250 GB HDD partition

C

cdinesh

Disciple
Hi,

I want to partition a 250 GB HDD.
Would like to install Windows XP and Windows 2003 with Oracle 10g DB.
Please help?

Is there any good 3rd party software for partitioning a HDD.

What is the max size for FAT32 partition (is it 30 GB)?

Thanks in advance.
 
why would u want to FAT it ? .. anyway..if u are interested most of the partition managers format the big partitions into FAT32 partition....i had tested it only on 80 GB ... but i think it'll work on bigger ones too..not sure though..;)
 
use windows xp 2 partition it
make jus the os partition while seeting up os and the rest of it once u boot 2 it , more than 2 partitions since u need 2 os partitions id suggest 3 to the max

no need for any 3rd party tools for this simple task
 
i'm using 3 NTFS partitions of 80Gb, 80GB and 72GB.... Unless u plan to make partions less then 32 GB's u'll have to format using NTFS cuz Windows XP cannot format FAT32 drives of more then 32GB... it does support preformatted ones though... :)
 
FAT32 supports drives upto 2TB... though i don't know neone who has a drive THAT big :bleh: Windows XP can't format more then 32GB as i said.. though y tht's the case i don't know....:ashamed: :huh:
 
Well one major constraint with FAT32 is that it supports files no larger than 4GB . so you can't copy a single 4gb file . NTFS has no limitation like this.

if you want to convert FAT32->NTFS , its cool . its a clean process

but if you are doing it other way, its not a clean process.
 
Since both the OS's that you'll be using (XP and 2003) support NTFS it would be better to go with it .. also with the 4GB limit for FAT drives it's better to stick with NTFS .. the 32GB limit for FAT32 drives is there if you use fdisk to format ... if you need a 3rd party tool you could check out Acronis Disk Director or Partitionmagic
 
I could think of one good reason to use FAT32. There is no scandisk for NTFS. I recently had some lost allocation chain issue with my NTFS formatted HDD and was not able to run CHKDSK. It kept denying me saying that the volume has been locked by another program and if I would like to run it on reboot. Guess what? It never ran on reboot.(wonder if it's cuz my WinXP is on F:)

I had to boot frrom and use the Windows setup CD scan the disk. Was a miserable experience.

On the other hand, I think NTFS is really good most of the time. In B'lore, power fails a dozen times a day. Every time the PC restarts, torrents resume (after check)without any disk issues.

Oh, but you have to use a 3rd party utility to create FAT32 partitions under XP or 2000. There's a small one(fat32format I think) floating on the net. It's very easy.
 
I don't have a UPS. Just don't have the space to keep another box in my room.
Xfactor, thanks. I'll try it next time round and see if it works.
 
Back
Top