Hi,I am getting a new computer built (P4 2.2GHz-768MB RDRAM-GeForce4 Ti4600). The hard drive is a 120GB & Window XP OS. My question is - should I partition the Hard Drive into smaller sections using Partition Magic? I have heard that big drives waste lots of space. Is this still the case with Windows XP. (My existing comp runs Windows98 SE and the Hard Drive is only 16GB!!! so partitioning hasn't been an issue)Any advice appreciated - might be useful to mention that the machine will be used for Office and Graphics applications as well as FS.ThanksKeith Cocker

From a fair bit of experience (and trial and error) a 120gig HDD really should be partitioned. If it was my pc i would do the following:5 Gigs C: Drive Operating system ONLY10 Gigs D: Drive Installations & Applications5 Gigs E: Internet downloads/Email etc20+ Gigs F: Flight simulator** Gigs G: Whatever!I find that having a partition for specific things helps you keep track of where things are, but also helps keep your Hdd tidy and easy to manage.Whatever you decide to do, i would suggest you are very critical of yourself and ensure that when you install something or file something that it goes in the location you have pre-determined. All too easy to install something new and just use the default path which normally points to the c drive.This is only the way i would do it, and i am sure others would do it very much differnt. Hope it helps a little http://www.avsim.com/vfr_center/avsim_sig.jpg

I remember reading somewhere about a guy who had a separate 5 GIG partition just for the swap file. He claimed it boosted performance. has anyone else ever heard of that?John-PaulToronto

I haven't but it sounds like a stupid idea IMO. Maybe it would work if he uses that newbile "Let Windows manage..." setting.What will really improve your swapfile performance is making it Permanent and putting it nearest to the outer edge of your harddrive (Since more surface area is covered at that part of the HDD for a given RPM. 3rd-party defraggers can do that.)-Leon Medado

I would recommend partitioning a drive that big. Read about the different partitioning and formatting options at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/...ep/filesyst.asp .