I've read the article on partition strategy, and decided that

it would be a good idea to install WinXP to a disk other than

disk C. So, I installed it on disk D.


But my problem is that although I manage to install some

programs on my storage disk F by redirecting,

I cannot do this for every programs (like Open Office and Microsoft Word)

because some programs automatically save on the disk OS

is installed.


Question:
1. How can I change the computer to save on the disk that OS is not installed as a default?

2. I'm only using this computer (btw, it's a laptop) for internet surfing, school stuff, and little bit of video editing (I plan on learning this).

I don't play computer games, and have about 7 gb worth of songs.

What is the best partitioning strategy for 70 gb Laptop with 1 TB external hard drive?

I just need it to be faaasssttt...!


I know it's long, but as you can tell, I'm a computer noob

and am still amazed that the hard drives can actually be

divided...!!! (dun dun DUN!).


anyways, plzzzz answerr.

thank you for finish reading.
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<Brian>
Is there an OS in the C: drive?
A: No, there is nothing in the C drive because I thought it would be unsafe to install anything in C: drive.

How large is each partition?
A:

disk C (NTFS)[some Dos related sutff...I forgot]          : 0/6.83 gb
disk D (NTFS)[WinXP]                                              :5.74 gb /6.83 gb
disk E (NTFS)[New OS, like Linux]                             :0/ 4.67 gb
disk F (NTFS)[Storage, like apps., music, and such]      : 8 gb / 45.9 gb
disk G (NTFS)[originally for back up, but don't need it anymore...]                              :0/ 10 gb

Is the F: drive on your external HD?
A: No. I partitioned my internal HD into disk C,D,E,F,and G. The external  HD is only used as a back up for now.

Do you have backup imaging software?
A: No.

Do you have partitioning software?
A: Yes, I have EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition (Freeware).

@ sddawgggg

I'm a little confused. You have a laptop with a single internal HD? The HD has two partitions? C: and D: ?
What brand is the laptop?

I gather you installed WinXP to the D: partition.

Is there an OS in the C: drive? What is in the C: drive.
How large is each partition?
How much Free Space is in each partition?
Is the F: drive on your external HD?
How much Free Space is in the F: drive?

Do you have backup imaging software?
Do you have partitioning software?

<Brian>
What brand is the laptop?
A: Averatec

Is there an OS in the C: drive?
A: No, there is nothing in the C drive because I thought it would be unsafe to install anything in C: drive.

How large is each partition?
A:

disk C (NTFS)[some Dos related sutff...I forgot]          : 0/6.83 gb
disk D (NTFS)[WinXP]                                              :5.74 gb /6.83 gb
disk E (NTFS)[New OS, like Linux]                             :0/ 4.67 gb
disk F (NTFS)[Storage, like apps., music, and such]      : 8 gb / 45.9 gb
disk G (NTFS)[originally for back up, but don't need it anymore...]                              :0/ 10 gb

Is the F: drive on your external HD?
A: No. I partitioned my internal HD into disk C,D,E,F,and G. The external  HD is only used as a back up for now.

Do you have backup imaging software?
A: No.

Do you have partitioning software?
A: Yes, I have EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition (Freeware).

@ sddawgggg

Thanks. You answered all questions which is amazing in a forum.

OK. First the issue of installing an OS to the D: partition. I know you got the idea from the Rad guide but it is something that I no longer do. Even though your WinXP is in the D: drive, the WinXP booting files are in the C: drive. So you need to create image backups of both partitions if you want to restore your system in the event of a HD failure. Here is a thread on the issue...

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1145478054

I agree with Dan Goodell's summary, "I recommend always installing Windows on C:, and see no point in trying to change the installation directory."

If it was my computer I'd start again. You can't fix it by changing drive letters. I won't have an OS that isn't seen as C: drive.

Regarding partitions. I use a lot less than I did a few years ago. Basically two. One for the OS and another for data. If I'm multi-booting there will be extra partitions for the other OS but they share the same data partition.

Backup imaging software is one of the most useful applications that you can acquire. If the HD fails, you are covered. If your OS is trashed by a virus, you are covered. If your OS won't boot because of a bad software install, you are covered.

sddawgggg wrote on Aug 26^th, 2010 at 11:25pm:

1. How can I change the computer to save on the disk that OS is not installed as a default?

In the case of the programs you mentioned (like OpenOffice,) you really can't, nor do you really need to.  HD's are big enough these days its easy to create a large enough partition that your documents fit on it easily.


sddawgggg wrote on Aug 26^th, 2010 at 11:25pm:

it would be a good idea to install WinXP to a disk other than disk C.

As Brian mentioned, this is considered somewhat dated advice by many of us.  The reasons for doing it (such as tricking malware to install on the wrong drive) no longer apply (since malware has gotten smarter.)


sddawgggg wrote on Aug 26^th, 2010 at 11:25pm:

What is the best partitioning strategy for 70 gb Laptop with 1 TB external hard drive?

People always ask this type of question, and the answer is always the same - it depends on your specific data.  Group your data into partitions that need to be backed up in the same way.  For example, if you have a bunch of movies and songs that you keep on the drive to watch/listen to but rarely edit, you'll want to be able to exclude them from your backups if they haven't changed.  At the same time, you'll want frequent back-ups of your OS.  Putting them on different partitions can make it easier to back-up one and not the other.

Other than that, there isn't much you can do with your HD partitions to make your computer faster.  We've had long threads about that here which you are welcome to search for, and the wisdom from the wise was that it makes little difference in speed how you partition a drive.  The only advice I can give is to put data you use frequently on the internal drive since it will be significantly faster than your external drive.


sddawgggg wrote on Aug 26^th, 2010 at 11:25pm:

Do you have backup imaging software? A: No.

Like Brian said, it is smart to have one.  You'll never appreciate your backups until your computer dies and you don't have a recent backup.

Some members of this forum go as far as recommending both a HD imaging solution like Ghost (to recovery from whole computer failures) and a file backup solution.  File backups can back up individual files on a frequent or continuous basis rather than imaging an entire drive.  You'd configure it to back up only files that change frequently, like your documents and pictures.  That way, if a single file (Word document, etc) gets deleted or corrupted, you'll have a recent backup you can restore without restoring the entire HD image.

wow...

thanks guys :)

so i guess i have to be constantly updated with new info in this kind of field.

Brian wrote on Aug 27^th, 2010 at 4:01pm:

I know you got the idea from the Rad guide but it is something that I no longer do.

This comes up often and the consensus seems to be that it no longer makes much sense to fight with different drives.  As Brian said, we mostly all agree on just using the default.


sddawgggg wrote on Aug 26^th, 2010 at 11:25pm:

What is the best partitioning strategy for 70 gb Laptop with 1 TB external hard drive?

One single partition on the internal drive.  70GB is too small to worry about cutting up too much, and the benefits are small with that size drive.

For the external drive, you may want 1 or two partitions, depending on how you plan to image and back it up.