Something I should already know

[Skunky]

I just got a 250GB hard drive and once I install it, I am going to install a clean copy of Windows XP Pro and I am going to partition the hard drive probably three times. My question is this:

Windows setup is going to ask me to allocate the size for each partition. I think 1,000 MB = 1GB. If this is true and say I wanted to partition oh say, 125 GB, wouldn't I enter in 125,000 for the allocated space?

I should already know this but one, I am a blonde and don't remember things too well and two, the last time I did a clean install of Windows was back in the day of 95/98 and I have never partitioned my drives so I didn't need to know this information in the first place. Sure, I can get a Partition program like Partition Magic 8, but Windows XP Pro setup can do the same for me during the pre-install and I won't have a need to manage my partitions post because like Ronco...Once I set it, I'd like to forget it.

Thanks for the clarification in advance!

~Gwen

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Without the process directly in front of me, and being a sufferer of CRS disease, I'd need to say, "I think so" to your first question ;)

Don't forget, one other option is to do it in percentage iirc but that may have gone out with the dinosaurs 9X era and also that Windows and drive manufacturers are not in sync as to what constitutes 1 gig. Where drive manu's say 1k megs is 1 gig, Windows will say it's more to the tune of 1024 or some such (CRS again sorry :o )

What I would do in your situation at this time is to carefully decide just what you want those partitions to do 'for' you. Then decide on the sizes needed for your OS, system files, backup image space (and more if you want), then allot whatever for bulk storage. Search here and also Google for 'partitioning strategies' and read through that prior to your final decision.

A good starting point for XPPRO 'IMO' is about 2 gigs, if you don't plan on using a myriad of programs or don't plan on playing tons of games, or closer to 20 gigs if you do.

Then, other things to consider are, if you want to use another partition for My Documents, Outlook or Outlook Express folders, Program Files, so on and so forth. If you don't plan on reallocating My Doc's, you may want more than my suggested '2gig' primary partition. There's a bit to consider which can be quite diverse person to person. :)

If you don't plan it properly now, then and only then should a partition manager come into play 'imo', but definitely DO use partitions to your advantage as they are most useful in the event of a crash, file corruptions and also for things such as replacing/upgrading mobo's and other upgrades. When you can leave your email files, many programs, pictures, etc intact and only reinstall Windows (in C: for example) due to an upgrade of your let's say, processor, memory and mobo, you will save TONS of work for you or anyone else involved!

Most of all, enjoy what you are about to embark on. My biggest harddrive is also 250 gigs at this time. Mine is for some video capture, music files and the likes. My drive letters go upwards to 'M' on this pc but I also have 2 drives in use.

[jlreich]

say I wanted to partition oh say, 125 GB, wouldn't I enter in 125,000 for the allocated space?
Yes that is correct because windows will think in terms of MB, so 125000MB=125GB.

Although technically 1024MiB = 1GiB (1GB in regular math). But that's not really important. :rolleyes: Just remember this if you are not aware of the size discrepancy from what windows reports the hard drive size is and what the hard drive manufacturer says it is. :p

[Skunky]

I think I am going to partition 20gigs for the operating system and other software. I’ll partition another for videos, pics, and games and the third for all of my data files (word, excel, publisher, etc.) I do have a western digital 300GB external hard drive but I use that as a movie/t.v. show repository. I have a WIN TV-PVR 350 and record shows and movies and save them to the external hard drive. I also have a web cam that I use on the Western Digital as well. I have another computer which runs my DVR 16 camera system although I only have 8 cameras currently. That computer has a 300 GB hard drive, but I use it solely for my cameras and I am sure I will be using it as I install Win XP Pro onto my other computer. You know, in case I need to look anything up or download drivers for my hardware should something go wrong post installation ;)

Thanks so much jlreich and Frus Tray Ted for your advice. I really appreciate it. I have thought about this for like a month now and think I have everything covered. There’s always something that rears its’ ugly head. Hopefully, I have planned it out well so the installation goes without incident.

~Gwen

[jlreich]

Good luck. :)

[Skunky]

I am installing XP Pro now. When I went to partition out my areas of the 250 GB hard drive, it says I have 131062 MB Drive. Wouldn't that then be = to 131 GB??? If 1,000 MB = 1 GB. I am confused so I didn't partition out my three areas. XP is now formatting my new 250 GB hardrive. It sas C: Partition1 [New (Raw)] 132062 MB (131061 MB Free) on 131070 MB DIsk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR].

I have literally just started formatting the drive 3% complete. Did I miss something? I want to partition the 250GB hard drive into three different partitions, but the 131061 MB free thing threw me off as I was thinking I had 250000 MB so I simply am formatting the entire drive in NTFS and if possible, will buy PM 8 after everything is okay and then partition then UNLESS you think I should do something else. Should I start the setup over?

Any advice, at this point, you can give, would be most apprecitated.

Thanks so much!!

~Gwen

[jlreich]

If you have an older version of XP (pre SP1) it will be limited to recognizing 137GB. If that is the case, once you get SP2 (bypass SP1 and install SP2) you can go into device manager and it will now see the rest of the drive. You can then partition, format, and assign a drive letter to the rest of the drive. Or if you decide to buy PM you can use that.

[Skunky]

You are correct. I have a 2003 XP Pro disk which isn't SP2. Are you saying to install as and then use Windows Update for SP2 and then set my partitions with a third party program such as PM 8 OR are you saying to use my XP Pro SP2 disk to install (I do have one. I have 2003 XP Pro including SP2 disk., but I am installing the Xp Pro no SP2 now.) Should I start over and use the XP Pro SP@ disk for the setup. I am using the XP Pro disk which doesn't include SP2 currently.

Thanks!!

[Skunky]

I was wrong. I have an XP Pro CD with just that XP Pro and then I have a XP Pro including SP1. I started over becasue installation hung after the format when it said "Restarting Computer". I am now running the setup using the XP Pro CD including SP2

[Skunky]

Dammt. I mean SP1....sorry. too many glasses of wine. I probably shouldn't even be installing in my current condition, but hey, it's Saturday night and I am at home istead of being out. Isn't that depressing enough?? :)

[jlreich]

If you are already well on your way installing the older disc, go ahead and finish. If not then I would use the SP2 disc but use the product key from the older disc if you have the newer disc installed on another machine.

I would download the full SP2 network install directly instead of through windows updates. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

EDIT - SP1 should see the whole drive.

[Skunky]

Okay. I actually started over with the XP Pro including SP1. So, when prompted, I should enter in the key code for the original XP CD (The XP Pro straight up - Not including SP1 which is in the drive now.)?? I Created two partions - One 10 GB or OS and the rest for data, video, pics, etc. I formatted with NTFS. I'm at 73% now.

~Gwen

[Skunky]

Also, I keep getting a plug & play configuration error and I press F1 to continue. I have a Matrox Dual Head graphics card and a Nvidia card. The mouse just locked up and I am restarting the computer. This is after installation copied all necessary files to the hard drive. Now it wants to start the Windows Setup again. Weird, but then again, what do I know.

[jlreich]

It's best to use the other key. If you have the newer disc installed on another computer you may have problems activating the new install. Unless it has been longer than six months since you installed the newer version, then it won't matter really since MS will have dumped their database. You have two legit keys, so if problems come up at some point you can always deal with it if needed.

Did the SP1 disc recognize the whole HDD?

Edit - if you are using two graphics cards it would probably be best to remove one of them until you get windows installed.

[Skunky]

I got all the way to collecting information, dynamic update, preparing installation, and installing windows (installing devices) all ok. It is still installing and coping files.....28 min left

I'll let you know the verdict shortly. Thanks sooooo much for your help!!

[Skunky]

Yes, it recognized the entire drive. It is almost done installing. If I have a problem after the fact, I'll remove the second video card and try again, but so far so good. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[Skunky]

Looks like everything went okay. I am on the desktop and am now going to windows update to continue unless you have another suggestion. After windows update, I will install all software starting with Norton System Works 2006.

[Skunky]

Something weird. My mouse seems to hang 1-2 secs for every continuious motion of 5 seconds or more. It will hand and then release. Any idea??

[jlreich]

There could be several reasons. Have you installed SP2 yet? Or any other windows updates? There may be stability issues that are addressed with certain updates.

Have you installed chipset/mobo drivers? This is very important. Chipset drivers tell the OS how to properly "talk" with the components on the motherboard. If you don't know what your chipset is post the make and model of your system, or the make and model of your motherboard and I will help you track down the proper drivers.

Too many extra components hooked up when installing XP. It is usually best to have a basic system setup when installing any OS. Then after the OS is fully updated and such, install extra components one at a time allowing windows to deal with each one before going to the next.

If you haven't installed SP2 yet and have connected to the internet you could be infected with malware. Without SP2 you can be infected simply by being connected to the net, even if you never had a browser up, and regardless of Norton.

When installing an OS, most of us around here will have the chipset drivers, video drivers, SP2 (or applicable SP's for whatever OS), and AV/FW already downloaded and burned on a CD or USB thumbdrive ready to be installed. Pull the internet connection, install the OS, installed the above mentioned, then activate windows, then go directly to windows update. Only then do we go to install more hardware and software.

Also I would advise dumping Norton. It is very bloated and disliked by many around here. I would recommend Avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html) for AV. Kerio (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm) for firewall. They both require registration but are free and as good or better than Norton without the bloat.

I won't be back on until later this evening, but will check back then.

[Skunky]

Okay. So. I have re-installed Windows XP Pro. It took some trial and error, but I finally got it. I think the key, at least for my system and probably a good rule of thumb, would be to remove ALL unnecessary hardware and leave only the bare components as mentioned by jlreich. Thanks for all of your information btw. I didn’t do that the first two times around. Finally, I removed all non-essential hardware. I removed all of my hardware leaving only the original CD-ROM (I unplugged my DVD), one video card, and one network card.

After doing this, I re-installed Win XP Pro without incident. To finish, I installed each piece of hardware (Video Cards, T.V. tuner, etc) separately and then ran the windows update (There were A LOT). After Windows update and after installing SP2, I installed each piece of software. During windows set-up, I partitioned my drive three times. 10 GB for the operating system and other incidentals, 120 GB for applications, data, etc and another 120 GB for movies, pictures, music, etc. I have two computers both networked by a Linksys BEFSX41 router. I also installed NSW 2006 for my virus protection.

I must say this momma is humming along quite well and I couldn’t be happier. There are a few idiosyncrasies. This may be due to doing nothing with the mobo or chipset as mentioned in jlrich's post above (Please advise), but I think everyone at some point in time should perform a clean install of their operating system themselves. It’s was great learning experience and with people like jlreigh and Fruss Tray Ted, even if you run into a problem(s), knowledgeable and skilled users such as the aforementioned are here and willing to help out. Jlreich was helping me as I was doing the install via the forum!! It was great. I didn’t finish that night as I had one too many glasses of wine which I’m sure played a factor in my overall installation success and thought process along the way.

P.S. As mentioned above, I DID NOTHING WITH THE MOBO or CHIPSET and the computer seems to be functioning fine. Should I have done something with those? Should do something now post installation??? I will await your instructions. BTW - My computer is a Dell Precision Workstation 330.

Thanks!!!

~Gwen :)

[Skunky]

I should mention jlreigh, that I did not see your post about Norton until today. I already installed NSW 2006, but can easily uninstall it and go with your recommendations. I use to hate Norton too. If you mean bloated as in you pay so much extra for the bells and whistles you probably won't use in lieu of using the free programs out there that do a better job, I see your point. I use to hate Norton. The only reason I use it now is because I am not aware of the other programs out there and had used Norton before without any problems. Basically, ignorance on my part for not being up to date on alternative virus solutions available. I didn't want you to think I was ignoring your advice about Norton. In your post you tell me now to use it and then I post just below yours saying I have already installed it. Obviously, I didn't read your post in its' entirety. I didn't want you to think I was dismissing your suggestions when it is I who is asking for help.


~Gwen ;)

[jlreich]

Here is the link (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&SystemID=WRK_PNT_P4_330&os=WW1&osl=EN#) for the Dell drivers and such for your machine. But it doesn't look like you really need anything from there. You probably picked up everything you need from windows update. Have a look in device manager (r-click my computer> properties> hardware tab> device manager) to see if there is any yellow question marks. If there is look for the appropriate driver in the link. If there are none and everything is working fine, don't worry about it.

Edit - Did your Dell come with a resource CD? If so the chipset drivers should be on there. Sorry I should have thought of this in the first place. I have reinstalled the OS on many many Dell's.

I did not see your post about Norton until today

Oh that's fine. I just figured you liked Norton. Some people do. I would recommend uninstalling Norton and going with the other programs I recommended. It's up to you though.

If you mean bloated as in you pay so much extra for the bells and whistles you probably won't use in lieu of using the free programs out there that do a better job, I see your point.

Exactly. ;) And Norton is difficult to get rid of. If you decide to get rid of it use the removal tool (ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/linked_files/tsgen/SymNRT.exe) provided by Symantec. The link was slow for me but it did work.

Glad to hear you got things up and running. :)