Partition Strategy

[binarybum]

I have a 120 gig HD and an 80 gig drive that I use in a mobile rack for cloning backups with Norton Ghost (currently using Ghost 2002). I am about to do a clean install of Windows XP Pro. I am plannng to put XP on a 20 GIG primary partition. I thought I would make an extended partition of the remaining space and divide into a 40 gig logical for application installation and the rest as a logical partition for file storage. I will install XP NTFS. A technician told me to make the second 40 gig application partition FAT32 for better performance.
Is this the optimal patitioning strategy?
Should I use NTFS or FAT32 for the logical partitions?
Thanks.......bb

 

[Marcs41]

when you use FAT 32 you will not have the advanced options of NTFS, like security.
NTFS also works better on fragmentation, so that advice is not really 'sound'.
The only reason to use FAT32 would be for easy DOS access or mixed OS's. If the solution is here, let us know it was helpful so others can benefit from it as too

 

[Marcs41]

o, and if you want better performance, put the paging file on the second disk with the min and max the same, like 512 MB. Take the one on C away.
Make sure you do that before installing or copying anything to that drive, so the file will be in the very beginning. If the solution is here, let us know it was helpful so others can benefit from it as too

 

[r2]

Ther are some small/marginal speed advantages with a FAT32 file system, but not enough that you'll notice. NTFS is the preferred option for disk management and especially security.

The only exception would be if you need backward compatibility for older FAT-only OS's on that same machine (e.g., a dual boot setup).

Those "legacy" systems would still be able to access your NTFS files via the network if you set up the shares and permissions properly.

 

[binarybum]

Thanks everyone,
I also read that windows can boot alot faster if all partitions are NTFS. I'll just fo all NTFS................bb

 

[jhowley58]

Hey Marcs41,

I've got dual boot XpPro W2K systems on an 80 Gig HD. I've also installed a spare 2 gig hd which I had from way back.. How can I put the paging file on this 2 Gig disk?

Thanks

JohnH

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I wouldn't bother - the 2Gb disk will not conform to the newer ATA standards, and would probably slow the entire system down.

Though I suppose you could put the 2Gb on the 2nd IDE channel. It might still affect performance due to its speed, however.

YMMV CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[Marcs41]

Well, if you want to try, here is how.
Right click My Computer - Properties - Advanced tab - Click the Settings in Performance - Advanced tab again - clcik change on the virtual memory -

Select D: (or whatever the other disk is) and make a fixed size min and max the same, 1.5 to 2.5 time the RAM max 512 though, higher hardly makes a difference.

Select C: No paging File

Reboot

PS: You are best to do that when D: is empty so the swapfile is in front in one big chunk If the solution is here, let us know it was helpful so others can benefit from it as too

 

[jhowley58]

Thanks Guys - I did put the swap file onto the 2gig disk..


From what has been said though I guess by having the 2g on the same IDE ribbon I am slowing the whole shebang down?

John..

 

[Marcs41]

a little, if possible, put it on a seperate controller. If the solution is here, let us know it was helpful so others can benefit from it as too

 

[binarybum]

marcs41 ,

You suggested to put the paging file on the second disk. On my system this will be a second partition on the same physical disk. Will this still make a diference? I would think it would be better to place it at the beggining of the disk or on a different disk.
Thanks

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Couple of points;

1) If the 2Gb drive is PIO 4, ie non-UDMA, then it will slow down the larger UDMA drives, if on the same cable. This is why it is highly recommended that Optical drives such as CD-Roms are not placed on the same cable as HDDs, since the UDMA drives will be slowed down for compatibilty's sake - which is reasonable.

2) The 2Gb disk will be slower than the newer ones. Therefore access to the swap file will be slower than if it was located on a partition on a faster disk. The swap file is an essential extension to memory, hence overall operation will be slower.


Swap files work faster when placed on a separate physical drive to the Operating System. It does not matter particulary where it is located - indeed, you don't get much choice in the matter.

If you measure performance using perfmon, Sandra, PC Mark, or whatever, the numbers may be worlds apart.

In "real-life", using the computer may be just fine, hence YMMV. What I have posted above is just the theory, which can be verified at any competent computing site. Or you may find sites which prove the opposite. At the end of the day, what works best is what works for you - a little trial and error never hurt!

Hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[OzCDN]

First of all NTFS vs FAT32 speed: FAT32 excels at transfers of large blocks of sequential (non-fragmented) data. Once the data becomes fragmented or you start dealing with many small files (like the Windows OS) then FAT32 becomes a liability. NTFS is designed to be good for random data access. This makes it better for small files and makes it very insensitve to fragmentation. Add to that all of the other advantages of NTFS (security, etc.) and the choice is easy - NTFS all the way.

Answers for Synapsy82:

Putting the page file on a second partition of the same drive will, to my knowledge, have little if any affect. It may even have a detrimental effect as it is moving further from the "front" of the drive.

If you are using an OS that can see NTFS partitions and FAT32 partitions then all partitions will be available to you ... it will not matter what file system they have. All NT based OS's can see both (NT4, W2K, and XP). But, the DOS based OS's like DOS, Win3.11, Win 95/98/ME cannot see NTFS partitions (without third party utilities). So, if you plan on using older (non-NT) operating systems then you'll need to be carefull which partitions you switch to NTFS ... otherwise switch them all (IMHO).

Software ... as long as the OS can read the partition (see last paragraph) then the file system will not have any affect on what software you can run. The Borland C++ will work fine on any of them.

Later ...

 

[Marcs41]

binarybum
for performance the paging file must be on a different DISK like i said, not a partition. If the solution is here, let us know it was helpful so others can benefit from it as too

 

[binarybum]

marcs41,

That's what I thought you meant. As I said my second disk is not installed. I use it for backup cloning. Any advantage of making a small partition on the same (system/boot disk for paging or should I just set for a fixed size in the primary partition? Or one of the logical partitions. I know that XP needs it in the primary partion to log a memory dump in the event of a crash but I'm concerned about that.

 

[jhowley58]

Hi Marc,

I should really junk the 2 gig disk and get up to date I guess..

Tell me, are there PCI cards about which give HD access? Like can you do three/four HD with parallel access?
(Like I know it's serial really but it's parallel input 'as we know it')

John..

 

[binarybum]

I found this this link which might be helpful:

http://searchwindowsmanageability.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid33_gci781398,00.html

 

[Marcs41]

jhowley, you can get PCI cards, like RAID to do what you want, and yes, dump the 2 Gig, at todays prices, not worth the trouble. If the solution is here, let us know it was helpful so others can benefit from it as too

 

[JonJontheMighty]

Increase Your Disk Space with a Volume Set
Is one of your partitions getting tight? You could buy a new hard disk and copy all your files to the new disk. But what if you don't want to change the partition they're on? You just want to add space to the disk. You can do this with Windows XP Professional by using something called a "Spanned Volume". If your original disk is a Dynamic disk and the volume was created on the Dynamic disk, then you can "extend" or expand the size of the volume. Here's how:
1. Open the Disk Management console by typing diskmgmt.msc in the Run command. In the Disk Management window, right-click the simple or spanned volume you want to extend, then click Extend Volume.
2. On the "Welcome to the Extend Volume Wizard" page, click Next.
3. On the Select Disks page, click to select the disk or disks on to which you want to extend the volume, and then click Add.
4. Verify that the disks onto which you want to extend the volume are listed in the "Selected dynamic disks" box.
5. In the Size box, specify the amount of unallocated disk space (in MB) that you want to add, and then Next.
6. On the "Completing the Extend Volume Wizard" page, ensure the options that you selected are correct, and then click Finish.
Note that you can only extend an NTFS volume, or one that you haven't formatted yet. You also can't extend your boot volume (the one containing the \WINDOWS folder) or the system volume (your primary active partition, typically your C: drive).
jonjontheMighty

 

[wolluf]

JonJontheMighty - you've been adding that post to many threads - why not just write a FAQ instead?