Partitioning Hard Drive

Posted: 03-07-2006, 02:49 AM
If Vista does come public, I intend on downloading it. My question is,
should I partition my hard drive and dual-boot XP Home SP2 and Vista? (I
would assume this would be a good idea.) My question is, how should I go
about partitioning my hard drive? I have never done a dual-boot before or
partitioned a hard drive. Right now, my primary hard drive is a Western
Digital 80GB IDE 2MB cache hard drive (Formatted to 74.52GB) whole drive is
one partition, using XP. I'm currently utilizing 14.1GB on this drive.
Then, I have a second hard drive. It's a Western Digital 120GB IDE 8MB
cache hard drive. (Formatted to 111.78GB) It is also one entire partition,
using it for storage of personal files like pictures, music, and so on. I'm
using close to 10GB in it.

If I were to go about partitioning my 80 gig hard drive, how large should I
make the partition for XP and how large should I make the partition for
Vista? Should I go 40 gigs each and split it exactly in half? Can I make
the partitions when I'm going to reinstall XP?

Note: I know from reading in this newsgroup that I should install XP before
installing Vista when doing a dual-boot. I also heard that I should put XP
in the first partition and Vista in the second.

Thanks.


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Responses to "Partitioning Hard Drive"

Andre Da Costa [Extended64]
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 03-07-2006, 03:23 AM
My question is, should I partition my hard drive and dual-boot XP Home SP2
and Vista? (I would assume this would be a good idea.)
>Its definitely recommended and the correct way to install Windows Vista
>right now, I don't think Vista currently supports installing on a RAW disk,
>also installing on a logical partition keeps your existing data protected
>if something goes wrong, and I suspect you will be still using Windows XP,
>right?
My question is, how should I go about partitioning my hard drive?
>For partitioning, I used Partition Magic, thats all I know, maybe someone
>can make some additional suggestion on partitioning tools. You can also use
>Windows XP setup to create a partition in the unpartitioned space.
If I were to go about partitioning my 80 gig hard drive, how large should I
make the partition for XP and how large should I make the partition for
Vista?
>I notice since build 5112, the space requirements for Windows Vista keeps
>growing. The latest build 5308 uses a total 8GBs, so to be safe, I
>recommend you install Vista 5308 or the next CTP on nothing less than
>30GBs, the more the better, so your 40GBs sounds like a great way to go.
Can I make the partitions when I'm going to reinstall XP?
>Windows XP setup should allow you to create a partition in the
>unpartitioned space, so no problems there.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connect | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta


I you already know and mentioned, install the older version of Windows first
(in this case XP) then Windows Vista.
"Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
news:udExBHZQGHA.6008@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> If Vista does come public, I intend on downloading it. My question is,
> should I partition my hard drive and dual-boot XP Home SP2 and Vista? (I
> would assume this would be a good idea.) My question is, how should I go
> about partitioning my hard drive? I have never done a dual-boot before or
> partitioned a hard drive. Right now, my primary hard drive is a Western
> Digital 80GB IDE 2MB cache hard drive (Formatted to 74.52GB) whole drive
> is one partition, using XP. I'm currently utilizing 14.1GB on this drive.
> Then, I have a second hard drive. It's a Western Digital 120GB IDE 8MB
> cache hard drive. (Formatted to 111.78GB) It is also one entire
> partition, using it for storage of personal files like pictures, music,
> and so on. I'm using close to 10GB in it.
>
> If I were to go about partitioning my 80 gig hard drive, how large should
> I make the partition for XP and how large should I make the partition for
> Vista? Should I go 40 gigs each and split it exactly in half? Can I make
> the partitions when I'm going to reinstall XP?
>
> Note: I know from reading in this newsgroup that I should install XP
> before installing Vista when doing a dual-boot. I also heard that I
> should put XP in the first partition and Vista in the second.
>
> Thanks.
>

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Pierre Szwarc
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 03-07-2006, 08:46 AM
If you wish to repartition your disk without losing data, you have a choice
of Symantec's Partition Magic, Acronis's Disk Director Suite, V
Communication's Partition Expert, BootIt NG, and a few others. None of the
free partition managers can resize NTFS partitions, unfortunately. And of
course, Microsoft's partitioning software cannot resize partitions
dynamically at all. But yes, you can use XP's partitioning utility to
(re)create your partitions at installation time. However, in this case only
the system partition will be formatted. You will need to format the other(s)
from within Windows.
--
Pierre Szwarc
Paris, France
PGP key ID 0x75B5779B
------------------------------------------------
Multitasking: Reading in the bathroom !
------------------------------------------------

"Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
udExBHZQGHA.6008@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
| If Vista does come public, I intend on downloading it. My question is,
| should I partition my hard drive and dual-boot XP Home SP2 and Vista? (I
| would assume this would be a good idea.) My question is, how should I go
| about partitioning my hard drive? I have never done a dual-boot before or
| partitioned a hard drive. Right now, my primary hard drive is a Western
| Digital 80GB IDE 2MB cache hard drive (Formatted to 74.52GB) whole drive
is
| one partition, using XP. I'm currently utilizing 14.1GB on this drive.
| Then, I have a second hard drive. It's a Western Digital 120GB IDE 8MB
| cache hard drive. (Formatted to 111.78GB) It is also one entire
partition,
| using it for storage of personal files like pictures, music, and so on.
I'm
| using close to 10GB in it.
|
| If I were to go about partitioning my 80 gig hard drive, how large should
I
| make the partition for XP and how large should I make the partition for
| Vista? Should I go 40 gigs each and split it exactly in half? Can I make
| the partitions when I'm going to reinstall XP?
|
| Note: I know from reading in this newsgroup that I should install XP
before
| installing Vista when doing a dual-boot. I also heard that I should put
XP
| in the first partition and Vista in the second.
|
| Thanks.
|
|


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DJ TECH
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Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-19-2006, 08:13 PM
Is it possible to partition my 60gb hard drive into two partitions so I can
run Windows Vista and XP? If so, what freeware program can I use? If I
partition my hard drive in two, can I simply go back to having the full hard
drive for XP when beta is over?
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Colin Barnhorst
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-19-2006, 08:22 PM
A 60 GB hard drive may not be large enough. It depends on what you are
running under XP. The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
recommended.

"DJ TECH" <DJTECH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:316FC1FE-0E6C-417E-BCEC-7786F327D5CB@microsoft.com...
> Is it possible to partition my 60gb hard drive into two partitions so I
> can
> run Windows Vista and XP? If so, what freeware program can I use? If I
> partition my hard drive in two, can I simply go back to having the full
> hard
> drive for XP when beta is over?

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Travis King
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-19-2006, 08:47 PM
I have my basic software set installed on Vista. (The software that I use
the most frequently) and I'm using 15GB. If you're using less than 15-20GB
currently for XP, you'll probably be okay to make two 30GB partitions. If
you're using more than that, it might get risky. If you're using less than
10GB on XP, go ahead and make a 20GB partition for XP and a 40GB partition
for Vista. Another important note though is to backup all your data before
making partitions because unless you use special 3rd party partitioning
software, all data on the hard drive will be erased. Even if you use 3rd
party software that will not erase your data, you'll still be better off by
backing up your files. I would recommend disabling system restore on
computers with smaller hard drives because system restore will eat a lot of
hard disk space on Vista - more so than XP. You should be able to bring
your partitions back together later, but once again, you'll lose your data
on both partitions.

Here's what I have installed on Vista:
Sierra PrintArtist 8.0
Adobe Photoshop 5.5
Nero 5.5
Avast! AntiVirus 4.7
Ares 1.9
ATI Catalyst Control Center
Audacity
Creative Drivers
DAZ Bryce 5.5
DEX Phone Book
Gaim
HP PhotoSmart Photo Printing Software (I like the software but not their
printer. I'm using a Canon i560)
iTunes
Lavasoft Adaware SE Personal 1.06
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus
Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP (Most of it works on Vista)
Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 1
MumboJumbo games - Super Collapse, Super Glinx, and Super Nisqually
Paint.NET
Quake III Arena
QuickTime
Rio Music Manager

"Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(remove)@msn.com> wrote in message
news:O2JIki2qGHA.3920@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>A 60 GB hard drive may not be large enough. It depends on what you are
>running under XP. The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
>recommended.
>
> "DJ TECH" <DJTECH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:316FC1FE-0E6C-417E-BCEC-7786F327D5CB@microsoft.com...
>> Is it possible to partition my 60gb hard drive into two partitions so I
>> can
>> run Windows Vista and XP? If so, what freeware program can I use? If I
>> partition my hard drive in two, can I simply go back to having the full
>> hard
>> drive for XP when beta is over?
>
>
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Chris Game
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-19-2006, 09:14 PM
On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:22:05 -0600, Colin Barnhorst wrote:
> The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
> recommended.
By whom?

--
Chris Game
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Colin Barnhorst
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-19-2006, 09:52 PM
By Microsoft.

From:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvist...y/capable.mspx

a.. 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.

"Chris Game" <chrisgame@example.net> wrote in message
news:1aox28gj5yjq2$.qm1mucccerbv$.dlg@40tude.net.. .
> On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:22:05 -0600, Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>
>> The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
>> recommended.
>
> By whom?
>
> --
> Chris Game

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DJ TECH
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-19-2006, 11:48 PM
I will use very little on XP, i will use Vista as my main. When I create two
partitions I will delete Virtual PC (which is taking a lot of space). I have
an external 160gb hard drive, where i have everything i need. I used to
frequently re-install XP, and all my files were just there. I really need
Nero, so i thought of maybe partitioning. What freeware program can I use to
partition?

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
> A 60 GB hard drive may not be large enough. It depends on what you are
> running under XP. The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
> recommended.
>
> "DJ TECH" <DJTECH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:316FC1FE-0E6C-417E-BCEC-7786F327D5CB@microsoft.com...
> > Is it possible to partition my 60gb hard drive into two partitions so I
> > can
> > run Windows Vista and XP? If so, what freeware program can I use? If I
> > partition my hard drive in two, can I simply go back to having the full
> > hard
> > drive for XP when beta is over?
>
>
>
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bob
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Re: Partitioning Hard Drive
Posted: 07-20-2006, 01:19 AM
I would buy another hard drive you can get one for $50 to $100 and it give
you some needed room.

bob

"DJ TECH" wrote:
> I will use very little on XP, i will use Vista as my main. When I create two
> partitions I will delete Virtual PC (which is taking a lot of space). I have
> an external 160gb hard drive, where i have everything i need. I used to
> frequently re-install XP, and all my files were just there. I really need
> Nero, so i thought of maybe partitioning. What freeware program can I use to
> partition?
>
> "Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
>
> > A 60 GB hard drive may not be large enough. It depends on what you are
> > running under XP. The rock-bottom is 15GB to deploy Vista. 40GB is
> > recommended.
> >
> > "DJ TECH" <DJTECH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:316FC1FE-0E6C-417E-BCEC-7786F327D5CB@microsoft.com...
> > > Is it possible to partition my 60gb hard drive into two partitions so I
> > > can
> > > run Windows Vista and XP? If so, what freeware program can I use? If I
> > > partition my hard drive in two, can I simply go back to having the full
> > > hard
> > > drive for XP when beta is over?
> >
> >
> >
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