Completely neglected learning about Harddrives...

[Putter]

Ok, so I've spent ages researching to finally build my computer. It's running now, all fans seem good, CPU keeping a fairly solid temperature, hard drive and opticals seem to be working, all that. But in all my research I completely forgot to learn anything about setting up a harddrive. It's my first time building, so I'm essentially completely stumped.

Anyways, I got out of BIOS, put in the WinXP CD, and now it says "Unpartitioned space"-305000 (something around there). It's an OEM drive so it didn't come with any manuals or software.

Now, I looked at another thread and it says I should do a full format first. Why, and how do I do that?

Second, how do I set up partitions from this point, and what's the best strategy for doing so? Do I want to make like, 2 big partitions, or what? I also heard setting Windows to it's own partition, and everything else to another one is good. Whatever, I'm completely lost.

Also what's the difference in a quick and a full format, and how do you execute each?

Thanks :).

Also, is this a good guide?
Build Your Own PC
Only thing it doesn't cover is a suggestion of what I should do. (What sized I should use etc.)

 

[RHochstenbach]

Look here. I would recommend to make each partition not larger than 100 GB. If you setup the partitions you can only use full format (take NTFS). Quick format is useful if you just want to clean an existing partition. For more information about the formatting options, look here.

 

[donkey42]

Now, I looked at another thread and it says I should do a full format first. Why, and how do I do that?

yeah, XP (i think) should ask if you want to format NTFS or FAT32 always choose NTFS then (i think) XP should want to reboot after creating the partitions

Second, how do I set up partitions from this point, and what's the best strategy for doing so?

you can either set up the partitions before starting the install of XP or let XP setup the HDD[ot]which in my opinion is not a good idea[/ot]

Do I want to make like, 2 big partitions, or what? I also heard setting Windows to it's own partition, and everything else to another one is good. Whatever, I'm completely lost.

yes, it is better because if XP goes tits up (cos XP never does anything wrong, yeah right) you can clean reinstall XP without destroying your all important data, all you have do do is remount your partitions

Also what's the difference in a quick and a full format, and how do you execute each?

well a quick format doesn't actually delete anything, restores the HDD to the way it was after the last full format, it just hides the data & allows anything to overwrite what you can't see, a full format actually wipes the data from the disk and starts with a fresh new format, so with a quick format there is a possibility that problems can be transfered from an old XP install to a new XP install (unless you do a quick format)

is this a good guide?

yeah, it ok, but like you say it misses out a lot of quite important stuff

BTW: for XP i would say you probably needed a partition size of about 10 Gb, and all other data on separate partitions

• a partition for installed software (with a bit of registry tweaking, move C:\Program Files to D:\Programs
• a partition for user data
• a partition for the swapfile (size = twice the size of you RAM)
• and partitions for videos, email, downloads etc. etc.

 

[Putter]

Thanks for the help. One last question. If, just say I make 3 100gbish partitions. How do I choose where something is installed when installing it, like, which partition? And can you access files from all the different partitions at all times, like is it just like a separate "Local Disk" in my computer or something?

 

[donkey42]

How do I choose where something is installed

make 1 100Gb, NTFS partition when you install XP, then create the other 2 NTFS partitions you change the install locations by using TweakUI or choose the directory when you install software

And can you access files from all the different partitions at all times, like is it just like a separate "Local Disk" in my computer or something?

exactly

 

[Addis]

well a quick format doesn't actually delete anything, restores the HDD to the way it was after the last full format, it just hides the data & allows anything to overwrite what you can't see, a full format actually wipes the data from the disk and starts with a fresh new format, so with a quick format there is a possibility that problems can be transfered from an old XP install to a new XP install (unless you do a quick format)

Just to clear this up, since it's been mentioned in a few threads: Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a "clean" installation of Windows XP

Quick format doesn't run a chkdsk before removing data. Both types of format remove data.