New HD, need a little help

[helicon1984]

Hi. I just ordered a new, 640GB Western Digital Caviar Black HD and I was wondering what's the best way to partition this drive? I know its a matter of personal preference of how many partitions I'll need but I thought you could offer some advice. I'm doing a clean install of Win7 RC (64bit), so I guess I have to format the drive before that and then later partition it. I've used the GParted LiveCD for dual booting XP and Win7 but if you know of a better program please let me know. That's it really.

[Buddy J]

With the Win7 install, it'll let you set up your partitions as part of the install process. I'd throw Windows and all the system crap on their own small partition and then use the rest of the drive as a second partition for storage of media and other stuff. The sizes are totally up to you.

[Thrax]

I'd give Windows 7 a 25GB partition, and then create a second partition for everything else.

If you're a good user and don't install everything to C:, you'll have plenty of room, and most -- if not all -- of your apps will survive any future reformat.

[MAGIC]

Is there a way to make the My Documents folder root out of the second partition?

[Thrax]

http://www.w7forums.com/change-location-my-documents-folder-t338.html

[MAGIC]

Danke

[helicon1984]

One more question. How would the overall performance be affected if I don't partition the drive and install Win7 anyway and then later partition it when the official Win7 version comes out? I'm gonna have to do a clean install again anyway when I buy the official version, right?

[Thrax]

Why not partition now? Since you're going to reformat when the retail copy arrives, you can copy your user profile off to the second partition, and then install Windows + restore your apps in 35 minutes. :)

[helicon1984]

Why not partition now? Since you're going to reformat when the retail copy arrives, you can copy your user profile off to the second partition, and then install Windows + restore your apps in 35 minutes. :)

Makes sense. Wouldn't the 25GB partition, like you suggested above be small for Win7 and any programs I install later? Isn't it required that new programs go into Program Files (or AppData on Win7, is it?) on the system partition?
Also, after clicking on 'custom install' when installing Win7 I should first click on 'new' on 'drive options', then choose the size of my partitions and after that's done format both partitions. Right? Or am I missing something?

[Thrax]

No, every program you install should go to the second partition. All you'll need to copy for a backup is your My Documents directory and your AppData directory (app data holds program settings, not programs) inside your user profile on C:.

Backup in a nutshell
1. On this install of Windows 7, install ALL of your programs to the second partition if you can
2. Save the installers!
3. Once it comes time to reformat, go to C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME
4. Copy APPDATA and MY DOCUMENTS to the secondary partition
5. Reformat C:
6. Install drivers
7. Test the applications on your second partition and reinstall any apps that don't work
8. Copy the APPDATA and MY DOCUMENTS folders that you saved from your old Windows install back into C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME
9. Reboot.

The whole reformat process with this method takes no more than 45 minutes.

Partitioning
Yes, use the custom install/advanced button in Windows 7. Create a 25GB partition, and a second one containing the remaining space. Install Windows to the 25GB partition.

SPECIAL TIP!
If you don't use your PC's hibernate functionality, you can type powercfg -h off at an administrator-level CMD.EXE prompt to free up space on C: equal to the size of your system's main memory.

[helicon1984]

That pretty much clears it up. Thanks. ;)

[Thrax]

And here's a picture just for clarity...

[DocFrazier]

so, not worried about moving my current profile over now, but will start using the partition when i install Win7. I already just use a separate HD for most of my applications/data storage. So if on the main HD i make the second partition and then were to move that profile over to my retail win7 when i get it, will that update the new registry with anything already installed?

(fix) alright, seems that my question is answered a few posts above, but I was always under the understanding when you installed a new os you had to reformate the HD and you lost everything? is this not correct?)

[Thrax]

You reformat partitions. If the partition happens to include everything, then you lose everything. If the partition only includes the OS and application settings (not the applications themselves), you only lose the settings and the OS.

You can recover most program settings by first backing them up (as in the picture above) and then moving them back to their original location (as in the picture above).

SOME programs store registry settings or files in folders that are not obvious. Photoshop and Office are great examples of this. You cannot save these apps through a reformat and they must be reinstalled.

It's important to realize that the registry is gone. Any settings it contained gets nuked, so if you have apps that NEEDED settings in the registry (many don't), they're toast too.

You cannot upgrade from any current edition of Windows 7, so you will need to repeat the backup -> reformat -> restore procedure for the retail release.

[DocFrazier]

Ty sir, got Win7 in and all systems appear nominal.