Partition Configuration 1

[xjlkx]

Hey everyone -

I'd like to get people's opinions on how I should set up the drives on my PC.

I have one 40GB 7200RPM ATA/133 drive and one 12GB 5400RPM ATA/66 drive, and I'll be using windows 2000. I also have a burner and a cd rom drive.

I pretty much distinguish my main drive usage into games/programs, downloads, and personal documents.

Basically, I'd like to get peoples opinions on how I should set up my drives physically (what drives on what IDE channel, etc), and how to partition them.

I currently have the 40gb set to primary master with the hdd slaved, and the burner as secondary master and the cdrom slaved...but I'm not sure if this is the best way to go.

What are your opinions for optimal performance?

 

[wlpsyp]

How many channels do you have 2 or 4? Place the 40 gigger on a channel by its self as master. place the 2 CD's on the other channel as Master/Slave and do not install the 5400rpm in the box unless you have 4 channels. I would not put anything together with the 7200 drive unless it was another 7200 drive. If you have a 5400 and a 7200 on the same channel as Master/Slave you will lose your throughput of the 7200 as it will run at 5400. You probably do not want to hear this, but if you need more disk space, go buy another small 7200rpm drive, they are cheap now a days. Or you can go buy a PCI controller card that will take up a PCI slot and connect the 5400 drive to it (this would be cheaper then a new drive)

BUT..... If you are not concerned with throughput then Master the 7200 and slave the 5400 on the same channel, then Master and Slave the CDs on the other channel. As far as partitions go, its a personal choice. I would reccomend the 40gigger be placed into a 30gig and 10 gig partition with the OS going on the 30 gigs and whatever else on the remaining 10 along with the page file. as for the 12 gigger I would just make one large partition. Partition size really is not going to matter, however the larger the boot partition the better if you have alot of programs to install to it. The days of the 4gig limit using NT is over, so bigger is better, MY opinion.

Bill