XP Partition size

[9600baud]

Hi, just a quick question, how big of a partition should I make for XP Pro to run very confortably? Thanks!

[Babylon]

I'd go with 5GB or more. When i installed XPHome i'd already used up around 2.5GB on my Hard Drive. You've also got to take into account the amount of RAM you have available as this will affect the size of the SwapFile.

[Cricket]

Hi 9600baud,

How big is your hard drive?

WinXP takes up around 1.7GB of space just by itself (I think that includes the paging file), so if you intend to install your programs to the same partition, you should consider what space requirements of all the software. I wouldn't make the partition smaller than 5GB...10 to 15GB would probably be about right.

Cricket

[9600baud]

hi, thanks for the replies... space's not a problem, I will probably have 2 x 120GBs in there. Is it better to install just the OS on the partition and the programs on a separate partition?

[Babylon]

Well, i'm not entirely sure if it makes much difference where you install programs. You probably are likely to get slightly less fragmentation but if you install all your programs on the same partition as the OS then defrag you get rid of most fragmentation anyway (and programs don't usually change much in size regualrly anyway).

I usually find that because of the way windows works, even if you install programs on a seperate partition, they will also dump files in your main partition as well.

[reboot]

5 meg minimum, 8 meg is nicer, especially if you're short on RAM, so the swap file has plenty of room.
With 2x120's, you'll want LOTS of partitions, or it'll take 3 days to defrag just one.
I have currently 2x60's and a 30, and run partitions C through M (usually), though PartMagic helps, because I'm continually moving and resizing things to suit the needs of the stuff in each one.