Question on C: drive size

[matelot]

Have been following BuildYourOwnPC guidelines BUT, am puzzled by the author's statement that he allows only 2gb for his C: drive - he states this is sufficient for several versions of the OS.

My problem is that experience shows that no matter where I try to install a new program - that is to D:, E:, F: et al, Windows still places a large chunk of the new program in C: and this always results in me being informed that there is insufficient space on C: when I want to do future installations.

What is the answer to this experience?

[Kov-Ice]

For my XP installs, I've typically used 8GB. That's installing programs and cataloging files elsewhere, of course. It's proven to be plenty.

[Panama Red]

I use 12-15Gb for the C partition for most of my customer builds. I quit installing programs on a separate partition because they will integrate with the registry anyway and if you have to reformat the C drive the programs will need to be reinstalled too. And you need to keep 15% of the C free in order to run the Defragmenter. I remove old Restore Points weekly and put the Page File on a separate partition equal to 3 times the amount of installed memory. Then I create a 3rd partition of the remaining hard drive space and move the My Documents files there.

[Mesaeus]

Personally, I never bother with making more than one partition. In the end it will always give more trouble if you have multiple partitions which fill up at different rates, it's much better to pool all free space so you won't have to worry about it anymore. Saving your data on another partition gives zero extra security, it's only on another hard drive that would be a good idea. And I'd rather use an imaging program in that situation anyways, so I don't have to worry about which parts of my C: drive I need.

[matelot]

Many thanks to Kov-Ice; Panama Red & Mesaeus for the responses.

I see from the number of 'posts' you have made that you are pretty long in the tooth as far as this Forum goes so while I am prepared to bow to your collective wisdom, your answers are wide ranging.

The system I am building has a 300gb drive and whereas other systems I have assembled have had as many as 3 hard drives (60's and 160gb's) which I invariably partitioned into several other virtual drives (basing my actions on the proviso that smaller partitions provide both for speed of recovery and smaller clusters which presumably increases efficiency and decreases waste space) I have always been plagued with the insiduous theft of my C: drive space by Windows parking portions of newly installed programs in it.

Looking at your answers I believe I may just leave the whole drive as one or, at best, partion it into two.

[matelot]

Hurray!!!
with the help of this forum, have completed the build of this new computer - BUT - unfortunately I was not aware of the new SATA drives. I bought and fitted a 300gb Maxtor Diamond10. Now I find that I could have/should have fitted a SATA drive.
My question is this: I see there are 'adaptors' that will allow me to fit said adaptor to the Maxtor hard drive and then couple it up to one of the SATA terminals on my motherboard. Before I do this, will this simply substitute the SATA round cable for the PATA ribbon data cable or does it improve that transfer speed from the hard drive as well as improving the air circulation inside the case?

[doctorgonzo]

There is no need to get an adapter. It really won't lead to an increase in performance. If you are concerned about air circulation, simply get round IDE cables.

[matelot]

Thanks for that Gonzo - I am not too fussed about the circulation bit. I find that with the ASUS A8N32-SLI mboard I seem to have more than enough cooling fans.