Installing HDD on a new rig

[phase1]

I'm building a new rig, I want to know how I set up the HDD (I got 40gb maxtor 7200rpm).
when the system is new, I don't even have DOS, right (or wrong...)?
so where do I set up my new HDD, and how do I do the partitions?
are there any limitations for partitions under xp? And finally, how many partitions do you recommand?
Thanks.

 

[4824guy]

Microsoft has the OS installation and HD setup in .

Basically you shoyuld set up the HD jumpers as master or slave, depending on your rig. Then you use the startup disk floppy or OS installation floppy, and have the mobo bios setup for booting up from floppy as the first choice. Then use the fdisk dos command to set up partitions as you want them. After the HD is set up, you can install your OS.

You should probably read and print out the MS article id Q221829, it would make it easier for you to follow.

 

[phase1]

Roger that.
Now, is there a "good" number of partitions, and in which size each (40gb HD)?
One more, can I set the bios to first boot from the cd-rom, and use installation cd right away (quicker...)?

 

[jcmkk]

If you want to partition your drive off, then you will have to use FDisk first. If you just want one big partition, then you can just pop the windows disk in and it will ask you to format. Go with NTFS unless you have a specific reason not to. I usually partition about 5GB off for the OS, and use the rest for Games. You can decide, although you probably wont see a performance difference any way you do it. I just like to be organized and don't like my Games coming anywhere near any Microsoft products.

 

[4824guy]

With a 40 g HD, I personally would suggest about 4-5 parititions. Anything more than that gets too hard to follow, espcially if you later add another HD. But it mostly depends on what your planing to use the PC for, and how you intend to store data and software on it.

 

[XBoxLPU]

I have a Maxtor 40gb HD

I only have 2 partitions.

One that is 4gb and the other is 33gb.

Windows XP is on the 4 and all of my other data is on the 33gb. Things run fine and smoothly

 

[CubicZirconia]

I have a 40 gig hdd with only 2 partitions as well. Everything has worked fine for me. I guess its just a matter of opinion.