Questions that I'm hoping that it will clear my doubt

[pboong]

I have questions that I'm hoping that it will clear my doubts.

I'm going to reinstall my OS because my previous platform is Win XP 32 bit and now I on Win 7 64 bit. I felt that having a clean re-installation will make my life easier so as to have a new and clean 'look'.

1.
Since I have partitions on my HDD; C and D for 50Gb and 450Gb respectively. I wanted to make my C drive as 500gb. So, do I delete the C and D during the stage when it ask me where to put the Windows? Then, I will do the formatting. Am I right?

2.
Is it good to have C drive (OS) 100gb and D drive (All the applications) 400gb? Of course, all my other stuff like mp3 and work documents are in other drives so even when my disk fail, it will not affect anything to me.

But, I still wondering if I should make my C drive as 500gb or partition it.
Can you give me advise?

 

[torrentg]

1) Yes, you can delete partitions to make them unallocated space.

I would make a 200 GB partition for Windows, Program Files and User Folders. Then a 300 GB for anything else.

You can't setup partitions in this manner during install, I'm almost sure. You'd have to do it beforehand or use Acronis Disk Director Suite or Paragon after.



2) Programs folder on the same partition as Windows is fine. Moving Programs to another partition on another drive (especially under a separate controller) could possibly offer benefit but not by a huge margin or anything. It's best to put the pagefile on another partition in this manner.

 

[pboong]

1) Yes, you can delete partitions to make them unallocated space.

I would make a 200 GB partition for Windows, Program Files and User Folders. Then a 300 GB for anything else.

You can't setup partitions in this manner during install, I'm almost sure. You'd have to do it beforehand or use Acronis Disk Director Suite or Paragon after.



2) Programs folder on the same partition as Windows is fine. Moving Programs to another partition on another drive (especially under a separate controller) could possibly offer benefit but not by a huge margin or anything. It's best to put the pagefile on another partition in this manner.

Oic. So I shall delete the partition first then install the Windows (say 200gb). Then after which, I go to disk management to format the D drive. That's what I usually do in the past tho. :sarc:

 

[pboong]

After installing, I realise Window 7 will create Program Files and Program Files (x86). If let say I wanted to install certain programs and this application will store to D drive.

Hence, I create Program Files (folder)

Can I install to D:/Program Files instead? Meaning no (x86). It does not matter at all, right?

 

[pboong]

I just reinstall my Window 7. Having 500Gb HDD, I set 100Gb to have the Window installed on it.

After doing that, why is there a 100mb been created? It mentioned protected. But I deleted that volume off during installation.

Now, I have 100Gb for C drive, 100mb for D drive and 368Gb for E drive. Is there anyway I can combine that 100mb and E drive together?

I am confused now. Need some help on this.
If it is not going to work anyhow, I will have to reinstall for the 3rd time with 500gb as my C drive instead.

.
.
.

Edit add on:
I made a Google search that the 100mb is actually a bootup + recovery disk?

So, if this is the case, can I go back and reinstall my Win 7 and set that 100mb to 100gb for putting the OS in the same drive? Is it advisable?

Since I had deleted the 100mb drive (only the protected is deleted only, but physical 100mb drive remains), it means there's no protection over it already. If I wanted that to come back, I must redo the installation again?

Pls advise.
Thanks people

 

[Barman58]

Ok the 100MB partition is a windows system partition - you can remove it - but as it contains the Boot files for the OS and the sytem recovery tools you may find that removing it is a bad idea.

Best thing to do is to go into computer management - disk management and remove the drive letter D: which will make the drive invisible to windows as it is designed to be.

Having this partition means that there is less likely to be issues with startup in future.

With the Program files issue this is better left on the system drive as moving the location is difficult and fraught with potential issues.

What I would also do is on one of your other disks create a partition approx twice the size of your potential swap file (3-4 times fitted memory) and set you swap file to use this partition rather than the c: drive

Edit

To recreate the system drive you must re-install to a completely empty drive. If the drive is pre formatted when you start the install you can choose where to install the OS

 

[Etihtsarom]

Edit add on:
I made a Google search that the 100mb is actually a bootup + recovery disk?

So, if this is the case, can I go back and reinstall my Win 7 and set that 100mb to 100gb for putting the OS in the same drive? Is it advisable?

Not advisable. That 100MB partition is meant to be hidden and only kicks in to help you repair boot issues. BUT, if you have a W7 install/recovery disk, those disks will do the same thing for you, just more of a hassel to use the disk.

Since I had deleted the 100mb drive (only the protected is deleted only, but physical 100mb drive remains), it means there's no protection over it already. If I wanted that to come back, I must redo the installation again?

Pls advise.
Thanks people

Yeah, you confused yourself all up. Start over, easier to do. Get into the drive options, create a new partition for system drive - which will create 2 partitions: the 100MB one and the other, then use the rest of the space to create your other partition. Finally format them both, then install on appropriate partition. Drive letters are easy to assign in the disk manager if you must have C and D correctly assigned.

Regarding moving Program Files to another disk, you can, but it is a hassle and fruitless if you're not booting multiple OSes or snapshots of Win7 AND your disk is not </=, say, 60 GB. And this might affect Windows backup or other thirdparty imaging systems if you use those.

I understand you want 100GB for OS, but the OS only needs ~12GB, and assuming you have 10 Games @10GB each, a 150GB partition is more than enough, no need to move Program Files anywhere.

The Program Files (x86) is for your 32 bit applications whereas the folder Program Files will contain the 64bit stuff. It only adds 1 more folder to the root drive, not that messy, and, again, is a hassle to deal with if you change it. Remember, all your shortcuts, custom icons, links, and a lot of things else you gonna be using will have to be changed accordingly if you decide to change the default stuff. Possible, just a hassle.

 

[pboong]

Thanks all for the input.

I truly understand already.
After doing some checking, it is better to leave the 100mb there.

Initially I wanted to have 500Gb to be C drive with all of my programs, but after a thought, I decided to place all my other program files in D drive under the same HDD.

I was been told to do this way just in case OS crash on me.

Now everything is nice and good to go. Really appreciate for both Ragzarok and Barman58 help.


I have last one question. I saw that Window 7 will identify my Graphic Card, but do I still need to install the driver? Just in case there's update and etc. Furthermore, I also have to do calibration on my monitor, after doing that, I realised the calibration color isn't that accurate compared to the past.

 

[Dave76]

I think what the nice members are trying to tell you is that you should leave the 100mb partition there, remove the drive letter with Disk Management, this will make it hidden.

Use a 100GB partition to install your Windows 7 and all your programs.
This will be much easier for you.
Keep your OS and programs in the same partition, if you have to re-install your OS, you will have to re-install all the programs anyway.

Keep all your personal data and files, (music, videos, all personal files) in the other 400GB partition. So if you have to re-install the OS and programs, all of your personal data and files will be safe in the other partition.

Win7 will most likely load the correct driver for your graphics card.
After the installation check in Device Manager for any yellow triangles, this will indicate a problem, likely a driver.
If there is a yellow triangle on your graphics card driver then download and install the driver. If there are no yellow triangles then everything is good.

The new Win7 installation should take care of your color calibration issue.

 

[pboong]

Thank you so much. I shall redo the application and store under the same drive. Thanks once again.

Now I'm facing another issue.

I have 3 other HDDs and I slowly boot up each time I connect them. Everything is perfect except for one drive and it have 2 partitions. Weird that only 1 of the partition is click-able. I am able to view the files in that drive but not the other one.

I gotten this error: G:/ not accessible. Under My Computer, I cannot see how many space is left for G:/

I went to Computer Management and check on G:/, it stated that it is healthy. But I just cannot click on that at all. I am sure that during XP OS, that drive is still usable.

Does anyone know why and what happen?

 

[Barman58]

I assume the drive is set asside for Data and is formatted NTFS?

With these assumptions I would appear that you have an NTFS Permissions issue.

NTFS permissions are written to the actual drive and are persistent over an Operating system Change.

Although we allocate permissions to Names users the system sees these as an ID. Although we may create the same user name on a new install it is almost certain that the system will allocate a different code.

as you cannot see the drive contents at all you may have to enable the hidden administrator to "see" the drive, and to give control of the drive to either the Administrators group, or your actual user - once you have access you can allocate the rights to the drive for users as you deem fit

 

[pboong]

I assume the drive is set asside for Data and is formatted NTFS?

With these assumptions I would appear that you have an NTFS Permissions issue.

NTFS permissions are written to the actual drive and are persistent over an Operating system Change.

Although we allocate permissions to Names users the system sees these as an ID. Although we may create the same user name on a new install it is almost certain that the system will allocate a different code.

as you cannot see the drive contents at all you may have to enable the hidden administrator to "see" the drive, and to give control of the drive to either the Administrators group, or your actual user - once you have access you can allocate the rights to the drive for users as you deem fit

I tried login as administrator and did see that the disk is usable. I can click and view the stuff in there. I right click> Properties> Security Tab, set permission to Everyone.

I am certain that the Allow ticks had been ticked. Hence, I login back to my own account, the hard disk is still Not Accessible.

Is there a way to do it?

 

[Barman58]

Can you now see the root of the drive but still have issues with actually accessing files ?

 

[pboong]

Can you now see the root of the drive but still have issues with actually accessing files ?

Under Administrator mode, I am able to see everything including moving and deleting of files.

When I switched back to user mode, I can only see the drive with the word NTFS and not able to access it. Even the bar to show the free space does not appear at all.

 

[Barman58]

Log back in as Administrator and geive the administrators full control on the drive and also do the same for your actual user name

 

[pboong]

Thanks. I shall re check again on the full control later on. Hope it solve tho...

 

[pboong]

Log back in as Administrator and geive the administrators full control on the drive and also do the same for your actual user name

Done that. I saw SYSTEM and User/Admin with full permission control.

However, when I come back to user/admin mode, I am still unable to access it.

 

[pboong]

I had decided to format the drive off and now it is usable. That's the only way to do it swiftly instead of figuring out for days. All the methods given cannot resolve the issue, but I am very appreciate for the help.

Also, for the languages pack, do I need to install all of them?
Because when I installed, I gotten of:
WindowsUpdate_8000FFFF
WindowsUpdate_80004005

 

[baseballplyr345]

1. Yes, that would be correct.

2. 100gb would safer. Fortunately, Windows 7 includes a partition modification tool. So, should the need arise, you can always change the size of the partitions.