dual boot???

[SuperSparks]

And to illustrate how much space you can save, in my Programs folder that I created on my F: drive I just put the largest 13 apps into it and the space taken is almost 9Gb. By installing those files in each OS's Programs folder would have meant not only an extra 9Gb of disk space is used, but also that the resulting Ghost image files are so much larger.

[gizandpop]

if that is true, then would it be benificial to do that on a single boot system, i.e have 2 partitions and put the OS on one and the Data on the other, for the benefits stated by you above?(Mainly so you could Ghost the OS quickly...not so much for installing prog's twice!)

If so, how would one go about creating another partition on a pc without doing a fresh install?

Thanks

[SuperSparks]

Ideally you need Partition Magic 8, it's simplicity itself to use. Here is a freeware partition manager, but it's a much steeper learning curve:

Ranish Partition Manager

[LotusAstra]

Originally posted by gizandpop if that is true, then would it be beneficial to do that on a single boot system, i.e have 2 partitions and put the OS on one and the Data on the other, for the benefits stated by you above?(Mainly so you could Ghost the OS quickly...not so much for installing prog's twice!)

Yes, it's very useful for that situation, it's how i always set mine up so i can have small OS partitions (2 or 3 GB)... By using small OS partitions backup/restoring is very fast and the backups themselves don't take up so much room... it's so quick i prefer to restore a ghost backup rather than uninstalling stuff, that way I can preserve the condition of the OS and keep my system always working sweet.

I don't myself share my program installs with other OS's like described because i don't have a reason too... I only install programs to another partition solely for backup reasons.

I also use a separate OS dedicated to games and do the same thing there with the game installs to another partition for the same reasons...

For me it's any excuse to make those backups as small and quick as possible... That way, the theory is that i can do it more often

Regards

[globe_shoes15]

o ok i get it now thanx

[DVOM]

Originally posted by gizandpop
if that is true, then would it be benificial to do that on a single boot system, i.e have 2 partitions and put the OS on one and the Data on the other, for the benefits stated by you above?(Mainly so you could Ghost the OS quickly...not so much for installing prog's twice!)

If so, how would one go about creating another partition on a pc without doing a fresh install?

Thanks

Actually, I go a step farther than this. With a single boot OS, I use 3 partitions. One for the OS, one for the programs, and one for data.

My OS partition gets Ghosted about once a week or more. The other night, I ghosted it 5 times to try to figure out a problem of moving XP to another partition. I was cloning my 1.07G XP partition, it takes about 1 minute and 40 seconds per clone. (about 3.75 minutes to image and about 5 minutes to image and burn at the same time)

My Programs partition gets Ghost imaged about once a month. Sometimes less.

The data doesn't get ghosted. I burn it directly to CD.

[gizandpop]

exactly the answers I was looking for. Thanks so much!!

Happy computing...