I am close to putting all my parts together and firing up my build. The HD is an OEM and I was wondering that IF I am successful and get to the OS installation step successfully, will I need to format the HD someway? Does XP ProSP2 partition the HD? Or do I need to go to WD site and download the drive format/partition utility?

Thanks for any advice.

RM

When you run your XP setup, where you choose to install fresh xp installation, the next screen should show you what partitions are already on that HD, to where you can delete them, and create a new partiton, then it will ask for quick or full format. After the format, it will copy its files to the HD, and continue the installation.

Since it looks like you want a good fresh install, I'd delete all partitions, can create a new one, with full format.

If it's already partitioned, Grimmy right, you will have your choice of where to install. I always just do a full format of the partition I'm installing Windows on and never had a problem. If it's not already partitioned, I'd used the WD software. I have Partition Magic that is a great program to create, resize, and in general manage partitions. Worth checking out

:? . o O (why would you want to use WD software to partition it?)

I can understand partition magic can be useful... but why bother when you can make the partition(s) you want to begin with, by just using the XP setup disk?

It shouldn't matter if the drive was never partitioned. Unless your trying to do a low level format (if thats is what the software provides), which is usually used as a last resort if problems persist on a drive you had for a long while.

Over the years I've found Partition Magic useful for resizing and adding and deleting partitions once Windows is installed. Plus most partitioning I've seen has been in MB and I'm use to thinking of partitions in GB and my math isn't that good and I confuse easily.

Thanks for the responses. I will try to do it with XP setup. My drive is a WD 250 GB SATA drive. I have a 160 GB IDE drive I could add in later after file transfers.

Any recommendations on a partition size for the XP OS? 30 GB or more?

Thanks.

RM
CoolerMaster Centurion
Gigabyte GA-965pDS3
C2D 6320
Patriot ddr2-800 (2 X 1 GB)
eVGA 7600GS 256MB
Sony/NEC 18x DVD R/RW Optiarc-SATA
WD 250GB SATA 8MB cache
Thermaltake 430W PSU

Hope to fire it up tomorrow--and hope for successful POST

First partitioning is really what works best for you. I a lot about 25 GB for the partition with the OS and programs and the remainder to storage. My rule of thumb is to always keep at least 25% of a drive/partition free. As to how many partitions, it really depends on what's best for you in terms of managing/organizing data. If you're doing videos, it's best to devote one drive/partition to this. Also a good idea to back your stuff up on a 2nd hard drive, especially an external

If you are thinking of vista later on, make your primary partition @ 30 GB.
I also have a 250 GB WD drive. I did 4 partions, @ 20 for XP, @55 for downloads, and 2 @ 77 gb, one for games and one for media. Seems like there are 3 platters in this drive, and that's why I did it like that (whether it helps or not).
Good luck

Its just a general preference. I got sick of doing all those partitions a long while back. I remember doing hd partitions for a guy due to his spec's (partition sizes) and later on it purpose a problem, since he was running out of C space for SP to be installed correctly for NT 4.0. Thats where partition magic pretty much saved us allot of headaches.

I generally just make one giant partition. I currently use a SATA 80 gig drive, which has never reached 50 percent of used space yet (drive is around 5-6 years old). My dads system is a 250 gig as well (I don't even think we used 15 percent with all the stuff he uses), and I made just one giant partition. Each system also has an external USB drive that we use to back up the current drives.

So each to their own I suppose... As long as the user knows where their stuff goes.