Need help with partitions and windows XP

Ok here's the deal.

On my first 20 gig hard drive, i have to partitions. One 3 gig partition simply for windows itself, and a 17 gig partition for all the programs i install. Now i want to update to SP1. Well i start running the service pack update right before i go to bed, and when i wake up in the morning, i see an error saying that i dont have enough hard drive space, and SP1 needs 112 megs more room on the drive where XP is installed. So here's my questions i need answered:

1. Is a 3 gig partition big enough for windows xp? i have nothing installed on that drive except windows xp and all the windows xp updates.

2. How would i add space to that partition without formatting and using fdisk. The partition i put windows xp on is NTFS, and my program files partition is FAT32. I dont want to have to reinstall windows again.

Thanks for the help in advance guys. I appreciate it.

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Originally posted by iL.L0gIc.aL
Ok here's the deal.

On my first 20 gig hard drive, i have to partitions. One 3 gig partition simply for windows itself, and a 17 gig partition for all the programs i install. Now i want to update to SP1. Well i start running the service pack update right before i go to bed, and when i wake up in the morning, i see an error saying that i dont have enough hard drive space, and SP1 needs 112 megs more room on the drive where XP is installed. So here's my questions i need answered:

1. Is a 3 gig partition big enough for windows xp? i have nothing installed on that drive except windows xp and all the windows xp updates.

2. How would i add space to that partition without formatting and using fdisk. The partition i put windows xp on is NTFS, and my program files partition is FAT32. I dont want to have to reinstall windows again.

Thanks for the help in advance guys. I appreciate it.

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First of all a a 3 gig partition and installing WIN XP is bad idea to begin wiht. Also unistall some of your program i am sure u installed some on you 3 gig worth. That should free up enough to install SP1. As far as i know you cant make the partition bigger without formating..... but someone here might know a trick.....

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Originally posted by iL.L0gIc.aL
1. Is a 3 gig partition big enough for windows xp?

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No. That's cutting it way too close if the only thing on the partition is the OS, and no matter how hard you try, stuff other than the OS is going to be on that partition:

* When you install programs -- even on other partitions -- DLL files and other components often need to be added to Windows.
* By default, your user profile by default resides on the same partition as Windows, which includes your Desktop, My Documents, application settings, and other stuff. Over time, your profile tends to grow.
* As you patch Windows, IE, and other items, they're going to put items on your system partition.
* Your page file is on your system volume by default. Most newer systems have page files over half a gig.

I'd say 8-10 GB would be a decent partition size if you want a partition just for your OS. That way you have room to grow and won't run into this problem again.

In the future, you might want to consider putting your OS and apps on the same partition to avoid having to resize partitions. In nearly all cases, there is no benefit to installing apps on a different partition than the OS. Sometimes it's beneficial to put data files on a separate partition so that you don't lose them if you reformat your system partition, but that benefit doesn't apply to most apps since you'd need to reinstall them anyway.

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Originally posted by iL.L0gIc.aL
2. How would i add space to that partition without formatting and using fdisk.

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A utility along the lines of Partition Magic is your only option to resize your partitions without reformatting them. If the price of Partition Magic is too steep for you, you could try Ranish Partition Manager, but it's not nearly as easy to use.

You might want to lower/fix the size of your Page/Swap File and/or move it to your larger 17GB partition. By default, Windows sets the size of this file by taking 1.5X your system RAM (256MB RAM = a 384MB swap file, 512MB RM = 768MB swap file, etc, etc). Also by default, Windows puts this file on your system drive (C: in most cases). You can choose to move this file onto your 17GB partition, freeing up a lot of space. Since the other partition is on the same physical drive, performance should not be affected either way.

You can change the swap file settings by right clicking on My Computer -> properties -> performance -> environment variables (?)....somewhere in there...I can't recall exactly what the different tabs are.

Also, make sure you have your recycle bin size settings lowered. By default, the recycle bin takes 10% of each drive/partition. That's 300MB for your 3GB drive, and 1.7GB for your 17GB drive. Set them independently from one another, or set them to a lower percentage to save space.

Also, go through and do a search for *.tmp
These files are normally safe to delete - and there can be lots of them, which saves some space as well.

Lastly, defrag your drive, which should free up a few more megs...

I'll also echo what others have said here though...3GB is a little small for WinXp to be happy. I use a 5GB partition.

-Ryan

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Originally posted by SkyDog


A utility along the lines of Partition Magic is your only option to resize your partitions without reformatting them. If the price of Partition Magic is too steep for you, you could try Ranish Partition Manager, but it's not nearly as easy to use.

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Drive Image can also resize your partition sizes...Although I don't reccomend using these utilities for doing this, as it's "dirty".

-Ryan

I once did exactly the same thing (3gb partition for XP), and there really is no way to make it work. Your swap file has a minimum size (I believe ~400mb), and as someone said above, when you add software to the D: partition, there are still hidden files that have to be written to the OS partition. I didn't even have enough room to defrag my C: drive, even after moving/deleting everything I could.

However, I bought Partition Magic for $30 on sale and was able to resize my partitions without formatting. Sometimes you learn things the hard way :p .

I'm an authorized Microsoft dealer and I have to tell you, paritioning is a great idea and perfectly fine but you'd best give yourself plenty of head room with XP. The 3gb may have been fine for the initial install but you will quickly realize how small that drive is once you start doing the phenomenal amount of updates required. Best advice I can give, dedicate at least half of that 20gb drive to XP. If you really can afford it, dedicate the entire drive to only XP and the other primary suite programs such as antivirus and Office style programs. Use your other drives for the fun stuff.