Partitioning Hard Drive(s) Recommendations Please

First I would like to apologize that this DOES NOT have anything do do
with a Dell computer system. I do however own a Dell (Dimension 8100)
if that in any way helps. LOL The reason I am posting here is that I
have discovered that there are quite a few very knowledgable folks here
that are more than willing to help (sucking up...).

My Question:

I recently had a custom PC built by Velocity Micro. (Awesome company
to deal with BTW) The system I ordered came with two (2) 750 GB hard
drives (1.5TB total). Before I get too far along and things get out of
hand, I would like recommendations on the most effecient way to
partition the hard drives.

Ideally I believe (please do correct me if I am wrong) I would like to
keep the OS, utilities (AV etc) and drivers on it's own partition
(size??? XP Pro). Then a partition for applications only? A partition
for games? Then possibly several partitions for various data files? I
do some video editing so I would assume that I should have a rather
large partition set asside for that?


I have never had this much storage space available before and I am a
bit overwhelmed to say the least as to how to setup, control and
administer this monster.

Any recommendations or even a reference site I can browse would be very
much appreciated.

KJB wrote:
First I would like to apologize that this DOES NOT have anything do do
with a Dell computer system. I do however own a Dell (Dimension 8100)
if that in any way helps. LOL The reason I am posting here is that I
have discovered that there are quite a few very knowledgable folks here
that are more than willing to help (sucking up...).

My Question:

I recently had a custom PC built by Velocity Micro. (Awesome company
to deal with BTW) The system I ordered came with two (2) 750 GB hard
drives (1.5TB total). Before I get too far along and things get out of
hand, I would like recommendations on the most effecient way to
partition the hard drives.

Ideally I believe (please do correct me if I am wrong) I would like to
keep the OS, utilities (AV etc) and drivers on it's own partition
(size??? XP Pro). Then a partition for applications only? A partition
for games? Then possibly several partitions for various data files? I
do some video editing so I would assume that I should have a rather
large partition set asside for that?


I have never had this much storage space available before and I am a
bit overwhelmed to say the least as to how to setup, control and
administer this monster.

Any recommendations or even a reference site I can browse would be very
much appreciated.

You will get many different opinions on how to organize and partion
your disks. All valid. IT's more of a proeference, then a rule.

Some favor OS on 1 partition for the OS on another for data. In case
you have a software problem that requires nuking the OS. That works
fine.

Some favor 1 big partition for everything. That works fine, too.

My preference is the 1 big partition approach. however, you have an
obscene amount of storage in 2 identical drives, meaning..... set up
mirroring (raid) for redundancy and speed, regardless of how you choose
to partition it later. It means you "only" have 750GB instead of
1500GB, but its still a damn lot of room for whatever you're doing.

i remember you.
werent you the crazy guy that was gonna pay some $6000 for a computer
back in june. i told you to get the xps700 on sale.
and after all that, you didnt even buy it?

Jay B wrote:
i remember you.
werent you the crazy guy that was gonna pay some $6000 for a computer
back in june. i told you to get the xps700 on sale.
and after all that, you didnt even buy it?

Greetings Jay B!

Yep, that's me - Still Crazy and probably always will be. The XPS 700
that I configured was gonna cost right at $6k even with
Sales/discounts and everything else. I placed the order, ship date #1
came and went, ship date #2 came and went. I receive a call from Dell
in early August offering me $250 gift card or free upgrade to Core2Duo
to make up for the numerous delays. I opted for the gift card as I was
told by the sales rep that the Core2Duo systems weren't going to ship
until late Sept or early October and the Pentium D systems were going
to start to ship immediately. Next day I checked my order status
online - Had a NEW order number and NEW ship date was October 19th!
Called Dell, they told me that since my original order was cancelled
(to receive the Gift Card), my order had to be placed again as a NEW
order and it was put at the back of the line. I cancelled my XPS 700
order on August 14th mainly because I was NOT willing to wait 120 +
days for a computer no matter how great it looked on paper/web site.
Placed order with Velocity Micro on August 14th, received Core2Duo
Extreme system on August 22nd. VM system stats are very similar to the
XPS 700 system and price was also very close. VM machine is built with
Retail parts vs OEM with Dell. It doesn't look as slick as the XPS 700
but so far I am very happy with it. I have also discovered that if you
call Tech Support, the call is NOT routed to India. :-)

On 9 Sep 2006 12:24:33 -0700, "KJB" wrote:

First I would like to apologize that this DOES NOT have anything do do
with a Dell computer system. I do however own a Dell (Dimension 8100)
if that in any way helps. LOL The reason I am posting here is that I
have discovered that there are quite a few very knowledgable folks here
that are more than willing to help (sucking up...).

My Question:

I recently had a custom PC built by Velocity Micro. (Awesome company
to deal with BTW) The system I ordered came with two (2) 750 GB hard
drives (1.5TB total). Before I get too far along and things get out of
hand, I would like recommendations on the most effecient way to
partition the hard drives.

Ideally I believe (please do correct me if I am wrong) I would like to
keep the OS, utilities (AV etc) and drivers on it's own partition
(size??? XP Pro). Then a partition for applications only? A partition
for games? Then possibly several partitions for various data files? I
do some video editing so I would assume that I should have a rather
large partition set asside for that?


I have never had this much storage space available before and I am a
bit overwhelmed to say the least as to how to setup, control and
administer this monster.

Any recommendations or even a reference site I can browse would be very
much appreciated.

other than a game partition this is exactly how i have partitioned my
HD, i have 2 120GB HD's. the primary is partitioned this way: my OS
partition is 15GB, my app partition is 20GB and my data partition is
25GB. i also have a 35GB partition that i call 'backup' i use this
space for temporary image backups before i do registry maintenance,
install new apps or update the OS. permanent image backups are on a
second 120GB hard drive and on an external hard drive. i also do
occasional image backups onto DVD for the safe deposit box. with all
that space i would set up a rotating set of image backups on the 2nd
HD as well as to a smalled external drive and occasionally to DVD(s).

73,
rich, n9dko