Formatting, no other WINDOWS CD

Hi, I want to format my W3V, why? since i want to convert it to NTFS, AND want to change the hard drives from 2 to more. My questions:

1. How many drives you suggest, I am thinking of 6, two for OS, 2 for applications, 2 for data.

2. How much space is adequate for OS drives, WINDOWS XP and VISTA?

3. Which software is better for converting? Partition Magic, or recovery CD?

4. I don't have another WINDOWS CD, so what happens to the preinstalled registered WINDOWS XP Pro which i have paid for it? Is there any way to keep it after formatting?

Thanks.

 

Please refer to my XP Installation Guide for answers to most of your questions.

I think the partitions are too many. Unless you have good reasons to do otherwise, I'd keep the applications on the same partition as the OS. If the OS goes away, most of the apps can't be reused anyway...

Depending on how much software you install, I suggest between 15 and 25 GB for WinXP, and I'd guess 20 to 30 for Vista cause I believe that one eats a lot of HDD space.

About the rest, see the guide. Also on how to install your paid-for WinXP from the recovery CDs.

 

Oh yeah, you might also be able to keep the WinXP installation by defrag & resize its partition using PQMagic. In that way, you don't need to reinstall.

 

OK, very useful. But i have heared that it is better to have a partition devoted to OS, i mean with no other applications on it. Isn't it right ? If so, how many MBytes is enough for such a partition ?

 

I see no real good reason to keep the OS separate from the applications (i.e., Program Files in Windows). Are you sure you haven't heard only that it's good to keep the OS+apps separate from your _data_?

I can imagine that _maybe_ if you keep _only_ the OS files and on one partition and move _all_ the rest (Documents and Settings, Program Files, ) you might gain _some_ speedup in running OS components due to less fragmentation. But I doubt this speedup will be significant. Moreover, there are forms of caching / file changes in the OS files as well (to give a few examples, windows updates, .ini files are changing, dlls are cached etc).

Honestly, don't waste your time any longer and put the OS and apps on the same partition. It won't hurt. Just make sure you keep your data separated, on another partition. That's all.

 

I thought you can convert FAT to NTFS without reformatting, though I'm not entirely sure since I haven't done it in a long time.

PartitionMagic is a really good program for partition, resizing, etc.

Like E.B.E. said, there isn't any real good reason to keep your O.S. and programs on two seperate drives. One drive for XP(5G)+pagefile(2*your ram size)+software, and rest for data. Though I've heard it's better to put your pagefile on a different drive than your O.S.

But these were all little tweaks when PCs weren't as powerful as today's, I'm not sure if it matters much at all these days.

 

Yes, you can convert FAT to NTFS, etc. If you are going to do Vista and XP, then there is only one reason that I can think of to have your applications on a different partition than the OS, and that is because you don't have different versions of the programs for XP and Vista. In other words, if you have an XP and Vista install, then you can have those two on their own partitions, and have one partition for data and programs. Just make a folder, and call it Windows Programs on your data drive, and install programs there. You will likely have to run through the install on both OSes (for registry settings and the like), but after you do then, instead of having that program installed twice, and taking up the space it takes up twice, both OSes can use it.

As far as making so many partitions (and they are partitions, NOT drives--drives are physical), it is a bad idea. At some point you will run out of space in one, and want to increase it, and be stuck. Yes, you can adjust it with something like "partition magic", but be careful. I have seen Partition Magic, and other partition-adjusting programs, DESTROY data on hard drives. You can try it now because the laptop is new and your chances of losing important data are small, but be VERY careful doing anything like that after you have been using your computer for a while. These programs screw things up, and they do it often.

But yes, if it was me, I would have 3 partitions. 2 10 gig ones for the OSes, and everything else for data (and programs). If it is JUST the install of the OS, then it should fit easily with 10 gigs of space, even with the swap file. Just never install anything on the OS partitions. Well, maybe 1 10 gig for XP and 1 15 gig for Vista. How disgusting... give me Linux.

 

Can you even do that? Even if you overwrite an old install with a new one, I expect there are configuration files that are OS-specific, and as a consequence a lot of software will not be usable from two OS-es at once.

There are exceptions to this though.