Tips for setting up a robust Personal Microsoft Operating System

Just sharing my experience ...

[mil2k]

Tips for setting up a robust Personal Microsoft Operating System

Been doing this for past 5 years now and hence would like to share with you my experiences.

Many a times an IT Professional gets an OS preloaded with all the goodies. So what one has to do in times of peril is call the Hardware Service fellow. My experience says that these guys are not always so smart. What lies at stake is the Time which is lost when an OS crashes.

Some quick questions to those who have Microsoft OS installed on their systems.

1) Have you given a thought to the Partition size Of your Hard Disk?

2) Have you divided your workspace (the place you store imp files) so that it can be recovered easily?

3) Do you have an alternate OS loaded just in case of immergency?

4) Some thoughts gone into the File system you have? ie. Fat32 or NTFS

5) Do you store all your Important files on C:?

6) Do you have an immergency Bootable CD?

I would like to explain the way i have set up systems on many of my peers computers.

1) Partition the hard disk into three or more drives if more than 20 GB. I typically keep the C: as 4.5 to 5 GB. This is so because the bigger the c: the longer time it may take to boot some computers.

2) I use Win Me and XP and have a dual Boot system. The reasons are purely for immergency issues. I have lost count how many times this has helped me. If a system shuts down abnormally and fails to boot into one system try booting through another and do a thorough Scandisk and sometimes it can do wonders.

3) I typically install Me on c: and XP on d: . Remember that Me should be loaded first and then XP. The size of D: should be around about 4.5 to 5 GB.

4) I have a separate e: and More drives on which I store all important data. The reason for doing this is that if the OS crashes and is irrepairable then the best option is Quick Format c: and d: from bootable disk and load the OS again. 90 mins or less of time on most new computers.

5) Never ever store files in My Documents folder because it will prevent you from formatting your drive.

6) Always have a Bootable CD and not a floppy. This is because Floppies are very unreliable media. Their shelf life is also unpredictable. Cd's are better than floppies. If possible and you possess the Knowhow make your Own Bootable CD which gives you a lot of control.

7) Install most of the programs on e: because otherwise you will have a low disk space problem on c: or d: . Try keeping as much free space on these drives as possible.

8) Use NTFS file systems when you have machines around with the Same file system. That is because DOS does not Recognize NTFS.

Does anyone else have something to share? I would like to know and share other's experience :)

[Gibble]

What I do is install my OS, all my patches, standard software/tools, then make a norton ghost image and store it on a seperate drive.

Then if I have a problem I can get my OS and standard software/tools installed and configured properly in minutes.

All my data is stored on a seperate computer and the data is backed up regularly so I won't lose my work.

Anything else that I may lose is ussually just frivilous junk that wasn't worth having installed or keeping anyhow.

[mil2k]

Yes that was supposed to be point 9 :) . I know i forgot that. But Having the Dual OS system many a times helps you to circumvent the Ghost option. Many a time a crashed system can be recovered by looking into it through a different drive. It is a very good utility nonetheless.

Anything else i am missing? :)

[Gibble]

Unless your harddrive dies :)

[mil2k]

Sometimes if you have good hardware engineer you can recover data from Bad Media. :)

[ncsuk]

Im the same as Gibble

I have 3 PC's

1. Web Server, Mail Server etc etc
2. File Server
3. Storage Machine

The only thing on the storage machine is files, no OS to speak of (There are 2 drives in the machine, the 4gb one has 2k pro on it and the 30GB one nothing).

Works for me.

I also have 2 copies of my work, 1 on the storage machine and one on the work / file server machine.

[StanBo]

Just a couple more...
Make sure that the latest copies of all the drivers, patches, updates etc you need are on a separate disk and backed-up on a CDRW. (For even with good connection it can sometimes be unacceptably long to locate and install like 150 Mb of data)
Make sure that all the important files are backed-up onto a CDRW as well

Back from times I used Win'95 I stick to my old friend's advice to install all the utilities that use many (and I mean MANY) small files on a separate partition - such utilities tended to slow down performance drastically that time. Not sure if that is still the case - now it's more a matter of habit.

[SethCall]

whts this about not putting anything in mydocuments?

I've just never heard this. Could you explain? Is MS working their standard one-wonder-a-day policy still?

Whoa to the individual who has to use system restore on a dev machine ;)

[mil2k]

Mydocuments is a system defined location like windows and system32. In a reinstall it's content are erased by the OS. Also if you want to go for formatting c: when the OS gets corrupted, having MyDocuments full with imp documents doesn't help.

These are just my views. There are many ways to Rome. If you know what you are doing it's no problem :)