XP partitioning: How to?

yaromir · #1 03-31-2006, 06:09 PM

Hi, I was reading here and there about the recommended 64KB partioning of the HDD, but I really have no idea how to do it...

Could anyone please explain the basic steps to undertake in order to do this? I have Windows XP MCE with 200GB hard drive. I didn't install Hauppauge or SageTV yet. Thank you in advance!

teknubic · #2 03-31-2006, 07:44 PM

Long Answer
Short Answer:

Right-click on My Computer and select 'Manage'
Select Disk Management and find your 200GB drive
Right-click on the drive and select 'Format...'
Under 'Allocation unit size:' select 64k

You'll also want to select NTFS under 'File system:' since any sort of FAT can't handle files larger than 2GB, which you will certainly have.
Formatting a 200GB drive could take a while so go have a pint or click the 'Perform a quick format' check box.
Oh, yea.. and make _darn_ sure you got the right drive.
That's about it.
HTH

Jesse · #3 03-31-2006, 08:12 PM

In case you did not know: FORMATTING YOUR HDD WILL DESTROY ALL DATA ON THAT DRIVE!! IF YOUR MACHINE HAS ONLY ONE DRIVE YOU WILL NEED TO RE-INSTALL WINDOWS ALONG WITH ALL YOUR OTHER APPS!!

Jesse

Polypro · #4 03-31-2006, 09:46 PM

I would suggest purchasing Acronis Disk Director. You will then be able to NON DESTRUCTIVELY re-size your OS partion smaller, and then create a new partition for recordings. It will allow you to specify 64k clusters. Just to give you an idea, a 300Gig partition allows about 100 Hrs of recording at DVD Standard Play. Sometimes safe and easy is better than free.

P

wjohn · #5 03-31-2006, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yaromir

Hi, I was reading here and there about the recommended 64KB partioning of the HDD, but I really have no idea how to do it...

Could anyone please explain the basic steps to undertake in order to do this? I have Windows XP MCE with 200GB hard drive. I didn't install Hauppauge or SageTV yet. Thank you in advance!

I would suggest that PartitionMagic is a good program to have just for that kind of purpose. Also, you probably don't want to keep your 200G drive as only one partition. PartitionMagic will partition it for you without affecting any programs on the drive.

stevech · #6 03-31-2006, 11:02 PM

Windows XP itself can partition at 64K blocks.
It's in the computer managment menus. Beware!

blade · #7 04-01-2006, 04:36 AM

If your OS is on the 200 gig drive and you use XP to partition and reformat you'll need to reinstall windows from scratch. If you're not comfortable doing that then you'll need a 3rd party app that can do it without destroying the data.

teknubic · #8 04-01-2006, 11:09 AM

Hmmm... I don't think you can format the system drive from within windows. I don't remember if, after going through the steps, windows kicks you out and does the format after post though.
Yaromir, do you have 1 hard drive or more?

Polypro · #9 04-01-2006, 11:24 AM

3rd party software can do that.

P

Menehune · #10 04-01-2006, 01:24 PM

If you want a single partition spanning the non-OS disk, windows' disk management will create and format the partition for you. I believe the only way to make multiple partitions on the OS disk using windows' tools is to specifiy the partitions while you load Windows. IIRC windows defaults to a single partition spanning the entire free space on the drive.

I always use third party software (Partition Magic 8 and/or Partition Expert 2003) to create/resize/format partitions.

stevech · #11 04-01-2006, 04:05 PM

using the boot/OS drive for video file storage - not a good idea, IMO.
I have an 80GB boot disk and 250GB drives for mpeg/video files.

yaromir · #12 04-07-2006, 02:01 PM

Thanks to all for recommendations. Couldn't answer earlier. I have one hard disk with Windows XP MCE pre-installed on it. I'm also planning store SageTV recordings on this hard disk. So, I definetly need to partition it to allocate some space for OS and other software and the rest of the disk space for SageTV recordings. As I understood, I have two options to do the partitioning:

1) Re-install Windows XP MCE and during the installation do the partitioning.
2) Buy a third-party partitioning software that will do the job without the need to re-install Windows.

If it is correct and there are no other options, I'll probably go with the 1). I just need to burn a recovery DVD before doing it. Please, let me know if I missed something.

stanger89 · #13 04-07-2006, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wjohn

I would suggest that PartitionMagic is a good program to have just for that kind of purpose. Also, you probably don't want to keep your 200G drive as only one partition. PartitionMagic will partition it for you without affecting any programs on the drive.

I used to advocate PartitionMagic and DriveImage from PowerQuest, but the seem to have gone to crap after being bought/absorbed by Symantec. I'd go for Acronis now.

GKusnick · #14 04-07-2006, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yaromir

Please, let me know if I missed something.

3) Buy a cheap 40GB or 80GB drive, install it as your primary master, and reinstall Windows onto that as your boot drive. Then reformat the 200GB drive (now the primary slave) for use as your media storage drive.

A variation on this idea would be to get a 3rd-party partitioning tool and use that to move the boot partition onto the new drive without reinstalling Windows. If you do much upgrading or swapping of disk drives (and you probably will, as prices continue to drop on the higher-capacity drives), you'll find the 3rd-party tool a worthwhile investment in the long run.

dvd_maniac · #15 04-07-2006, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

I used to advocate PartitionMagic and DriveImage from PowerQuest, but the seem to have gone to crap after being bought/absorbed by Symantec. I'd go for Acronis now.

I second that.
I used PQMagic to resize my Raid-5 array. Poof, gone, bye bye, see yah...

yaromir · #16 04-07-2006, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Buy a cheap 40GB or 80GB drive, install it as your primary master, and reinstall Windows onto that as your boot drive. Then reformat the 200GB drive (now the primary slave) for use as your media storage drive.

I'd do it, but my PC is limited to any expandable options (see my sig). That's why I went with USB2.0 PVR. This raises a question: Is it reliable to keep one partitioned hard drive with both OS and SageTV recordings on it? What problems am I facing at if I go with a single hard drive?

stanger89 · #17 04-07-2006, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yaromir

This raises a question: Is it reliable to keep one partitioned hard drive with both OS and SageTV recordings on it?

Sure.

Quote:

What problems am I facing at if I go with a single hard drive?

None really, IMO the fewer drives the better, mainly due to heat/noise issues.

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