Boot drive setup

ajm · 25 Oct 2008 at 15:09

I have decided to get a Samsung F1 320GB

I will be using this as my boot drive and wondered what the best way to use it is.

1. Do i just leave it as 1 partition or make it into 2 one for win XP and the other for games?

2. With it being a single 320gig platter will it make any difference having 2 partitions?

3. Also will it slow down if just used as 1 partition?

I know i have poste4d questions about drives before but now i am just wanting to know the best setup as i have chosen the drive i want.

ajm · 26 Oct 2008 at 08:40

Thanks for the replies.

I agree spend the extra fiver for a bigger hard drive.

I don't really want the drive to be any bigger as i already have 2 drives in the system with ample free space, so it would probably be wasted.

ajm · 27 Oct 2008 at 09:26

Thanks guys. I am really just planning on 2 partitions (I think) 1 for windows and the other for installed games as i have all other files on another drive.

@Poweredge

then put swaps and backups on the 2nd.

What is the swaps, is it the swapfile and what does this do?
What are the benefits of it being on another drive?
How do i put it on another drive?

ajm · 29 Oct 2008 at 08:58

Still looking for some help with the swap file thing as i know nothing about this and need someones prctical help rather than trying to find a link to understand a load of bumf using technical terms i may not understand.

Also not sure now whether i may be better off getting the 640 f1 if i will be partitioning anyway.

ajm · 29 Oct 2008 at 13:13

Thanks musicman53 that is really helpful info you posted there. Now i understand it much clearer. Just one thing am i right in thinking that i need a partition of say 10gig on a partition of it's own with nothing else on that partition? and it has to be the first partition on the drive?

ajm · 30 Oct 2008 at 10:31

That is very clear, looks like that is the way i will have to do it and give it a try. Only thing is my second drive is at the moment 1 partition so will have to copy the stuff to somewhere else so i can create new partitions. Do you have to somehow change where the pagefile will be to this new partition?

ajm · 31 Oct 2008 at 08:37

Thanks very much musicman53 for this detailed info it is much appreciated. Didn't realise there would be settings to change and then reboot a couple of times. I am glad i asked now or i may have just changed it and expected it to work by entering the new drive.

ajm · 1 Nov 2008 at 09:53

Actually fobose i have always had my games on a seperate partition as in most cases if you do have to format windows, the games are still there and usuable. You just need to copy saves back to my docs. I do agree that some games do have to be reinstalled but i haven't came across many so far.