I'm going to partition my 60 gig HD for the first time. After going through two total crashes,complete installs and reformats I want to create a small, second back-up O/S, to save down time, and allow me to have basic functions like a browser and email. I also want to create several small partitions for data backup (music, photos, program files and word documents). I'll be using Partitionmagic 7.0. My question is, how should I size these partitions? My main O/S will be Windows XP with MS Office 2000 Professional.I would like to use a smaller backup O/S and dual boot. I have a basic Win ME disk or should I use an open source O/S? I would like something very user friendly and I am familiar with ME (although it is a bit unstable). Perhaps someone knows of something smaller and easy to use.I would say Win 98 but I don't have access.

Also, what would be the best size for these partitions? I was thinking 20 Gig for XP, 15 Gig for second O/S and dividing the other 25 Gigs into 3-5, 5 to 8 Gig storage partitions. I may be totally wrong about this, so any help on the second O/S and partition size and setup is welcomed.

Note: Presently, I have 49 gigs on drive C, and 8 gigs on drive d, and both are ntfs which can't be changed back to fat 32 without format. Also XP is installed on drive C and one of the main reasons for partition is to protect it from a reformat or reinstallation.Manufacturer says I will get 60 gigs after partition.

            Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
                    Digest mode - visit our web site:
                   http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml