Partitioning is confusing !

Hi,

I read all that I can read in 2 hours about partitioning & still I'm confused, any help would be great!

I did a clean install on a new W/D Caviar Black 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb HD

I wanted the C drive for all my files like games & programs & D for the Operating System only...right now everything is being saved to the D drive.

How can I save 4 hrs work that's on the wrong drive, do I need to just Backup the files & then format and start all over again?

I would like the C drive as my main drive. This is not going to be a dual boot system, besides I only have 1 HD.

I have WinXP Pro, both C & D are NTFS, should I make the D drive FAT32 or NTFS for the OS?

Why would you want something ass backwards like the D drive for the OS and the C drive for files? I'm not sure how much space you wanted for your OS but you can do it like this.

During Windows XP install erase existing partitions. Create a partition that will fit the OS install, format with NTFS.

When windows is done loading up go to disk management in windows and then you can create logical drives and format with NTFS.

Theres no advantage of having FAT32 except for legacy systems, NTFS is faster, supports compression, encryption, disk quotas and more.

Right, ald also fyi C:\ is the standard for windows installs, so a lot of software and setups just expect it that way. Anything older than vista may have occasional issues if it's installed on a non default drive letter.

Hi,

Is there anyway I can Combine these two drives ? If not then I will Format & start all over again

Hi

Thanks for all the replies, I learned something new...sorry chief I did a clean install as well as a NTSF Format incase I broke a sector or something from doing Disk management. I tried partitioning & a dual boot about 5 years ago with Partition Magic...the same results, I just don't get it.

I now have a C drive & I'm loading World of Warcraft as I type this.

RetiredChief...were you a Navy Chief petty officer? I was a deckape in the Naval reserves...1961 to 1063 active duty on the US Davis DD937

Partitioning is SO much easier than you're making it. The thing about partitioning, is it can't be UNdone without losing your data. All partitioning does, is chop up one hardrive into multiple, smaller ones, totaling the actual space available on the single drive.
The first time you actually need to create a partition is when you first install your OS/Windows. Most of the time, you make it for the total capacity of the drive. But say you only have 1 drive and wanna have a 'backup'. Instead of the total size, you could give the OS partition a smaller size than the total size available. That would leave some left over for you to create another partition on later. Basically, each partition is seen as a different hardrive, and given its own drive letter. C: D: etc.
I gave up on partitioning a LONG time ago and found another hardrive works so much better. The only time I'd really recommend it is possibly multiple OS's or on a laptop, where it's near impossible to add a second drive; although external drives are cheap now. The thing to remember is if the hardrive dies, you lose all partitions/data. It is so much easier to just use another hardrive.