[Jackpine]

On the C:\ drive of my desktop computer I have Windows XP installed, as well as all programs and data (pictures, Word documents, etc.)  It does not appear that there are any separate partitions on this drive.  There is just "the drive."  I have a few questions about this.

 

1. Should Windows XP be on a separate partition, and why?
2. Given the current configuration of the desktop computer, is it possible to create a new partition for use only by Windows XP, and if so, how?

(I am aware that Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.  To that end, I have purchased a new laptop with Windows 8.1.  The desktop is no longer used for any banking or critical personal information, financial or otherwise.  If it gets attacked by malware, at worst it would be an inconvenience, but nothing of real significance.)

 

Thanks.

 

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Why would you need another partition? Creating a folder is a heck of lot easier and it automatically adjusts to fit whatever you dump into it.

[SpywareDr]

Why would you need another partition? Creating a folder is a heck of lot easier and it automatically adjusts to fit whatever you dump into it.

[Jackpine]

I didn't say I wanted another partition.  I want to know if its advisable to have the operating system in its own partition rather than in the same partition as everything else that's on the drive.

[phillpower2]

Having the OS on a separate partition reduces the risk of it becoming corrupted, this is something that can happen when the amount of free storage space on the HDD is low and data that is copied to the drive overwrites part of the OS.

[Jackpine]

Hi phillpower 2, we meet again!

 

So is this something that I can do with my existing C:\ drive?  Please provide instructions.  Thank you.

[SpywareDr]

Having the OS on a separate partition reduces the risk of it becoming corrupted, this is something that can happen when the amount of free storage space on the HDD is low and data that is copied to the drive overwrites part of the OS.

 

 

The Windows Operating System will not allow you to copy data to a partition that is almost full and thus corrupt the opearting system files.

[phillpower2]

Possibly not explained as well as it could have been Doc but I was referring to a single unpartitioned HDD that had the OS and personal data on a single C: drive instead of Windows being on it`s own allocated partition.

 

I will try and explain again 

 

Allowing for a single unpartitioned  HDD, Windows requires a minimum of 15% of the drives (or partitions) overall storage capacity available at all times to allow for defragmentation, data transfer/file swapping etc, if it doesn`t have it the data on the drive will become corrupt and in a worse case scenario the drive will fail mechanically.

 

If Windows is on its own partition C: on a single HDD and data is stored on the same HDD but on partition E:, if partition E: becomes full it will fall over but it will not affect the OS on partition C: unless the whole HDD fails mechanically. 

[Jackpine]

So, I currently have a single unpartitioned 250GB HDD that has Windows XP and data installed on it.  Based on what phillpower2 is saying, I would like to know if I can create a partition that will be used only for the OS.  If this is technically possible, that is what I would like to find out how to do - as requested in my very first post.

[SpywareDr]

EaseUS Partition Manager

 

Wikipedia: List of disk partitioning software

Edited by SpywareDr, 08 May 2014 - 07:09 AM.

[Jackpine]

Creating the new partition should be straightforward enough using EaseUS Partition Manager. (Can't this also be done using Windows Disk Management?)

I don't know how to have only the OS on the one partition and everything else on the other partition. Is that done using EaseUS Partition Manager? Click and drag?

And for that matter, what constitutes the OS? When I open Windows Explore, it is not obvious to me what folders are part of the OS and what are not. What needs to get migrated to the new partition?

Thanks.

[SpywareDr]

http://windowssecret...uld-I-partition

[phillpower2]

XP as a safe and secure OS is now defunct, its continued use is unadvisable, MS have withdrawn support, third party vendors have offered no support for years, back up your data, move on and where possible utilise XP compatibility mode in modern versions of Windows that are more secure, XP while we were fond of it is no more   

[Jackpine]

Thanks for the link SpywareDr. There sure is no shortage of discussion on the pros and cons of having the OS and data on separate partitions, as well as separate HDDs.

I'm still deciding whether to proceed, as well as figuring out how to do what I asked in my first post.

Edited by Jackpine, 08 May 2014 - 10:30 AM.

[SpywareDr]

The answer to your second question can be either yes or no.

 

If you never install anything other than Windows, then the answer is yes.

 

If you do install some other software though, some of those programs will also install some of their software on the same partition as Windows.