A bigger HD?

[Submeg]

I looked in my device manager, and I'm pretty sure my drive is an IDE. I would most probably go with the Seagate, I've had issues with WD....not so sure I want that stuck in my laptop. But how do you get the partition setup on the new HD? When you reinstall windows, it has the basic info on the HD already. Do I need a boot disk or something??

[Harrison]

If you are installing XP or Vista then you can setup the HD as you install Windows. Just replace the old HD with the new one, then boot from the Windows install CD. It will load some drivers and then eventually get to a screen asking where to install the OS. From here you can partition and setup the HD before installing Windows. Make sure you select NTFS and not FAT as the filesystem, and do a quick format (no need to do a full one), then it will perform the partition and format and continue with the install.

If you create more then one partition at the install stage, after Windows has finished installing you may need to format the other partitions before you can see them as drives in Windows. To do this right click on My Computer and select manage. Then go to Disk Management where it should show you the partitions you set up. Select any additional partitions and right click to format them.

[Submeg]

How big should I make the first partition? I don't partition my drives, I don't gain anything from that so, I would only have two sections.

[Harrison]

20GB minimum, but 30-40GB recommend, and that would probably be big enough as the main Windows Boot partition. Windows XP normally uses a few GB up after a full install, plus once you install the applications you use it starts to eat up some more. And you have to remember that by default My Documents and anything on the desktop uses space up in the main partition.

I tend to install games into a second partition or HD to stop the boot partition from filling up, leaving just applications, my documents, the desktop and any other system files on the boot partition.

It is up to you though. You could just as easily format the whole drive as a single partition. It would work fine, however I always make a smaller boot partition and then partition the rest for files and game installs. That way if anything goes wrong you can just format the boot partition and reinstall Windows without losing the data on the other partitions.

[Submeg]

Ok the thing is, my HD is partitioned now - with like 200 MB or something (I might be wrong on the numbers, but it is small) used for storing the info that help on the install of windows. Windows itself is installed on the other, main partition. That's the one I'm talking about. Confused much??

[Harrison]

Some PC builders do such strange things with their HD partitions and setups. Don't worry about that. It isn't important or needed. They sometimes create a small partition that holds the contents of the original Windows install CD. The system can then use that if needed instead of needing to request that you insert the Windows install CD. The number of times I've needed to reuse the Windows CD on my main system is probably 3 times in the last 2 years, so it is just a waste of HD space.

Laptop makers also have a habit of splitting HDs in half and using the second half as a backup partition for system restoring. Again that is pointless and not worth the bother. In my experience it is quicker to just format the HD and do a fresh reinstall of Windows than to try and rebuild the existing one from the backup partition.

So just partition your new drive into a main Windows C: partition and install Windows and all your applications onto that. And a second files/games D: partition, using the rest of the space on the disk.

Don't worry about any small system or backup partitions. They are just a waste of HD space.

BTW, do you have an original Windows install CD? I just thought that if they have included a partition on the HD with the files they might have done that to cut costs and not bother including a proper install disk with the laptop.

If you don't have an install CD, but you do have a legal Windows XP serial number then I could send you a copy of the install disk to use.

[Submeg]

Ok well that's ok then I get it. Yes I do have the cd, I still have all my cds for my laptop. I don't need partitions, I guess I could install my uni programs on another partition, but meh