WinXP Tweaking

[tracker]

Koroush:

Is it me?

You have not mentioned when or if ever to get windows updates?Do you not update ?You do not include updates in your regular maintenance program.

You mention to make one partition only?Why? If it is for speed reason have you test data that backs this up.

What does ntsf stand for and why is it more secure and faster than fat32?
"NTFS file system for maximum speed and security"

[drpeterbright]

ntfs = new technology file system (as in Windows NT)

Personally, I turn off automatic updates but check weekly.

[PersianImmortal]

Tracker,

Of course I update Windows (and regularly). I don't mention it much because it's fairly obvious, however I do explicitly say on Page 7 of my guide where I suggest disabling the Automatic Updates service that you should "manually update using Internet Explorer>Tools>Windows Update".

I suggest one partition and NTFS because intuitively it seems the fastest and wisest approach. Here are some reasons:

Partitions:
- 1 partition is detected faster on loadup and hence bootup into windows is faster.
- Separate partitions with different formatting results in the NTFS partition seeing the FAT32 one, but not vice versa.
- If you have 2 partitions for "compatibliity" then I have yet to see any problems running older (Win9X/ME/DOS-based) programs under NTFS
- If you have 2 partitions for backing up, usually when you lose data it's because the entire drive dies or gets corrupted. It gives you a false sense of security to backup from 1 partition to another whereas I strongly recommend backing up to CD which is foolproof.

In the end it's a personal preference but I recommend 1 partition.

As for NTFS, this comes directly from MS (XP "start here" booklet, pages 4-5):

NTFS - The NT file system (NTFS) is used with the Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Operating systems, NTFS provides enhanced reliability, stability, and security, and supports large hard disks of up to 2 terabytes (TB).

Use NTFS if:

- your hard drive is larger than 32GB and you are running only one operating system on your computer.
- you want enhanced file security
- You need better disk compression

Since the speed difference is negligible from most benchmarks I've seen, and NTFS has so many more benefits, especially security and stability wise, I recommend NTFS. For larger hard drives (32GB+) I have seen figures which suggest NTFS is faster than FAT32 as well.

[tracker]

Thanks for the answers.

One more.........Ghost from Norton only works so I understand on fat32 so if I have two drives would I place this on a partition on thesecond drive or use something else altogether to backup.

[Darthtanion]

- If you have 2 partitions for backing up, usually when you lose data it's because the entire drive dies or gets corrupted. It gives you a false sense of security to backup from 1 partition to another whereas I strongly recommend backing up to CD which is foolproof.

I normally recommend two partitions simply because it is a fact of life that you will have to reinstall Windows from time to time. Though WinXP is infinitely better than older versions, it still hacks up a furrball from time to time and needs to be reinstalled.

By having two partitions, I reserve the primary bootable (C:\) for the OS and productivity applications. All games, extraneous programs, music files, saved doc files, etc are stored on the extended drive (D:\). Now when I have to format C: to reinstall the OS, I don't have to reinstall a huge amount of data, nor do I have to transfer it from CD back to the hard drive where I can access it faster.

Other than that, I agree wholeheartedly with the comments. :)

[PersianImmortal]

That would be a good reason to have 2 partitions, yes. Backing up is one of those personal things and different people have different preferences.

My personal approach is to keep all my files in a set of personal directories (music, movies, downloaded original files, setting/save files) and back them up to CDRWs once every month or two.

Then when the inevitable reinstall of the OS comes along, I do a full reformat of the entire drive and reinstall XP, then copy back my files and reinstall all my apps.

This way the drive is reformatted (fixing any corrupted sectors etc.), and my registry is completely fresh and lean after a reinstall, which I'm not sure a partition-based approach would do.

To each their own though and various approaches have their individual merits :)

[tracker]

Can someone help me understand this:

Lets say I partition my drive in half and use NTFS on each partition,so that I know have a boot c:\ and a d:\ drive.I place my operating system on c:\ and other files on d:\.

Then If i have a problem with c:\ or d:\ I understand that I can reformat either c:\ or d:\ and do not have to reformat the whole drive.

So if I'm running an 80gb drive does it not make more sence to install the operating system in a 15gb partition and make this c:\ drive and then reinstall c:\ with a backup copy of your operating system every 3 months.

Is this not better than waiting till it starts to f up.

Also Will Games run if they are installed onto d:\ or do they have to be installed on boot c:\ with the operating system....that is can the operating system be the only thing that is installed onto c:\ drive or do applications and games have to be installed on the c:\ boot drive to work.

[Kheldar]

if you have 2 partitions yes you can format one without losing the other.

You can run games & other software very easily off your D drive however, when you resinstall your OS you will have to resinstall the games, since the DLL's, registry entries etc. will not be there since you've deleted your C drive (Not everything gets installed to your second disk)

The best solution is to have 2 separate physical HD's (or more I usually have 3 or 4). Hard drives are relatively cheap, and for the hassles of having partitions, I'd rather a second physical disk.

Partitions have their uses but its not the fastest way to have your computer. Its also fairly easy to make a mistake when mucking around with your partition and Bingo, its all gone.

They can be a good method of organising your data, but it won't save you much time when your reinstalling your system.

[tracker]

I guess then that partition use came into effect when hard drives were expensive and now with the cost coming down and usb ports the use of partitioning is old hat.

Thanks for the great info.

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

if you have 2 partitions yes you can format one without losing the other.

This isn't exactly true all the time. See reason is my brother a long time ago had two partitions set up C was Fat32 for win98 and D was NTFS for win2k. We came across a problem in 98 and I ended up formatted the C drive. He then backed up everything from C onto D. Guess what happened? I formatted C not even thinking of anything happening to D well thsi wasn't the case. As D soon became an infinite tree of garbage. As seen below....
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..
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..
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..
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..
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..
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and it just went on forever and ever. I had to fdisk it and start all over from the very beginning.

[Darthtanion]

Reinstalling the games again after the fresh reinstall isn't really necessary. I've scrapped my C:\ several times and then just thrown a shortcut to the executable from the D:\ drive onto my desktop to access it again. The worst that I've had happen so far with this technique is that when I throw in my Diablo II disk and it Autoplays, it doesn't recognize that the game is installed; but it plays with no problems at all. Most of the games don't even run into this minor a problem.

I can live with that. :)

[gregzeng]

Originally posted by Kheldar
...
> The best solution is to have 2 separate physical HD's (or more I usually have 3 or 4).

> Hard drives are relatively cheap, and for the hassles of having partitions, I'd rather a second physical disk.
...

A little out of date here.

Notebook computers only have ONE hard disk. They have (now) inbuilt Firewire, USB2, Pentium 2 ghtz, inbuilt Uninterrruptible Power supply, etc -- and are selling better than other forms of computers.

So if you hav 30, 40, 60 GB, you might prefer to partition it. Each partition is easier & quicker to:
DEFRAG
SEARCH
INDEX
VIRUS SCAN
....

etc.

You can hide partitions, & have your backup/ archive partitions in NTFS-COMPRESSION.

It is a good idea sometimes to have one partition devoted to the disk cache - between the two larger partitions.

Greg Zeng
AUSTRALIA

[lmwalton]

I have three hard drives, On one I have WinME, and XP Pro on another. The third drive I use for backing up the other two. This works fine for me, I mess up all the time but I just go to my backup drive and I'm up and running in no time. I just could not see the expense in buying a CDRW.

[tracker]

lmwalton:

Thanks for the info it all helpps in knowing what others have figured out or what works.

James Jolly

[ReSpAwN DeMoN]

well I have one 41gig drive formated in ntfs with xp pro. When ever I need to back up anything I either load things on cd-r's....or I back up to the 15 gig partition on the 30 gig drive on the server.

I usually find one drive easier to work with and for some reason I can stand working with a second drive. I'm getting my hands on a broken 40 gigger it died in an improper overclock. If I can rejuvinate the drive then I'll probably load linux on it or something and use that drive for back up. Something like that.