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A new PC. I'm so ashamed. Partitions?

 
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Patrick Haslow
Trandoshan

Joined: 25 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 12, 2003 03:17    Post subject: A new PC. I'm so ashamed. Partitions? View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

I finally broke down and got a spanking new PC. I want to edit UT2K3-4 and my old machine wasn't handling UnrealED or 3DS Max too well. I was forced into it OK? Anyhow it's a 2.4GHz P4 with 512MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive using my previous Geforce 3 Ti card. It came with XP Home Edition on it.

Since the old forums are toast, I have to ask some of my old questions again- I guess of Mattias, that is.

Firstly, I also have XP Professional on disk. Would it be best to reformat the hard drive and do a clean install of XP Pro on its own partition? I would also need suggestions again about the formats to use on the partitions for general use, OS, and Virtual Memory.

Help please!

Patrick Haslow
Trandoshan

Joined: 25 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 12, 2003 03:23    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

A separate question. What are the regulations regarding selling an unregistered copy of OEM Windows XP Home Edition? I'd like to do this legally on eBay.

Mattias Welander
Trandoshan

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 12, 2003 12:54    Post subject: Re: A new PC. I'm so ashamed. Partitions? View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Reply with quote

Patrick Haslow wrote:
Would it be best to reformat the hard drive and do a clean install of XP Pro on its own partition?


Yes. Windows NT is a little bit too nice when it comes to keeping settings from earlier installed Windows versions. The more of the old one you can remove before you install the new one, the better.

Patrick Haslow wrote:
I would also need suggestions again about the formats to use on the partitions for general use, OS, and Virtual Memory.



I would recommend this (unless you have extreme security requirements):

OS: 5-6 GB FAT32
VMem: 1 GB FAT16
Data: FAT32
Programs: NTFS

Patrick Haslow wrote:
What are the regulations regarding selling an unregistered copy of OEM Windows XP Home Edition?


I've never owned a OEM version of a program, so I can't say for sure, but from what I hear, the manufacturers aren't too happy about reselling OEM software. In fact, I think they often deny the customer this right in the license agreement for the software. In the end, it all comes down to your local laws, however, since a license agreement can never (at least in Europe - I don't know how this works in the US) supersede the law, unless the law itself explicitly states it can.

What I'm saying is, I doubt you can get into trouble for reselling it, but I also think a lot of people will be unhappy with you.

Nottheking
Kell Dragon

Joined: 29 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 12, 2003 18:22    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

After using both XP Home and XP Pro, I'd definitely say that Pro is better, hands down.

As far as partitions, Mattias, I'm curios as to why you reccomend FAT 32 for the OS and for data, while you reccomend the NTFS for the programs. If I remember correctly, in NTFS, the directory store what each cluster is used for. While this takes up more space than the FAT, it can be far more useful in resisting damage to the disk. Why wouldn't you reccomend it for all partitions (aside from the VM, that is)?

As for the legality of selling OEM software, it IS allowed by law, although every single software company in the US pretends that the only part of international copyright law is a provision that makes piracy a felony. Although these companies claim the law is superceeded by the EULA, I don't think this is the case. If you want to sell it, I don't think you'd be having any trouble, as it should be perfectly legal.

_________________
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Mattias Welander
Trandoshan

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 12, 2003 18:39    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Reply with quote

Nottheking wrote:
As far as partitions, Mattias, I'm curios as to why you reccomend FAT 32 for the OS and for data, while you reccomend the NTFS for the programs.



NTFS is superior to FAT in all aspects - except for two areas: speed and recoverability. Both are important on those partitions (speed to a lesser degree). While it is not completely impossible to manually recover (or in the case of the OS partition replace) files on NTFS partitions if you are unable to boot the system, doing so is significanty easier on FAT partitions. Having my OS and data drives FAT instead of NTFS have saved me more times than I can remember. As long as you have a proper backup routine in place (which you should have anyway), disk damage should not pose a problem.

Patrick Haslow
Trandoshan

Joined: 25 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 13, 2003 20:16    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

Thanks Mattias,
I have to set aside a couple of hours now to configure the new PC. I am wiping the drive clean before a new system install. It's got a lot of extra commercial junk on it as part of Dell's installation package anyway.

And since eBay always has at least a hundred people selling OEM Windows on any given day I am not going to worry about it.

japh
Gamorrean

Joined: 30 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 13, 2003 23:13    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

Mattias Welander wrote:
NTFS is superior to FAT in all aspects - except for two areas: speed and recoverability.



In what way is NTFS superior to FAT32? (I assume FAT32 is the best FAT.)

Nottheking wrote:
While this takes up more space than the FAT, it can be far more useful in resisting damage to the disk.



This seems to contradict what Mattias says about recoverability.

Mattias Welander
Trandoshan

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 13, 2003 23:23    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Reply with quote

japh wrote:
In what way is NTFS superior to FAT32?


Among other things, NTFS support encryption, security and compression.

japh wrote:

Nottheking wrote:
While this takes up more space than the FAT, it can be far more useful in resisting damage to the disk.


This seems to contradict what Mattias says about recoverability.



Actually, it doesn't. Nottheking is correct when he claims that NTFS can survive more damage than FAT can. However, once the damage is impossible to repair, it is significantly easier to recover files from FAT partitions than from NTFS partition.

Lionel Fouillen
Gamorrean

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 14, 2003 19:09    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

Patrick, if you're planning to do video editing on your PC, you should have at least 1 NTFS partition for data in order to override the FAT file size limit of 2 GB.

Mattias Welander
Trandoshan

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 14, 2003 19:16    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Reply with quote

Lionel Fouillen is correct. For video editing, you should use a dedicated NTFS partition (actually, you should really even use a dedicated drive for that).

But... did I miss something? I don't remember Patrick Haslow mentioning he should use the system for video editing? I mean, his HD is hardly large enough for that anyway.

Lionel Fouillen
Gamorrean

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 14, 2003 20:51    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Reply with quote

My current hard disk is also 40 GB big, which is enough for short films, and you can usually not expect amateurs to produce long feature films. In my case for example, 40 GB is enough to host Windows XP Home, MS-Office 2000 Premium (full install), 1 game like Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Jedi Outcast, a few multimedia programs, Documents and Settings, plus enough space to import what was recorded on 1 MiniDV tape and separately edit picture and sound then produce MPEG files for either VideoCD or DVD creation.

However to use more programs or to manage rushes from several MiniDV tapes, I recommend a much larger hard disk as well.

Mattias Welander
Trandoshan

Joined: 27 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Dec 14, 2003 20:56    Post subject: View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Reply with quote

Well, while editing you want to work in uncompressed mode, which means even a short amateur film will likely take up 40 GB or more alone.

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