Setting up new hard drives
 

Im going to be recieving my 80gb 7200Western Digital Special Ed. hard drive tommorow and I'm not sure how I will set it up with my current computer. Mainly becuase I am using a 20gb Maxtor hard drive, which I will backup and re-format before installing the 80gb one (It needs a re-format anyways). So my computer will have 2 (80gb and 20 gb)clean hard drives to start with.

What is the best way to partition these drives? I have heard of some people keeping their OS on one and much of their game and music files on another incase one were to crash or get a virus. I was also thinking of setting aside a partition to give Linux a try too.

I currently have WinXP Home Edition and I still have time to seek out Linux, I'm in no rush.

I have no idea what the speed is of the Maxtor, but I bet it isn't 7200 (it's quite old)

<i>Jeeters</i>, putting data/pics/vids/music on one, that doesn't have the operating sysytem on it also, is what I have done with good results. The partitions are always there when I access the drive after reinstalling OS's. I used to put the OS on the fastest drive, but not so much anymore.

Here's what I have:

Disk 0: 80 GB WD SE

C: for Windows XP Pro and Program Files only, 10 GB
Z: for swap file only, 5 GB
F: for Documents and Settings only, 30 GB
G: for backups, 30 GB

Disk 1: 40 GB Seagate

H: for drive images (Ghost), 40 GB

All volumes are NTFS except G: and H:. XP Home doesn't support NTFS though.

I had to manually redirect Documents and Settings from C: to F:. Microsoft has tech articles on how to do from a clean install (create a UNATTENDED.INF file) and how to do it after installing the OS.

I did it this way to be able to image volumes instead of backing up folders.

For partioning and formatting I always use disk management in windows 2000/xp...so easy and so smooth...

make sure you leave some for recovery.

w/ 60 gigs, u can do that kinda stuff

How about this:

80 Gig drive: 30 gigs for Win XP + programs, balance for data (FAT32)
20 Gig drive: linux
Suggest linux partitions should include ~50 megs for /boot; ~2 gigs for /; ~5 gigs for /usr (if you want to install just about every program there is); 2x memory size for swap, and balance for /home (your files). Linux will also be able to read/write your data on the WinXP drive. Check the HOWTO's, there are lots of other ways to do this.

With a setup something like this you can reload and reformat either operating system without losing all your data.

Don't waste your time backing up your existing data. Build your new OS on the new drive, mount your old hd over it, and simply copy your data to your new drive. Then slick the old drive and use as you wish. You can store your data on it, but remember she's old now.

If you split it up, don't skimp on the OS partition. I always split my OS and data filesystems up, but always seem to misjudge how much to reserve for the OS. It is then a pain to try to increase the space available.