Member Avatar for wbhambone

if i have a drive with two partitions, the first being where i installed win2000, and the second for data - do i install all apps in partition 1 or 2 or does it matter?

what are the benefits of each?

thanks

Brad

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Short answer for : on a single physical drive choose the layout that makes recovery and everyday use easiest for you. Partitions are mainly about organization and backup safety, not raw speed. For a 40 GB disk a practical starting point is to give the system (OS + programs) about 20–25 GB and put data (documents, music, images, archives, backups) on the remainder — adjust upward for lots of games or large editors.

Why that split? Installers do more than copy files: they write registry entries, register COM components, install services and drivers, and create per-user settings. As noticed, simply leaving program files on a separate partition won’t make them usable after you reinstall Windows because those "hooks" live in the system. To reduce reinstall pain, keep user folders and large data sets on D:, use custom install options to put bulky data (media libraries, game data) on D:, or choose portable apps where practical.

About the pagefile: moving it to a different partition on the same physical disk will not give a meaningful I/O gain. For real benefit put the pagefile on a separate physical drive. Keep the pagefile enabled (some software and crash-dumps rely on it); if you want full memory crash dumps the pagefile must be at least the size of installed RAM.

Practical backup workflow: image the system partition (so you can restore a working OS+apps quickly) and do regular file-level backups of the data partition to an external drive. Store snapshots off the same physical disk and test a restore before you rely on it. Combining a sensible C:/D: split with an imaging routine gives the fastest recovery and the cleanest day-to-day setup.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

on the first partition is my choice ,because when you load the program on the second partition it still hase to load system files ,and the system folder will be on the first partition ,thus windows will ahve to work to find the file ,kepping the second for data and video or music .

Member Avatar for wbhambone

thanks for the quick reply. my drive is 40 gb. how large would you make the 2 partitions if i used the first for win2000 and apps and the second for data.

thanks.

Brad

Member Avatar for caperjack

that depends on how many program you plan on installing and how much stuff you think you migh be saving .i have mine 50/50

Member Avatar for wbhambone

i thought that's what you would say...i was just wondering if there was a magic formula to help determine the size.:)

thanks for the help.

brad

Member Avatar for Lurch

Iused to install my applications on the second partition or second drive. I thought I would save time after a system crash...just re-install Windows, and I would be good to go. I have found that won't work as when Windows is reloaded, it will be missing all the hooks to the applications, so I would have to re-install the applications anyway. Now I just use my second partion and second harddrive for data backup and images of the c-drive.

Member Avatar for crunchie

I read somewhere that it is good to put the swap file on the partition that didn't have the OS on. Is this right, & how does one do it?

Member Avatar for Jra2003

not to sure if it matters if its on the same HD but if its on a different HD then it might be a bit faster since the OS and pagefile are both usingthe harddrive.

If you have 512 or more of ram i suggest you turn the page file off since its a waste of HD space.

But if you want to modify the page file, Like to move it to a new HD
then do this:
1. open system properties(fastest way: windows key+pause/break key at same time):
2. Click the advanced tab
3. under performance click settings
4. click avancaded tab of the performance options window
5. under virtual memory click change

that will give one all the settings for the page file

Member Avatar for caperjack

I never ever noticed the difference when i did that or when i turned it off alltogether and use my ram .

Member Avatar for crunchie

Thanx. Mine doesn't have an advanced setting. W2KPro.

Member Avatar for Jra2003

caperjack: how much RAM do you have? As I said, if you already have a lot of physical ram, then the page file isn't needed as it just wastes HD space.

Member Avatar for antioed

Windows 2000: Right click My Computer --> Properties --> Advanced --> Performance Options -->Change

Notes from MS:

Member Avatar for caperjack

caperjack: how much RAM do you have? As I said, if you already have a lot of physical ram, then the page file isn't needed as it just wastes HD space.

896meg ,its not about harddrive space it's about windows being able to axcess quicker what it keeps in the swap/page file.quicker if it in ram than if it on the hdd

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