hey don,
i must say, i like the way you attacked your problem... "Bought a new machine". nearly every time i respond to someone's request for help here on this thread, i will confess that i am often at least a little bit tempted to advise folks to follow that very same course of action!! <g3> btw, are you gonna overclock this one too?
"How would you partition a 20gig hard drive"
well, i'm still in the midst of putting together a working game plan there, don. but i would say that you are in luck, because i have here a nice little excerpt from a recent fred langa newsletter, that just happens to be called, guess what?
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"How I Partition My System
On the system I'm using right now, my single 20GB hard drive is split into three partitions, which appear as drives C:, D: and E: (they're not really separate drives, but Windows treats each partition as if it were a separate drive). My C: partition is just 2GB in size. My D: partition is 6GB; and E: is 12GB.
My C: partition/drive contains my Windows system files and all my most-frequently-changed data files -- all my e-mail, DOC, XLS, HTM, etc., files; those files occupy about 1.2GB of space on that 2GB partition. This is the part of my system that gets the most use and abuse, and is most likely to "go bad;" it's the part that's most in need of backing up. I use Drive Image to image this partition every day; I store the images on the E: drive. Using Drive Image's "high compression" mode, each image file of the 2GB partition squeezes down to about 600MB. If you do the math, you'll see that I can fit the better part of a month's worth of live backups on my E: partition/drive. (I actually do more with the images than just leaving them on E:, and I'll come back to this in a moment.)
My D: partition/drive contains files that change infrequently, miscellaneous files and easily-replaced, nonessential files. This includes most of the files that normally install themselves in C:\Program Files: When new software (typically) offers to install itself in C:\Program Files, I just edit the C: to D:, and the software then installs itself in D:\Program Files. (In other words, my D: drive contains most of my live, installed apps.) Because there's little on my D: partition/drive that's irreplaceable (my apps could simply be reinstalled), I only image the D: drive once a month or so.
My E: partition/drive contains my Windows swap file, the disk image files from C and D, and not much else. I don't image the E: drive at all.
Dumpster Diving
If I delete a file I later discover I need, I run Drive Image in restore mode to fish the file out of the backup images and put it back in its original location on C:. Piece of cake.
When my system inevitably becomes unstable because I've tested one too many betas or whatever, I can restore it in a flash: I begin by ensuring I have a current copy of all my data files either in a fresh image or through manually copying the files as needed. (I can copy the "C:\My Documents" folder to "E:\My Documents" to ensure I have a current, live copy of all those files, for example.) Then, I select a recent image file from when the system was working fine, and use Drive Image to replace the current, damaged setup with the known-good copy. When that's done, I'll replace the restored, older copies of data files with the current copies of the data files. Presto! The system is back, fully restored and stable, with all files current and the total elapsed time is an effortless 20 minutes or so.
And if a total disaster strikes, I go a step further because of the techniques described here. Although this link gives you the full details, the short form is this: By using a image file made when my system had a freshly-installed OS, including all drivers, patches, add-ins and adjustments; plus all my applications installed and running; with everything defragmented, optimized, tuned, compacted and ready to go. I can return my system to that optimal condition in the time it takes to grab a cup of coffee!"
winmag.com
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"I am assuming that the best procedure would be to upgrade the old machine to ME and then copy all the contents"
good question. are you planning to install the old drive in the new box to copy drive to drive? you could also copy the old to the new and then upgrade. to my thinking, you might want the old drive contents on a separate partition on the new hd, then use pm's 'magic mover' utility. i don't know, you have some options, i can say that much for sure.
keep us posted. and enjoy the new machine. what did you get?
:)
mark |
