First Time WinXP Install: Suggestions?

[MicMor]

I have built a new workstation with a P4T533 M/B, 512MB Samsung Rimm4200 RAM, a P4 2.53Ghz CPU, a WD 120GB SE hard drive and an nVidia Quadro2 Pro graphics card. I am about to do my first ever Windows XP (Pro) installation. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips (based on experience) that might be of use?

After reading several threads here, I am thinking of setting up four partitions on my hard drive in this manner - C: ~9GB (OS & Utilities), D: ~1GB (Paging File Space), E: ~25GB (Apps) and F: ~80GB (Data). My hard drive shows about 114GB after installation. Any suggestions here?

Thanks in advance.

[swampler]

If you have a promise or raid controller, you need to have the controller drivers on a floppy. Be prepared to press F6 when told to (at the bottom of screen during loading of setup program) to alert XP to the fact that you need to load the drivers.

For drive partitions, I would probably tend to put my OS and apps on the same drive. If you ever have to reinstall the OS, you'll have to reinstall the apps anyway.

With 512MB RAM, you'll only need about 520MB of paging space. Probably good to have more HD space than that in case you need more.

[5150]

Not so much a partition suggestion but an OS suggestion: become familiar with XP's services and turn-off i.e. disable as many as you can 1. to free-up memory/load and 2. to gain a little more user-control over your XP PC.

Some good info on this here:
http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Well-worth familiarising yourself with this IMHO.

[MicMor]

Anyone have more thoughts on partitioning?

[SupDawg]

Originally posted by MicMor
Anyone have more thoughts on partitioning?

Looks good the way that you say you want to partition it. No problems at all. If you are a tweaker, I would highly reccomend www.tweakxp.com I could not use XP the "base" style. It is too annoying. What are you waiting for? Just Do it

[starshipwarrior]

I just build the same system (P4T533/2.5/512 RDRAM -4200 rimms)
I use an adaptec 39160 with 4 SCSI drives -
since we have raid down the road I hope to add two 80s or 120s (when price drops LOL)

When you say workstation - what are you using it for ?
BREAKDOWN -
HD 1
C:-9gb-xp pro
D: -9gb - xp home
HD 2 -
e: 768 MB - paging file for xps
f: - 3 GB - utilities
g- 13gb - Apps
HD 3
H: - 18.2 gb - this drive is used to store video and music files and as a working drive for photoshop and priemer - I may break it down into two 9gb if either of the above programs give me any grif (which photo has done in the past

)My machine is going to be a video /photo editing - HTPC - gaming machine -

I also plan to dual boot with XP PRO (as primary - xp home as secondary)

i prefer to have the OS alone on a 9gb partiiton alone with the pagefile - but I also have another HD that hold a 768 MB partition for a second pagefile - for speed mostly

One of the reasons for the dual OS is that I install and remove so many games that i dont want to bloot the XP PRO - which is a working OS

I also prefer to have all my utilities and programs in there own partition .
the only thing i will install on the OS partition are things that have no workaround

I also plan on using a RAM DISK utility that uses the system RAM as a HD - this is for a few experiments I use

and last I disagree with anyone that says you have to reinstall your apps after you reinstall your OS

IF you are like most people here your Os is by itself - but to get access to your app all you really have to do is create a shortcut to them on your desktop in a folder if you want a clear desktop - as long as the progam has all its legs (its working folders) it will work - I have to date not found any program that refused to work this way


MY TWO CENTS

[bajabenedik]

I have my system setup so that I can easily reimage my OS drive (C if it ever becomes corrupted without having to reinstall all programs and preferences.

I have three HD's in my system. 2 WD 120GB in a RAID 0 striped array and 1 Maxtor 60GB drive. I partitioned the 60GB with a 10GB partition for my operating system (C: drive) and the remaining 50GB I use for backups and ghost images (E: drive). My 2 120GB drives is one big RAID 0 partition (240GBs which is the D: drive) that I use for my Program Files and data/multimedia files.

I first installed XP on my 10GB partition and then installed every single application that I use on a regular basis into a Program Files folder on my D: drive. I moved the My Documents folder to the D: drive and then customized each program to fit the way I use them and also to point to their appropriate data files (such as Eudora's mailboxes, etc). I then configured XP with any tweaks that I normally apply to the OS. After all this, I then created automated repeating backup jobs using Microsoft's built-in backup utility to backup my data files on the D: drive to my E: drive. After eveything is configured just the way I like it, I then use Norton Ghost to image my C: drive (using Partition to Image option) to my E: drive. If my C: drive ever becomes corrupted or it becomes unstable after installing tons of other software, I just boot off my Norton Ghost floppy and restore my original C: drive image back to the C: drive. Reboot and everything is back to normal just the way I like it! You don't have to worry about your data files getting clobbered this way since they are on a different drive altogether.

I know this all sounds confusing but I have found this to be the best setup from recovering from a corrupted OS or just want to start fresh again without having to spend all day reinstalling all your programs and then customizing them.

Hope this gives you some ideas on how to proceed with your XP installation. Good luck!

[SupDawg]

Originally posted by bajabenedik
I have my system setup so that I can easily reimage my OS drive (C if it ever becomes corrupted without having to reinstall all programs and preferences.

I have three HD's in my system. 2 WD 120GB in a RAID 0 striped array and 1 Maxtor 60GB drive. I partitioned the 60GB with a 10GB partition for my operating system (C: drive) and the remaining 50GB I use for backups and ghost images (E: drive). My 2 120GB drives is one big RAID 0 partition (240GBs which is the D: drive) that I use for my Program Files and data/multimedia files.

I first installed XP on my 10GB partition and then installed every single application that I use on a regular basis into a Program Files folder on my D: drive. I moved the My Documents folder to the D: drive and then customized each program to fit the way I use them and also to point to their appropriate data files (such as Eudora's mailboxes, etc). I then configured XP with any tweaks that I normally apply to the OS. After all this, I then created automated repeating backup jobs using Microsoft's built-in backup utility to backup my data files on the D: drive to my E: drive. After eveything is configured just the way I like it, I then use Norton Ghost to image my C: drive (using Partition to Image option) to my E: drive. If my C: drive ever becomes corrupted or it becomes unstable after installing tons of other software, I just boot off my Norton Ghost floppy and restore my original C: drive image back to the C: drive. Reboot and everything is back to normal just the way I like it! You don't have to worry about your data files getting clobbered this way since they are on a different drive altogether.

I know this all sounds confusing but I have found this to be the best setup from recovering from a corrupted OS or just want to start fresh again without having to spend all day reinstalling all your programs and then customizing them.

Hope this gives you some ideas on how to proceed with your XP installation. Good luck!

I second that set up. Nice instructions. since I don't have a second hard drive, I have partitioned my C: drive into 3. I use a 25 to store my images, of my O/s with tweaks, and all apps I use regularly. Image it. I have one image on 3 cds, and two on my F:\drive.