1. do I need partitions on a relatively small drive?
2. why?
3. what is the optimal size for primary and extended partition on a 9.667 Mb hard drive?
4. How do you set the proper size using fdisk?
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   I'm installing win98 then an XP upgrade
   
   The message I'm getting at this point is 'Windows 98 has detected that drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition.'
   
   That is because I deleted the partitions.
   I'm at A: now and ready to partition the drive.
   How should I proceed?
   
   
   also fdisk will want to know if I want to enable large disk support.
   y, n

you don't actually have to partition, but it is a good way to organize your stuff. Besides, if you keep your install files (f.i. windows dir) and your personal data on separate drives, you can format one, without having to do a painful backup. You can backup on the hdd itself, for the same reason.

They used to say your promary had to be the biggest, but with large disks today, I have system partitions smaller than data partitions, and everyhting works fine. So I guess you can do whatever you want.

With 10 GB, I would say a c: with 6 GB and a d: with 4 GB. But of course, that's and advice, not a rule.

Fdisk doesn't give you a lot of options (at least, not the win98 version). Enabling Large disk support is necesary when you have a large disk (which you do), so 'Y'. When using fdisk started by the serup, you will create just one partition. You can use partition magic pro 7 from powerquest, to add another one later or you could boot your pc and make them yourself directly in fdisk.

Type fdisk after boot. Create a primary (f.i. 6 GB), create a logical with the rest of the amount of data and in that logical you create and extended partition.

i agree, one should always have a partition for data. Then you can just format your OS drive in the event of a failure, without having to rescue data.

woo hoo!!!

I've got shiny new partitions. C: 85% and D:15%. I am really ticked at microsoft now though. My win 98 oem cd wont boot. Damaged. The back up I made won't boot because of the copywrite protection. I got around that before by booting with the original then switching disks at the first prompt during set up. Funny that its not working now though. I'll have to borrow the neighbors tomorrow. XP seems to be loading in.... that should work for about a month . At least I should have my importent files locked in D: when its time to switch my O.S. to one I actually own

system(not the one being patitioned):
DELL INSPIRON 8100
1.2 Ghz Plll
ATI MOBILITY 7500 64Mb RAM
512 Mb SDRAM
30 GIG HD I would like to partition this someday; that would be cool
Toshiba DVD
15.1 ULTRA TFT DISPLAY
this thing rocks. All games play at max settings and 1024 x 768 resolution.

which is better NTFS or FAT

I just created new partitions on my HD. I chose the FAT system for my primary drive. Was this good? I read somewhere that the FAT system was either slow or robbed resources or something. I don't remember. Please, I would very much like to hear all youall's opinion on this.

Is it ever advisable to put one system on a partition and the other system on the other partition

FAT @ whatis.com
NTFS @ whatis.com

AFAIK, NTFS has smaller clusters than FAT. but note that Win9x can't read NTFS, so if you're doing a dual boot, then at least the partition where you share your file (back up data), should be in FAT (or else you can't access it with Win9x)

yes, each OS should have their own partition.

FAT32 vs. NTFS @ anandtech.com (be sure to check the list of links at the bottom)
Using FAT32 and NTFS on the same system @ anandtech.com

always found Anadtech's FAQ page and Whatis.com come in handy in times like this.

Great thanks

Hi

I would like to know, if its recommended to install only the os on 1 partition and all the other supporting application like microsoft office, antivirus, etc, and the hardwares drivers in the other partition so that it will not like up any more disk space if I were to put only 4G of disk space for my os.

Thanks

Putting all your software programs on a separate partition is a good idea. I've done this with my partitions (3 of them) and had no problems. Just be real careful where you install your programs to!!!

It should improve loading time of programs by a small amount, by having them separate from all other programs.

Hope this helps!!!

Thanks for your reply,

How about drivers, like for sound card, graphic cards and so on?

:grinthumb

I don't exactly know how you would go about that, but I guess if you could then it would be ok. Windows might need them sometimes though, so I really don't know what the results would be. Let me do some research and get back to you on that one.

I have to agree with SNGX1275 that the drivers have to be installed with the OS, but as he suggested it would be a good idea to put the download in another partition so you will not loose it if your OS crashes.

This is what I have done, and find it very handy sometimes!