Partitioning or second HD?

[Babylon]

Hi there! I'm hoping to get a new PC sometime later this month/next month with some of the following stats:

- AthlonXP 2200
- 512MB DDR Ram
- 80 GB HD

I feel that an 80 GB HD is probably more than I'll ever need but I was surprised at how easily I filled my 3 GB HD and I have barely anything installed on it.

If I partitioned the HD into a 60 GB and 20 GB section, would this slow down the drive at all? Am I best getting the company to install 2 separate drives instead?

At present, I'm hoping to store Windows, and most other Program files on the 60 GB partition, and in the 20 GB partition (I might make it less, not sure) I hope to store all the files on my PC which change more regularly such as e-mail files, the swap file, virus checker + firewall, and temp internet files to stop the rest of my HD from getting badly fragmented! Would this actually help?

Thanks for you're help :) Also, thanks to TwoRails for suggesting I post this as a new topic, and for already giving some advice on my questions :)


Also: This is kinda unrelated but... my current PC has no means of backup (such as CD-R, blah) so when i get my new PC, what's the best way to transfer the files from one to the other PC? My current PC is running Win98, and the new one will be running WinXP. I was hoping i'd be able to transfer files either via modem connection beween the 2 PCs, or serial port connection (i think) which would be faster... Loads of help on this is also welcome :)

[morriswindgate]

It won't slow down the drive at all.
For partitoning the 80 gigs I would go as follows
C Drive = 10 GIGs (12.5%) for the operating system and programs. This is actually almost twice the space that you need for this.
D Drive = 60 GIGs (75%) for storing files
E Drive = 10 GIGs (12.5%) for storing Images (Backup Copies) of C Drive

[Babylon]

Sound pretty good :) But, i'd need more space for prgorams, but aside from that, cool ;) Thanks for the info!

[morriswindgate]

How many programs are you going to install??? Ten Gigs is room enough to have XP< Adobe Photoshop, Coreldraw, AutoCAD, Dreamweaver, Flash, Smartdraw, Microsoft Office 2000, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, MusicMatch Jukebox, Cool Edit Pro, Norton System Works, Jasc paintshop Pro, Ulead Video Studio, Ulead Photo Impact, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Medal Of Honor AA, Expendable, Doom, Doom II, Normandy, Quicktime, Realplayer, Gravity, Ad Aware, Sygate, Spybot, SpyCop, Swatit, two Printer's software, all the ATI All-in-Wonder Software, All the Hercules Game Theater Software, SCSI Card Software, Scanner Software, Logitech Webcam Software, Two Controler Card software, Power DVD, Pic-a-View, a couple of GIGs in My Documents, and a bunch of other junk files that I have collected over the years, and I still haven't use 10 gigs.
I store MP3s on another drive.

[morriswindgate]

By the way, nothing stops you from installing a program to the D partition, you just select D instead of the deault C Drive during the install. It will run normal.
Remember the most likely drive (partition) to screw up is the one with the Operating system on it.

[Babylon]

Wow! You've got your facts sorted, but you forgot... to mention loads and loads of games!!! :D Well, not loads, but RCT, 350GB, Discworld Noir, 1GB, Settlers3, 350GB, and quite a few other bigs ones i can't remember :) And of course, can't forget all those useful programs i have kicking about somewhere (Office XP springs to mind, it takes up a lot, grapichs n sounds programs). But, then your probably right, 10GB will be enough as most of my 3GB hd is taken up with personal files. so i'll try that first of all. It's just to save me having to change the partition size just incase! ;)

[sdkfz]

As to the file transfer piece, you have two choices:

1) A temporary HD transfer into the new computer
or
2) A crossover cable (assuming both machines have a NIC card)

There are plenty of threads for both methods here

Good luck

[GaryRouth]

I'd recommend installing your programs & games fresh on the XP machine, and just copying miscellaneous personal data via other means. You'll want the XP versions of your programs where available, and certainly wouldn't want to copy over any win98 drivers.

Option 1) in sdkfz's post is one of the easiest, you just attach your current drive as a slave (changing the jumpers if necessary) and copy the files you want.

Looks like a nice quick machine you're building.
. . . Gary

[Babylon]

Thanks all for your help!

GaryRouth
I'd recommend installing your programs & games fresh on the XP machine, and just copying miscellaneous personal data via other means. You'll want the XP versions of your programs where available, and certainly wouldn't want to copy over any win98 drivers.

Option 1) in sdkfz's post is one of the easiest, you just attach your current drive as a slave (changing the jumpers if necessary) and copy the files you want.

Looks like a nice quick machine you're building.
. . . Gary

Thanks for mentioning that, but I wasn't intending copying over my old windows 98 installed programs but I do have about 1.29GB of personal files to get shifted! :) My main problem with an HD transfer is that the current PC has an extended cover policy which was taken out when the PC was bought... ::Babylon has some explaining to do::

-> The PC wasn't originally bought by me, but for me if you get what I mean (:p), so with all that in mind the PC and cover policy isn't mind to invalidate (it says I'm not even allowed to open my PC :eek: ) It lasts for 5 years, 3 of which have passed. I plan on giving the PC back once I've built my new one. <-

I'm not exactly sure what a NIC card is (I'm guessing some sorta network card) but I don't think this current PC will have it. It's fairly outta date and very limiting. Is it definitely not possible to transfer files through the modems? Like modem to modem LAN or something similar? Sorry, I guess I'm fairly bad at this aspect of PCs :confused: :p

I know this is also unrelated but am I better with a v90 modem, or v92? I thought v92 but I haven't seen it being used by major PC companies surprisingly! It's just making me question them, and why they're not using 'em

Also, thanks for the comments on the PC, glad to know I'm building something good! I'd hoped for 1 GB ram but I've decided to opt for 2x 256 MB Ram now, and 1x 512 MB Ram later as it will add too much onto the cost at the moment!

Thanks again
~Babylon

[GaryRouth]

Yea, regarding RAM prices, it's too bad they're high now. But we can always hope for a price drop in the future! (Bound to happen sometime)

If you look in the back of your current PC, note the connectors. If there's one that looks like a single phone jack, only bigger, then you have either built-in ethernet or an add-on PCI ethernet network card. You'll be able to use that with your XP box, if the motherboard you get has a built-in ethernet connector (getting more common nowadays). Or you can pick up a network card for $5-$10 USD (with the rebate game: LinkSys is currently the highest rated for customer satisfaction, per PC Magazine's last review a few months ago). You'd use a crossover ethernet cable, just like sdkfz mentioned. . . . or, if you want to maitain a little network between the two computers, go for a switched hub or router, and use regular ethernet cables: it's a much more flexible solution long-term. Better performance and security, too. But then, you mention that you might give the current machine back when your new one is built....

If the current pc has no ethernet, you could use a crossover parallel cable to establish a parallel-to-parallel direct connection between the two computers to transfer your files. All the setup is available in a Help file in Win98.

Regarding modems, if they are the same price v.92 has a few more features than v.90. (A little faster connect handshake, a little faster upload speed, Call-waiting features. . . )

. . . Gary

[Babylon]

Hi again,

Just wanna say thanks for all your help :) You've cleared up all my PC problems again so i feel a lot happier about getting a new PC :)

And the ram prices, yeah, damnit! It wasn't that long ago they were really low, so i'm starting to wish i'd got the ram then! But i'm not wanting to put off getting a PC any longer, just hope it doesn't increase again over the next few months :( What actually caused the price to rise again anyway?

Thanks again (loads of times)

Babylon :)