Do you guys recommend installing Windows XP on it's own partition?

[Rick67]

I've heard several people say they have XP installed on its own partition and everything else installed on another. Is this actually recommended and why? If it is, how do I go about doing this?

 

[Woodchuck2000]

It's useful if you intend to reinstall regularly - you can then just wipe the OS partition and keep all you data.
Otherwise, there are no real advantages of doing so. It's not recommended practice but it can be handy.

 

[PCMarine]

I do it all the time! If you have just one big C drive, when you install/delete/etc. programs on it, it fragments your system files up too. Therefore keeping the system files on their own partition, they arn't fragmented at all and are kept consistant.

I dont know if this is true, but if you place your system files on a seperate partition that overall your system is faster (slightly?) because the drive arm doesnt have to jump around the disk surface.

 

[ProviaFan]

In Linux systems, it is sometimes recommended (though not usually needed) to have 7 or more partitions (kernel, config files, logs, programs, data, swap, root). I generally recommend only 2 for the average Windows system. I prefer to have the OS and programs on one partition, and the data on another. The reason for having the OS and programs on the same partition is that when you reinstall a Windows OS, it wipes the registry, so 99% of your programs won't work anymore anyway, and you'll end up having to reinstall them, even if they were on a separate partition that was not reformatted when you reinstalled the OS. Now, if the swap file can be put on a separate drive (preferrably a high-RPM one), that is quite beneficial, but having the swap file segregated to a separate partition on the same drive as your OS doesn't gain any noticable speed (when compared to a system with the OS and swap file on the same partition - a partition that is regularly defragmented).

 

[woodie1]

I keep my OS on a separate partition. That way if I need to reinstall or want to test something I don't hose up the rest of my data. It takes me ten minutes to restore my OS with no fear of lost data.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: woodie1
I keep my OS on a separate partition. That way if I need to reinstall or want to test something I don't hose up the rest of my data. It takes me ten minutes to restore my OS with no fear of lost data.

I do that but go overboard with actual drives


18GB for OS


40GB to 120GB for DATA