Here is an excellent guide about HD Partitions

[joeMan]

Check it out here at The Elder Geek on Windows XP.

It's everything you ever wanted to know about HD partitions, and how to go about doing it.

[Propellorhead]

thanks! very useful!

[flexkill]

Damn good find Joe!!!

[joeMan]

I'm glad you guys dig it. There's a lot of other good stuff too on The Elder Geek on Windows XP. I ran across this particular guide while researching the topic of Page File being a dedicated size on a separate HD (which I already do) to improve performance. However, I did not realize some guys set a partition just for the Page File. I'm going to do that. I'm running the Promise in IDE mode now with just a single WD Raptor SATA 36GB HD for backup, so while I'm at it I'm going to throw in another WD Raptor SATA 36GB HD on the Promise and Raid 0 them. I realize that by doing so, I a actually increasing the odds of losing backup data since I am introducing a second HD into the equation of the backup drive. However, I'm not worried - I feel the odds of losing 2 HD's (one on the VIA RAID & one on the Promise RAID) at the same time are extremely slim. So it will be like this:

On VIA SATA RAID 0:
Boot files
C:\ OS
D:\ data
E:\ programs
No Page File

On Promise SATA RAID 0:
P:\ Page File set Custom 1000MB
H:\ Backup

I like the idea of separate partitions. Barring a HD failure, I will feel more secure knowing that if the OS takes a sh@#, I can just reinstall it instead of losing all the data too.

I do have a question though: If the OS takes a sh@#, and I have to reinstall it, won't I also have to reinstall most of the programs on the program partition too, since some programs add their own custom entries into the registry which exists on the OS partition?

If this is the case, then maybe I should just install the OS & programs on the same partition to begin with.

Any thoughts or advice there?

[flexkill]

If this is the case, then maybe I should just install the OS & programs on the same partition to begin with.

thats how i do it!!!

[Propellorhead]

Hi, I just installed xp on my new drive and partitioned it for OS, Programs, and Files. Now i understand I have to force all installations to go onto my programs drive, but there are programs on my OS drive that I wonder if i can or should move, for example: Media player, Messenger etc. Im assuming i would need to change the paths for them? Is there any way i can just move the program files folder to my programs drive?

Thanks.

[joeMan]

I'm not sure about moving program file folders Propellorhead. Also, I believe that Media Player (if your talking about Windows Media Player), as well as Messenger, are both part of XP. In other words I believe they are inherent in the OS. If that is true I would just leave those two where they are.

[Propellorhead]

Yeah I think I'm gonna have to leave the XP related programs where they are. Thing is, I partitioned my drive following the example on eldergeek, but he doesnt say much about how to actually work with the partitions. It just seems a pain in the butt to have to create a new folder everytime i install a new program and change its install directory.

Does anyone else have all their programs on a separate partition?

[glorfy]

The way I do it is small partition for windows (so it doesn't pinch all my HD space - 12GB), data partition, and progrom partition. If you want to make sure all programs install to the new programs partition you have to change a value in regedit Where e=Program directory, and using XP Home:
Run regedit
Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion

There will be a line 'Programfiles REG_SZ c:/Program Files

Highlight it and select 'modify', and change the 'c' to the new target partition, in this example 'e'.

If anyone with more knowedge wants to tell me I've done this incorrectly then good! Its working for me though! There is also a way to set your document to another partition as well, but I can't remember it!

[Propellorhead]

Cheers M8! Just what I needed!

[joeMan]

I moved the "My documents" folder to another partition on a separate HD. I believe the following will work for moving it to anywhere you want, including another partition on the same HD.

You do it by:

1 - Right clicking on the "My Documents" folder and choose "Properties". NOTE: Right click the "My Documents" IN THE START MENU, RIGHT SIDE - not the one in your "Local Disk (C: )" tree. If you can't right click on it you first need to make sure it is set to "Display as a link" in the Start Menu properties. It won't let you right click on it if it is set to "Display as a menu".

2 - When you click on Properties, on the window that appears, click "Move". Then another window will appear with Select a Destination in the header. Browse to the new location, hi-light it, then click "OK".

3 - Now it will ask you if you want to move all items within My Documents to the new location (I chose Yes, or OK) - then you wait for all your stuff to migrate over to the new location.

4 - Now you can change the "Display as a link" option back to "Display as a menu" if you want to.

[joeMan]

Here is what I am wondering. Imagine this scenerio:

You set the OS up on it's own partition, and then install all subsequent Programs on a separate partition. Now, the OS partition gets corrupted somehow, so bad that you can't recover it so you end up doing a fresh install on that same partition again. Now, after the fresh install is completed and you boot up into the newly installed OS - aren't there now a bunch of various files (i.e. registry entries) from the prior Program installations (which reside on a separate partition) that are now gone? I wonder about this because don't many Programs, during their install, have to manditorily create certain items that can exist only in certain locations within the OS?

Follow?

[Propellorhead]

ok, this might be a little bit off topic of this thread but, may have to do with my partitions again, I seem to be on a roll here. So i installed Spybot on my machine, but when I try to run it, it gives me the 'Please insert disk into drive: device\harddisk1\dr5' error, and I can only guess it has something to do with drive paths? I've heard of this error with qttask but not with spybot. Anyone else have this problem or know a solution?

[joeMan]

I Googled around a bit for you - didn' find anything.

However, have you gone into Administrative Tools> Event Viewer and look for any errors that coincide with your current problem? They might show up under the Application tree, or the System tree - check both locations. If you see an error, hi-light it and choose properties to see more specific info. This could give you clues and lead you to a solution.

[Urlyin]

Joeman ... If I remember in W2k you had an option to back up system files to the repair directory. I think in XP you can do the same thing. It copies the files from windows\system32\config which are the registry hives, i.e. software, system to the windows\repair directory. This is through Microsoft backup so I don't know what app you're using. It sounds like the long way but what you can do is boot off the XP cd or install the Recovery console so that when you go to repair, then from the recovery console you can copy the files from system32\config to windows\repair.

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.
4. A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears. The Windows Setup Dialog Box describes the Recovery Console option. To confirm the installation, click Yes.
5. Restart the computer. The next time that you start your computer, "Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" appears on the startup menu.

Backup the config folder
Backup the Program files \ install directory for programs
backup the folder documents and settings your username

I've done this several times before and hope I didn't miss anything but I do believe after doing a new install and restoring the files and folders above puts the system to what it was before.

I use Driveimage Pro now which creates a image on a scheduled date and time. Dumps it to my second raid as a image that can be mounted as a virtual drive or restored completely to the orginal ... comes in handy