On around Tue, 11 Dec 2001 08:48:04 -0500, Paul Ecclestone
<[log in to unmask]> posted this message in
news:internal.mailing-list.computers.pc-build . . .

> Looking for recommendations for partitioning/organizing a drive
> 
> It is a 20GB upon which I will be installing Linux and Windows XP.
> 
> Seems that I read from one of you out there that you should have a
> separate partition just for your temp files.
> 
> I have heard that having a separate partition for your drivers is a
> good idea.
> 
> I have read that your programs should be on a separate partition.
> 
> I like the idea of putting all one's data on a separate drive thereby
> making backups somewhat easier.
> 
> All suggestions/ideas are welcome.

Well, I have 30-gig hard drive which holds partitions C through H, then
there's Drive I which is a second hard drive of 4.3 gigs, plus a partition
that can't be seen from Windows.  Here's how I have my stuff organized:

C: - 8 Gigabytes - Holds Windows and Program Files.  Lots of free space left
to do video captures.  Right now I have about 4 gigs free.

D: - 8 Gigabytes - Data drive.  Holds My Documents folder, all my e-mail,
usenet messages (about 2 gigs worth of that).  Plus I have a directory
structure set up which matches the newsgroups I subscribe, including a few
dozen local newsgroups for my local network, which basically holds e-mails
from all the mailing lists I subscribe to so they can be pulled with the NNTP
protocol from any computer on the network with a user ID and password to the
NNTP server on the host computer, and these coupled directories hold any
binaries I decode within Agent.  If I decode a binary, all I have to do is see
what newsgroup I decoded it in and navigate to that newsgroups own directory
in Windows Explorer. :-)

E: - 8 Gigabytes - Storage.  This drive is where I organize all the
installation files for the software and shareware I download, including
several versions of Netscape, every version of Internet Explorer since 3.0
(except 4.0 (SP-*)) and basically about 700 megabytes worth of shareware,
freeware, bloatware and junkware.  I typically never delete any software I
download, no matter how much I hate it.  I usually just burn it to a CD so if
I ever decide I want to fidget with it again, I already have a copy.  The
storage partition is also sort of a "pre-staging ground" for preparing files
to burn to CD-R.  So I have all kinds of directories for things like MP3's,
videos, porno collection, etc... And once I have enough of one type of thing
to nearly or completely fill a 700 megabyte CD, I burn a CD.  Another cool
thing about my storage directory is its E:\!CD ARCHIVE directory.  This is a
directory which has a different text file generated from the DOS prompt with a
DIR J: /S > C:\CD.TXT command for every CD I've burned.  If I need to find a
particular file and I know the name of that file, or part of the name of that
file, I simply go to my !CD ARCHIVE directory and hit F3 and search for the
text in the text files.  Once it finds it, I can open the text file and see if
it is indeed the file I was looking for.  If it is, the file's name matches
the default label given to the CD when I burned it, which is the date and
time.  I write that index number on the CD and keep them in chronological
order in a CD organizer I have.  Each CD has its own paper envelope to prevent
scratches.  I stick the CD in the CD-ROM drive and there are my files.

F: - 898 Megabytes - Windows and Fonts.  This is where I keep a hard drive
copy of Windows98SE.  Ever been happily installing software or new drivers
only to find that you have to insert your Windows CD to continue?  Not me.  I
copied the whole CD to my F partition and changed a setting in the registry
which tells Windows that the setup files are on Drive F.  Much better.  Now I
can't even tell when my F drive is being accessed.  Windows just takes what it
needs without asking me. :-D  I also keep my collection of over 3,000 fonts on
this drive for easy access.

G: - 2.05 Gigabytes - Extras.  Typically this is where I install all my games,
but the partition is far too small to be any good for gaming unless you only
have one or two games installed at a time.  My roomie's computer also has a
30-gig drive.  He installed The Sims along with the House Party and Hot Date
expansion paks and now that one game takes up over a gigabyte of drive space
(and it still sucks).

H: - 1.75 Gigabites - CD-Burn.  This is my final staging area for burning
CD's, but of course, when it's not being used for burning CD's, I use it for
other things like temporarily moving files there to make room where I need
more drive space to accomplish certain tasks.  Some might wonder why I don't
just burn directly from where the files reside originally...well, that's
because I may want to put files from all over my drive on one CD.  Burning
them is easy enough, but if I burned a copy to archive, I don't want to leave
them on my hard drive.  I want them deleted.  Moving all the files to one
directory makes deleting all those files a simple SHIFT+DELETE to send them
straight to oblivion, do not pass recycle bin, do not collect $200.

I: - 4.3 Gigabytes (Logical partition) - Mail Storage.  I have been using this
for storage of my e-mail and usenet messages.  I don't typically delete any of
that stuff.  I archive them so if I ever need to search for something I wrote,
I always have a record of everything that came into or went out of my
computer.  But I did get lazy a little this year and just deleted things
without archiving.  Archiving does take a while because I save a month's worth
of messages from each mailing list or newsgroup, and then I compress it with
WinRAR's maximum compression capabilities.  Right now, about a year's worth of
e-mail has been compressed down to about 387 megabytes.  Before compression it
was, IIRC, over 1.3 gigabytes.

"hidden" partition - BeOS.  There is a 2-gig partition on my 30-gig drive
which contains BeOS.  I guess it should be called PeOS because it is a piece
of S...well... to be fair it had a lot of potential, but it's no longer being
developed by the original team and the rights were sold to the Palm.  I simply
couldn't get anything done using BeOS because I was so used to the feature
rich software available for Windows that BeOS didn't have.  Linux might be a
possibility one day, but they still have too many hardware incompatibility
problems, even now with hardware I've had since March.

Well, those are my partitions and how I use them.  Maybe that will give you
some idea of why you might want to partition or why you might want something
different.  The only thing better than a lot of hard drive space is more of
it.  I find myself limited by 30 gigs of hard drive space.  I'd like to set up
a couple of ATA-133 100 gig hard drives as a RAID array.  A lot of the stuff I
do (audio/video editing) deals with massive files -- some so large that
Windows98 won't even open them, and that's by design.  I'm interested in XP,
but I'm waiting for Microsoft, Abit, NVidea and Creative to get the major bugs
and hardware issues worked out before I upgrade to WinXP or before I give
Linux a whirl.

Damaeus

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