I know when I load my OS onto formatted drive I can choose to partition it and put only my XP on one, for easy format and install later. Question is, after I format windows say, a year from now for a clean version, how do I specifically reinstall it to that particular partition so everything on the other still retains functionality? Is it a choice at the startup screen when the windows install disc is in? It's been a while since I had to load the original disc so I don't remember all the options, and I am building a system tomorrow and want to set it up right from the beginning. Thanks in advance.
I try to not have all of my data on one drive, but if this is your only option, you can allocate a specific amount to put the os on. Make sure to give yourself plenty of room to grow. Unless you have a utiliy like partition magic. Yes, you can reinstall a new os on that specific partition. But I can't guarantee that the new os you are installing can access the info on the other partition created by the former os. I haven't installed anything newer than xp, if you are concidering vista, I can safely say, I don't know. It might want the whole harddrive. Whatever you are concidering upgrading to be sure to check for installation issues. You can save yourself a major headache. CD.
I don't keep all data on one drive, I'm talking about XP only on one partition with all programs on the other. All data I need saved is on a totally different drive already. Sorry if I wasnt specific with my first post.
if its one hard drive in 2 partitions its still one hard drive cody means its good to have a 2ed hard drive and copy files to it also like a mirror of your non-OS partition... just extra protection when you go to install windows or any other OS it will show the current partitions in the mb size.. so you take the one that you want to format and install windows into and select it when going to install once that is done and your back in windows the other partiton is viewable under my computer. (unless you go back to a version of windows, linux, or mac that cant view ntfs tables)
Here's some more suggestions. One drive, two partitions: OS goes to C, second partition will be D. After initial setup, your pagefile (virtual memory) will be on C. Leave it there. Format D once Windows has been installed to C, and your updates to all system OS files/drivers..etc, have been done. Then, from then on...if you ever need to reinstall Windows to the primary partition (C), just select it from the setup screen..it will be the first on the list. Two drives: Make sure the primary drive (Windows will be installed to) has a partition. Otherwise, setup will brand C to the first partition no matter what drive it's on...or partition. Meaning, if your primary drive has two partitions, leave them both active, and if you need/want to delete one, do so in Windows setup. If you are replacing a drive for the primary position and it doesn't have a partition on it, use the disk that came with the drive before using Windows setup. So, two drives no partitions, partition your primary drive first. Then the second. Otherwise, your primary drive will be anything but C.
