Hi guys new to here and pcs so hope you can be of some help,
I know theres never gonna be an exact answer for some of these questions but i'd appreciate some guidance as to what you think are the best solutions,
i have a 250gb hd and will be using my pc for gaming mostly but have a bunch of movie/pic/music files also,
i havent installed xp yet and im aware you can make a partition during the installation for the OS so (1) how big should i make this one? (2)should i keep all the program files in the same partition as the os?(3) what size should the partition for swap be and how do i allocate this partition to be used for this? (4) what about backup?

hope you guys can be of some help
cheers
barney

Is this an internal or external drive Barney?
Better if it's internal, well to me it is.

I'd make 5 x 50GB partitions and if the cd/dvd drive is D then throw all .exe files on to E.
Put the music and movie files on F etc.

Do you have any software to back up with besides the one built into XP?
I mean software like Acronis True Image.

cheers for the quick reply mate, its an internal drive,
so are you suggesting using one of the 50gb partitions for the os, one for the program files, and a couple for all my data? what about the pagefile? and what dort of size should this be?
thanks again

For a guide to the page file look here mate.
Beginners Guides: 99 Performance Tips for WindowsXP - PCSTATS.com

I'd make C at least 30gb then you make the other partitions 55gb apiece

E: Programs, ie .exe files
F: Pics, movies etc
G:Personal items
H: Back up

Hope this helps.