Multi OS Boots, Best HDDs Partition for FS9, Win XP SP1/SP2?

[Guest newman]

Dear experts,I've 2 HDDs (WD 74GB Raptor 10000 rpm 8MB SATA and WD Caviar SE 16 7200rpm SATA2 16MB 250GB). Questions:1. Is Windows XP Professional SP1 or SP2 better for FS9 performance (say in SP2 I will disable the firewall, autoupdate, and anti-virus software check)?2. I don't know whether it sounds stupid, or whether it is possible to have 3 multiple OS boot options and install 3 O/Ss - but please tell me if this plan work, or suggest a better one for me please. My objective is to have each Windows install for each of these usage intention without messing around the Windows System Folder(s) of others: (a) clean OS and boot for FS9 play; (:( another OS with normal boot for my normal work; © yet another OS with normal boot for other games:- 1ST PARTITION (5GB of 74GB Raptor): WIN XP PRO "A" SP1/SP2 (FS9 ONLY) - Settings with clean boot, no apps will be loaded under this OS (no Internet activity allowed here). - 2ND PARTITION (69GB of 74GB Raptor): FS9 main program, aircrafts (lots of freewares and paywares), and sceneries (also lots of freewares and paywares);- 3RD PARTITION (5GB of 250GB Caviar SE 16): WIN XP PRO SP2 "B" (DAILY WORK) - Settings as normal with typical protection software and firewall loaded, Internet activities allowed.- 4TH PARTITION (120GB of 250GB Cavair SE 16): This will be used for normal applications and daily work. Such as MS Office, Adobe Stuff, Anti-virus, Spyware, Adware, Firewall, Downloads, NERO 6.6.0.18, etc.- 5TH PARTITION (5GB of 250GB Caviar SE 16): WIN XP PRO SP2 "C" (GAMES)- similar to 3rd partition- 6TH PARTITION (120GB of 250GB Caviar SE 16): Games other than FS9.Please help me out and sorry for the long message .... can't wait to get it done propertly the 1st time!Here is my system - to be built (all components are in front of me now .. finally):Intel 915PBL Board, Intel P4-550 (3.4GHz), 2GB OCZ DDR2-533 (value 4-4-4-8), Sapphire ATI X850XT PCI-E 256MB DDR3, Western Digital SATA Raptor 74GB 10000rpm 8MB, Western Digital SATA2 250GB 7200rpm 16MB, Antec Sonata II (with SP-450W), NEC ND-3550A DVD+/-RW, LG 8163 DVD-ROM, Labtec Arena 675 5.1 Speakers, Saitek EVO Joystick, Windows XP Professional SP2.

[Guest SoarPics]

I'm not a huge fan of SP2. I installed it last year after it came out and wasn't impressed. Added 3 or 4 (can't remember exactly) extra services and increased my memory usage. And that's still after I disabled all the new stuff it added. Went back to SP1 and have been happy handling my own secutity.There was a time when I did a fair amount of partitioning, but not much anymore. I place my OS and games on the C drive. No partitions. I do partition my second Raptor with a small (5Gb) partition that becomes the D drive. This is where I put my Page File. Now my system never pauses during those (rare for me) occurances when the sim hits the Page File. (NOTE! The Page File should never be installed on a drive that is slower than the drive the OS is installed on.) The rest of my second Raptor holds all my other applications. I don't use large drives... archive everything to CD's and DVD's.The definitive XP Services guide is done by Blackviper. Although he's been on sabatical for a while you can Google him and find folks who have archived his guides. Using them I have 12 services running at start-up (including my AV). My memory footprint is quite small as well. No matter how many OS installs you might want on your new system you'll want to minimize the servicces running on all of them. That fact can tend to make multiple OS installs not so useful.Finally, do a search in the Avsim Library for FSAutostart, by our own Ken Salter. FSAutostart is a gamer's best friend. It will allow you to shut down numerous services (as an example, the print spooler; how much do use our printer while flying?) and programs (including Windows Explorer) while you fly. And once you're done with a sim session FSAutostart will start everything back up again. The app will allow you to configure a lean mean machine for gaming, and then return it to whatever state you wish for other computing tasks. Quite a handy tool, and very configurable. Much easier than managing multiple OS installs.Best,Greg