General PC Advice - Drive Partitions

[Meef Chaloin]

I've ordered a laptop which should arrive tomorrow. It comes with Windows 7, which I will probably try but most likely will format to XP. I will have 500gb drive.

I'm wondering how to set up my hard drive. I will partition it so that I have OS on C-drive and everything else on the rest (so that I can easily reinstall Windows if I have to). But I'm wondering if I should maybe create more partitions, like one for mp3s, one for my ableton stuff, one for vsts etc. I'm not sure if there is any point to doing this instead of using virtual drives because I'm stuck with the sizes.

How about creating one for XP, one for Program Files/VSTs and one for everything else? Is it even possible to run programs from a seperate partition to the OS? I guess this would mean i wouldn't have to reintall programs if I formatted the OS drive?

How big should the OS drive be? I read somewhere that Win7 require loads of space so it might be good to leave enough room for this if i need it....

[davepermen]

I've ordered a laptop which should arrive tomorrow. It comes with Windows 7, which I will probably try but most likely will format to XP. I will have 500gb drive.

don't, try win7 for a while. you payed for it, and it's 9 years of evolution => much more tailored to your hw. xp support is dropping everywhere anyways. and new hw is not well understood by it anyways.

I'm wondering how to set up my hard drive. I will partition it so that I have OS on C-drive and everything else on the rest (so that I can easily reinstall Windows if I have to). But I'm wondering if I should maybe create more partitions, like one for mp3s, one for my ableton stuff, one for vsts etc. I'm not sure if there is any point to doing this instead of using virtual drives because I'm stuck with the sizes.

better make sure you have your stuff backed up properly if your hdd dies one day. then, just use c:\. you'd have to reinstall all apps on a reinstallation of the os anyways.
partitions are just useless physical barriers on the disk that disallow it to optimize itself. just use the default folders. least amount of hazzles. and then set up a nice backup routine.
normally, you should never have to reinstall win7 anyways, its quite some evolution to xp.

How about creating one for XP, one for Program Files/VSTs and one for everything else? Is it even possible to run programs from a seperate partition to the OS? I guess this would mean i wouldn't have to reintall programs if I formatted the OS drive?

its possible. but apps have to be reinstalled on each new os installation.

How big should the OS drive be? I read somewhere that Win7 require loads of space so it might be good to leave enough room for this if i need it....

on a 500gb drive, nothing is "loads of space"

but go for one partition only, it's the most hazzlefree solution.

and prepare for your hdd to die accidentally, suddenly, without recovery chance: a.k.a. prepare an external backup.

[Meef Chaloin]

Thanks for your advice daveperman.

I'm only buying an Inspiron 1545 Intel Core 2 Duo T6600(2.2GHz,800MHz,2MB) so I'm not sure that the hardware will make that much difference either way (or will it??). I was planning to go back to XP because I know it and want to get the most out of the processor, i know 2.2ghz isnt all that great (but should be enough).

I'm very reluctant to not do any partition at all...kind of makes me nervous having so much data on the same partition as windows.

I do plan to do a full back up before I ditch my desktop. It'll take rather a long time (dvds) but it'll be worth it.

Thank again for your advice. I think keeping it simple is definitely the best way.

[davepermen]

to get the most out of the laptop, use the os built around the hw for that laptop => win7.

and that laptop is great in performance. i rock on stage with a 1.86ghz c2d, and it serves me well. just as my 1.2ghz c2d served me well before.

you have to remember one thing to get rid of your fear: whether it's all in the same partition or not, it's all on the same disk. so it's all or nothing anyways. there's no savety gain in having it split around. if you do something stupid you might delete your files no matter where they are. if something happens to the disk, it's lost no matter how many partitions it had. and if you have to reinstall (unlikely), you have to do this anyways.

backup == your real savety. partitions == no savety at all. just more work.

[crofter]

Stick with Win7 and partition your hard drive using this,
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
or something similar.
OS and apps on the system drive and all your files on the other partition(s)and backup your system partition with something like this,
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db ... index.html

[agent314]

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said, keep Windows 7. I have Win7x64 on my desktop and 1 laptop and x86 on another laptop, and I have had fewer crashes and better performance on them than I ever had on XP.

Not to mention how much nicer the UI is than XP.

Vista absolutely blew in terms of performance and resource usage, but 7 is easily on par with XP in terms of having a low footprint (given the increased hardware specs) and offers way more functionality, and just a more enjoyable experience overall.

I've been using x64 with Live 8 and all my plugins, and the only issues I've had have been Guitar Rig 3 not playing well with my audio interface and forcing a restart.

[5o63]

Why not have the best of both worlds My Dell xps has three partitions.1 40gig just for my music setup. 2 for just being a general computer that only uses onboard sound card and internet.3 for data storage for the two drives before it and audio recording.
Make 2 partitions and have xp pro and win 7 on it.
If you don't have current gear then 64bit compatibility will be a problem.Well its stopping me at the moment anyway I had vista ultimate and xp running at one time so I just dumped vista and went xp pro.
But I'm hearing great things about windows 7 as a general os,but a lot of problems in software and hardware upgrades.
Don't lose the usability just for sake of a pretty os,turn all that fancy crap off and regain power for your programs any way.
Just my opinion,music computers are just another tool that you want the most power out of.
I don't think 9 years of microsoft evoltution have accounted for much.
I'll try windows 7 but if it dos'nt work out I have no choice but to mac it.
Ibm' are a so much cheaper bang for buck.

[5o63]

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said, keep Windows 7. I have Win7x64 on my desktop and 1 laptop and x86 on another laptop, and I have had fewer crashes and better performance on them than I ever had on XP.

Bullshit

[davepermen]

I don't think 9 years of microsoft evoltution have accounted for much.

then, this is your issue. fix it. afterwards, my guide makes perfect sense.

[crofter]

Just to reiterate what everyone else has said, keep Windows 7. I have Win7x64 on my desktop and 1 laptop and x86 on another laptop, and I have had fewer crashes and better performance on them than I ever had on XP.

Bullshit

If you haven't tried it how do you know?

[5o63]

Sorry I forgot my manners what I meant to say that judging by the work I did on someones fancy new and more powerful window 7 machine only last week it wont play one of my tracks in record without freezing and it whoops my xps's arse in processor power.Were as mines sitting on a modified xp at an idle of 121 mg and just on 1% cpu.
I wish to retract the bullshit statement.

[djsynchro]

Partition for porn, partition for crack$ torrentz warez serialz apzz and gamez.
Or throw it out the window and get a real computer -->> Mac

[agent314]

Sorry I forgot my manners what I meant to say that judging by the work I did on someones fancy new and more powerful window 7 machine only last week it wont play one of my tracks in record without freezing and it whoops my xps's arse in processor power.Were as mines sitting on a modified xp at an idle of 121 mg and just on 1% cpu.

I'll say that I am speaking only from personal experience here. But in my case, I've had fewer crashes and more stable behavior overall in the 6 months I've been using Win7 than I did on my XP machines, which I was using with mostly Cakewalk Home Studio/Sonar 7/8 up until this year.

And remember that the OS is only one part of the equation, too - shitty/unsupported drivers are going to make problems for a system no matter how beefy the specs are, as will bloatware or any number of other things.

Maybe I have the luxury of well-supported drivers with my hardware, but for my money/PC-ing time, Win7 is the bee's knees as far as OS's go.

[Meef Chaloin]

Partition for porn, partition for crack$ torrentz warez serialz apzz and gamez.
Or throw it out the window and get a real computer -->> Mac

right, thanks for the useless comment

[Meef Chaloin]

On a side note, is it possible to delete the crap that comes installed on a Dell or do i have to reinstall windows anyhow?