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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kathryn Anshutz who wrote (12135)	9/27/2000 9:24:27 PM
From: tanstfl	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110652

Hi Kathryn, If your thinking of partitioning the drive and don't want to reformat (and find the right drivers) you'll want something like partition magic. I usually make the C partiton less than 8192K so that I get 4k clusters which is most efficient for all the little files that make up the OS and Apps. Since audio (mp3) and video files are generally quite large, you don't gain a lot by having 4k clusters, so I'd just make a second 20 Meg partition for that kind of stuff. I'm not sure what you'd gain by separating out financial files (and my documents), Most backup programs will let you save a backup by directory and those files aren't usually very large (ie wasteful of partitions with larege cluster sizes. As always, have a good backup of your data before you try something like this (which I assume you do since it's a new computer). steve

To: Kathryn Anshutz who wrote (12135)	9/27/2000 9:58:30 PM
From: mr.mark	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110652

hi ka, looks like steve provided a good answer. allow me to chip in with some thoughts from fred langa on the very subject you've asked about.... ******************************* "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." ***************************** the article in its entirety, called "Bullet-Proof Your Windows Setup", can be found here: winmag.com btw, i'm getting ready to add a 20gb slave drive to a machine with a 13gb master drive, and do some partitioning too. so it is with some great interest that i read posts such as yours, and replies such as steve's. hope this helps :) mark

To: Kathryn Anshutz who wrote (12135)	9/28/2000 11:16:01 AM
From: PMS Witch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110652

Partitioning stuff ... I partitioned my disk into three chunks: A big piece for C: containing my Operating System; a tiny piece D: for my personal data and program development; and another big piece E: for images of C:. I used Partition Magic for creation and re-sizing: The sizing soon settles into a sweet spot and remains constant. I use Drive Image to make copies of my system: Creating takes about five minutes; restoring takes ten. The value of having a stable, correct, and comfortable copy of your system at hand cannot be overstated: When Windows gets cranky, correcting the mess can become a black-hole for time and effort. You need only restore your system once and you'll be well rewarded for the time, effort, and cost of acquiring and using the tools to make your backup(s). If you doubt this, scan the posts on this thread and you'll soon realize the extent of the nasty surprises which await you. Being prepared is your best defense. If I absolutely had to compute without a partitioned drive and the software tools to exploit it fully, I'd dump Windows and return to DOS for the sake of my sanity. I couldn't endorse the idea more strongly. Cheers, PW. P.S. Disclaimer stuff... I mentioned a couple of PowerQuest tools. Others are available as well. I was pointed in PowerQuest's direction by participants of this thread, I acquired their tools, I'm happy with them, and I'm too lazy to learn new packages. I don't have any connection with PowerQuest beyond using their products. I also post frequently about Symantec's Norton Utility suite. Again, I not connected to this company beyond being a customer. However, I do own a position in Microsoft, but since I'm usually critical of them and their products on this thread, I don't feel my investments conflict with my posts very seriously. Sorry about the length --- I get carried away easily. I need to vacuum today, and I procrastinate. I view my time on the computer as work too, and I fool myself out of guilt.