Best/Ideal HD partitioning for a new WinXP Pro installation

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by retroborg, Oct 11, 2008.

  1. retroborg

    retroborg Regular member

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2006
    Messages:
    155
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    I have always wondered what really gives out the best system performance when it comes to HD partitioning.
    I have 4 Hard Disks in my rig?:

    1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM
    1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM
    512GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM
    512GB 16MB Cache 7200RPM

    2 x Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 1-TB Hard Drive (32MB Cache)
    http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...0f43110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&reqPage=Model

    1 x Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 500-GB Hard (16MB Cache)
    Drivehttp://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=b9df99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

    1 x Barracuda 7200.9 SATA 500-GB Hard Drive (16 MB Cache)
    http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=785e99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD


    I’m going to do a fresh WinXP Pro installation and I was thinking of dividing the 1TB HD to 3 partitions:
    C: WinXP Pro (20GB), Linux (15GB) (Dual Boot)
    D: Games installation / execution (100GB)
    E: Backup / Downloads (880GB)

    And use the rest 3 HD as they are (Unpartitioned)
    1TB, 512GB & 512GB for Backup / Downloads.

    Or should I use the entire 1TB HD for WinXP, the 2nd HD 512GB for games installation, and the rest: 1TB & 512GB for Linux & Backup / Downloads.

    Any opinions / suggestions will be highly appreciated.
    Thanks in advance.
     
  2. krj15489

    krj15489 Active member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2007
    Messages:
    1,606
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    66
    this is what i would do.

    use 1 500gb drive for xp and linux boot.
    use the 2nd 500gb for xp program files and linux /home and swap partition.
    then i would use the 2 1tb drives for everything else.

    you can also get better performance if you move the page file and swap partition off of the boot drive.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886
     

Share This Page