[Borkil]

Hi, I was wondering how I would make a partition with Windows files only. Meaning that only the files need to boot up Windows XP Pro would be stored on it and everything else on another partition or hard drive. How big should the partition be? How do I change the default folders such as My Documents and others to not automatically put things on the C drive? Thanks in advanced for the help!

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Possible but not really practical.

Due to the way that Windows works, it will insist on dumping everything, not just the files that are needed to boot, onto the partition you want to keep clean. This is by design and as Windows gets bigger every month with software coming in, going out, service packs coming in, more updates etc on an ongoing basis, eventually your small partition will fill up.

It is possible to change where My Documents and co live - right-click on them, choose Properties and there's an option to move them to a new drive or wherever.

[Neil Jones]

Possible but not really practical.

Due to the way that Windows works, it will insist on dumping everything, not just the files that are needed to boot, onto the partition you want to keep clean. This is by design and as Windows gets bigger every month with software coming in, going out, service packs coming in, more updates etc on an ongoing basis, eventually your small partition will fill up.

It is possible to change where My Documents and co live - right-click on them, choose Properties and there's an option to move them to a new drive or wherever.

[Vaillant]

There are very technical, long, and rather dangerous ways to do this manually in the registry, but there are also softwares that allow you to pull this off quite easily and efficiently.

I speak of personal experience, having a computer with 7 partitions (having windows alone on 1, programs on the 2nd, games on the 3rd, etc etc etc)

TuneUp Utilities allows you to do this Very well, and safely. I highly recommend it, if you're serious about what you want (because it isn't a free application, but very much worth the money.)

Good luck


--Also, for the C: size, I set mine always to 20Gb, even though windows is only using 7 at the moment. The real minimum I'd put is 10, should drive space be at a premium.

Edited by Vaillant, 11 March 2007 - 04:46 PM.

[Borkil]

Hi again, if I use TuneUp Utilities how would I configure my hard drives for a Windows only partition? Are there any other programs that can accomplish the same task?