GutterPunk

Wow, life is so much greater w/ a fresh install. I forgot how great it is to be back all cleared up... but its such an inconvenience. any tips to make this easier (keeping track of cd keys) and making updating easier?

80% of my disc cases were lost in a move so im stuck w/ games and no keys (especially since this was a forced install) so i wasn't able to gather any keys or anything. hmphhh yeah some tips would be nice, im sure it would benefit every1 due to the pain it can be

oh yeah and i had a good share of backed up information that made some things easy

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Judas

Here's a suggestion.... if you can.... get a 2nd HD (small).. that you can put all your downloads/drivers/updates/cd key information on.

When you want to format and reinstall... keep the other drive the way it is (you can also do this with just a partition)..

Makes installing and the works a snap...

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dj_stick

that's actually really helpful. I have a folder setup on one of the partitions on my MP3 player for this purpose

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klevo

Just make a system partition, where only Windows will be. Then when you format, you have all other things untouched.

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GutterPunk

good call, i never thought of that, would definitely make it easy thx hehe

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riles9262

That's what I do as well, and it makes reinstalling windows (and keeping important stuff) a snap. Alternately, you can always ghost your drive.

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Rasta Monsta

I do this on my laptop, and map "My Documents" to write to the second partition. I use a separate HD on my desktop, and do the same thing (right click My Docs, hit Properties, and change "Target Folder Location").

As for keys, I have a Word file entitled, "Keys, Kodes & Krap!"

rasta

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Judas

ATM, with my single Sata2 250gb HD... i've got it cut up into 10 partitions as follows:

Partition~Installed on~Size~Reason

C: ~ Windows/Program Files/My Docs ~ 10Gb ~ Simple, default, don't run into any weird issues with some oldy programs
D: ~ Swap File ~ 5Gb ~ Maximum Windows can allocate is 4096mb, that's my max, my min is roughly 1.256gb, Trust me, i've played around, using both pangingjr suggestions and this is extremely fast setup for a swap file, as it sits between windows, and my other partitions Games.

Think of it like this. You've got 3 filing cabinets (that can be stacked, seperated or whatever).... anyways, the way everything is setup by default with a single partition is:

Windows/program files/swap files/games are all thrown together into a single Combined file cabinet. Swap file being what it is, grows and shrink when it needs to, when this happens, it fills the cabinents in order (usually), while it's filled, files are installed which are placed after the swap file, reboot, and swap file is rebuilt which causes further fragmentations.. basically like someone jamming what they can in one folder... then moving to the next further down to pack it full. In the end, try finding a single file quickly, HDs are damn fast, but it's still slowing it down trying to sort through a pile of garbage searching for what it needs, writeing and reading.

Well with my setup, seperate the cabinets into 3. One sitting on 1 side, 2nd in the middle, and 3 on the other side. swap file in the center and windows on one side, and games on the other. Windows doesn't fragment all to hell, it reads what it needs to... writes.... a game requests a read, writes to swap file, it's like simply taking a folder from either side and sticking it in order in the swap file as need by.... think of this. it makes way more sence then cramming it all in. Plus, the closer to the start of the drive you windows/swap file are, the faster they will work as the start of an HD is the fastest read/writer. (not to mention burst)

E: ~ Counter Strike Source ~ 10gb ~ I've noticed counter strike has a weird problem, it fragments like crazy and every defragmention does something really strange. Keeping it to it's own partition and fixed alot of weird issues. 10gb is plenty for half life 2, CS:S and more.

F: ~ Lineage2 ~ 10gb ~ Lineage2 is an online MORPG, it's aproximately 5gb nice and will continue to expand as more chronicals come out, there are to be 13 chronicals, we are only on 3 right now (4 is around the corner). If you play on private servers (which you don't need to pay if that's the case) you can setup multiple version of the game, if so, consider expanding the size of this drive.

G: ~ Unreal Tournament 2004 ~ 15gb ~ Initially a fresh install of Ut2004 takes up several GB (5+), after a few bonus packs later and several mutators/mods, 10gb disappears very quickly. It's a big game, keep this to it's own partition.. less fragmentations keeps the game loading smooth as silk.

H: ~ Ut2003/ut Classic ~ 10Gb ~ Older UTs on a single drive, works good for me

I: ~ Quake ~ 15 Gb ~ Quakes 1-4

J: ~ Need For Speed series ~ 15Gb ~ Nice and tidy, all nfs 2se and up...

K: ~ Other Games ~ 75gb ~ Plenty of room for all those other games...

L: ~ Other ~ 50gb ~ Basically everything else, Downloads/Videos/Music/Drives/Updates/Scraps/Tests. This is a temporary folder i use for everything. When i want to keep something, it's cleaned up and the kept files are transferred over to my main server which keep a permanent file on hand, the server is cleaned up usually every 6 months.... maintained every month.

IMO, i've been called crazy for having all these partitions... but then again, my system rarely requires much of any defragging at all (defrag all drives in less then a few seconds), runs damn fast, and load games in split seconds.

Nvm the fact that i'll probably remove/add partitions as i wish every time i do a clean install or more tests. (like maybe dual boot windows vista or 64)

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