Demetri:

If you're starting from scratch, Fdisk & format will work just fine.
Fdisk will prompt you to first establish a DOS (boot) disk, then to
establish the remainder of the HDD into an extended DOS partition. Next,
you subdivide the Extended partition into "logical" drives. You say you
only need four partitions, so you would partition the Extended part into
three logical drives.

Size? Depends on your OS. We recently divided a 17G HDD into 6
partitions, with a 2.5G DOS (c: drive = boot, etc) drive, the rest at 2G,
with the G: as 8.5G. Size depends upon your RAM, total HDD size, etc.
We've read that recommended swap file size is best set as a "fixed" (not
variable) swap file = 2.5x RAM. Some references say set up a separate
logical drive for your swap file for max efficiency, but I can't verify
that.

If you want to keep your swap file on your c: drive with your OS, you
must consider that into your c: drive size. After that, you're on your
own - how many apps will be on C: and how many organized onto the other
drives? Remember, keep all personal/data files on one logical drive so it
will be easier to back them up. And, having one large drive makes
audio/video editing easier.

Good Luck,

Jack

Demetri: I've just assembled a new computer and want to install an OS. I
have formatted and installed new OS before, so that is not a problem, but
this time I want to install multiple partitions.

I checked several partition managers, but they seemed more complex  than
I need, multi OS, up  to 200 partitions, etc. I will use one OS, and
will not need more than four partitions.

Will FDISK, Format commands take care of my needs, or do I need to know
or use something else? Is there a limit on size of partitions using
FDISK? I have some hard drive manufacturers software, such as Disk
Manager and DiscWizard. Better to use one of those?

How do I know how large a partition to leave for OS?
Demetri Kolokotronis

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