat windows, my stuff saved on the larger partition would be saved.
however, if I make such a small partition just for windows, won't every program default to installl on that drive (in the "program files" folder) and eventually fill it if it cannot be changed? And wouldn't this cause a substantial loss if i ever do need to reformat?
If i make a folder called "program files" on my storage partition and then install every program on there, will it cause any difference to my windows only partition?

sorry for any lack of clarity in describing my problem, I'm not very experienced with this

thanks in advance

 

[brite750]

I was told that if i partition a large hard drive to have one small 6gb (or thereabouts) partition, I can install XP on that and in the event that i need to reformat windows, my stuff saved on the larger partition would be saved.
however, if I make such a small partition just for windows, won't every program default to installl on that drive (in the "program files" folder) and eventually fill it if it cannot be changed? And wouldn't this cause a substantial loss if i ever do need to reformat?
If i make a folder called "program files" on my storage partition and then install every program on there, will it cause any difference to my windows only partition?

sorry for any lack of clarity in describing my problem, I'm not very experienced with this

thanks in advance

yeah make it more like 20gb min for os and programs

 

[Jisatsu]

And then put all my huge games etc in one seperate folder on a bigger drive or something?

 

[brite750]

how big of a drive?

 

[rollnw24inkmc]

that was a little confusing reading that but i understand what your asking, if you parition your larger drive to 6gb, windows will run slow. the way i have mine set up is i have two hard drives, i put windows on my 60gb, then my 200gb i split up to 3 partitions, 50.2;60.0;76.0GB...before i did that i had windows on my 200gb and had it partition the same way but i had windows install on the 60gb partition. i have installed windows xp on a 6gb hdd and it ran so slow. the lowest amount id install windows on would have to be 40GB thats if you dont plan on installing a lot of programs and games and what not. but i really wouldnt put windows on anything that small unless its windows ME;98/98SE or 95a/95b..anything like windows 2000 pro and win xp home/pro id do aleast 40-60GB...now to your question if u install windows on a partition and later decide you want to reformat that usually what happens when you delete the partition is the the space that was partition goes back to the drive. but ur save data will still be there if u just delete the partition but in windows set up aleast i know on xp and 2000 you can tell it how much you want to use for windows and it will partition it for you..

 

[Jisatsu]

i've got a 60gb hard drive, and a new 320gb one.
i'm considering utilising the entire 60gb drive for windows alone, good idea?

 

[brite750]

i've got a 60gb hard drive, and a new 320gb one.
i'm considering utilising the entire 60gb drive for windows alone, good idea?

i think programs have to be on same drive as OS, just use 320 for storage with folders or maybe make it 3 100's

 

[rollnw24inkmc]

i've got a 60gb hard drive, and a new 320gb one.
i'm considering utilising the entire 60gb drive for windows alone, good idea?

yeah thats fine lol thats what i did...i use my 60 gig for windows and programs and i use my 200gb for music,pictures,video,program install files and such

 

[Jisatsu]

will do then

thanks a lot

Oh, and btw - does it matter what "cluster size" i set on my storage drive? at the moment it's 4k as defaulted, but i've read that lower ones are better (it's using the NTFS file system but i can change to FAT32 if that'd be better)?