Tristram, Many thanks for your thoughts. I was considering doing exactly what you suggest with a data partition and an operating system partition. This would also make sense when imaging the os partition as there is no need to image up all the data and media files. Keeping them tidied up is no hassle as I run Disk Keeper to defrag automatically anyway. Cheers, Mark Threadgold Of all the things I have ever lost, The one I miss most is my mind... -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tristram Llewellyn Sent: 11 December 2009 09:59 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: NTFS partition sizes You are well within any limits with 500GB, a practical maximum for a bootable volume is something like 2TB in Windows XP which is about four times your new hard drive. The only thing I would suggest is consider having a Windows/Software and a separate Data partition for user data. That could be quite handy if you re-build frequently for whatever reason because you could keep the data in place and configure Windows to work with it. Regards. Tristram Llewellyn Sight and Sound Technology Technical Support www.sightandsound.co.uk Mail: Tristram: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Technical: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx General - info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: Support line: 0845 634 7979 Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, with company number 1408275. Sight and Sound Technology Welton House North Wing Summerhouse Road Moulton Park Northampton NN3 6WD VAT Number - GB 860 2121 66. -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mark Threadgold Sent: 11 December 2009 09:38 To: accessuk list Subject: [access-uk] NTFS partition sizes Hi all. With the impending fitting of a 500GB HD into my laptop, I wondered if XP has any optimum sizes for NTFS partitions on the main disk? I should be using partition magic to sort it all out once it is fitted, so partition sizes can be decided and adjusted as required. If there is an optimum size that XP likes to use then it might be worth setting it up that way from the start. Any comments welcomed. Mark Threadgold Of all the things I have ever lost, The one I miss most is my mind... ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq