Recommendations for Vista Partitioning

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Nightwyrm

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#14582 10-Jul-2007 16:15

In the not-so-distant future, I'll be upgrading to Vista and am looking for some recommendations on partitioning. I have 3x 80GB drives (one partitioned 20 System/60 Apps, one dedicated for games alone, and one dedicated for ghost backup images) + 1x 250GB drive (dedicated for media files). My plan is to use the backup drive to build Vista onto, then removing the partition on and reformatting the XP drive.

The way I see it, I have two options:
- Partition the Vista drive (80GB) before installation e.g. 40/40.
- Use the whole Vista drive for system and use the old XP drive for apps i.e. 80/80

The second idea stems from the fact I've never had to revert to a previous build, so do I really need a backup drive? If the first option is the most viable, what split would be best?

Recommendations anyone??

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chiefie

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#77635 10-Jul-2007 16:36

I have been using Vista on my UMPC which have been partitioned to 20GB. Admittedly it hasn't a lot of software installed, however I can suggest that 40GB is probably enough, and make sure you point the "Users" folder to another location/hdd so it is separated from the OS System partition. As for backing up, you will probably find the Vista's built-in backup is good enough and doesn't require a huge space, as it uses Windows Imaging technology, so if for any chance you need to restore, it is just as easy to "reimage" it from the backup set.

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Nightwyrm

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#77698 11-Jul-2007 07:45

When you say "Users folder", do you mean just the "My Documents" or the full "Documents and Settings"? And can you specify location during install? My concern around using a split was due to the issues I'm having with my 20GB XP partition. A lot of the spare capacity is being taken up by my Documents and Settings but somewhere withihn the Application Data folder. Avoiding a repetition of this is a primary goal.

Re: Backups through Vista Windows Imaging - can you specify a destination location or does this default to the system drive?

If all these are as I think they may be, perhaps I can go:
- 80GB = 40 system/40 apps
- 80GB = gaming files
- 80GB = backup files
- 250GB = media files

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chiefie

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#77709 11-Jul-2007 09:19

(XP) Documents and Settings = (Vista) Users

Sadly, during a normal installation, you cannot specify any customisation at all. My advice is, install as Adminitrator, then customise the profile location to another drive/partition for all new users.

Alternatively, you can write a setup script to go with the installation, although I have not done/tried this before. However, if Vista is similar to previous Windows, then you should be able to create an answer file which will automate any customisation during the installation.

As far as splitting the Apps from System, I don't really see the point in doing that. My estimation for System drive/partition include Applications, which usually aren't that huge these days. On my 20GB partition for my UMPC Vista, it has Office 2007, Dreamweaver 8 and Adobe Photoshop CS2, which is all the applications that I majorly use. What application do you use? Have a look at your Program Files and see how big is it occupying at the moment, or do an manual audit on all the folders that you do use on daily basis, like your program folders, documents and settings etc.

I found a site on how to make your Windows Vista Automated Install using USB flash drive.

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Nightwyrm

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#77719 11-Jul-2007 10:47

chiefie: As far as splitting the Apps from System, I don't really see the point in doing that. My estimation for System drive/partition include Applications, which usually aren't that huge these days.

True dat. Once I moved all my gaming files to their own drive, a lot of room did free up on my Apps partition. As Office sits on the System partition, that really only leaves my dev stuff on the Apps partition(Dreamweaver, JBuilder, Visual Studio Express). I think the logic for the split was about keeping things separate and tidy but has just turned out to be a pain. In this case, why partition that drive at all? Hmm...

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chiefie

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#77724 11-Jul-2007 12:03

One suggestion is, once you got your system all setup (and without partition for system, and wtih all apps installed in the same drive as System) then do WIM image, so when you need to restore to clean state, it is just as easy as 10mins to restore, all system and apps are in one location, then no need to reinstall the apps (on a separate partition) to re-register their presence on the registry hive.

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#77888 12-Jul-2007 19:54

keep your 20gb xp partition, you may need it, as some older stuff dont run on vista, even quicktime player can't support vista! howabout:

hd1 20g xp/60g games
hd2 80g vista (or 40g vista / 40g apps, but i dont see the point of doing so vista is quite smart at managing itself)
leave hd3 and 4 as usual

you could do hd1 xp 20g /vista 60 g but once you dual boot in same drive all your vista shadow files are wiped when you boot into xp.

mine is quite cool i think, fit all on 300g hdd
20g xp, 100g backup of documents, 100g vista, 74g backup of system shadow, 2 x 3g partitions for pagefiles.

they say it makes your hd slow but ah well, ...