hi i'm repartitioning my Cdrive to a minimal size just for windows 7 ultimate, and planning on putting all my program files on a separate drive.

My question is, how much room should i leave for windows, so it has a little room to grow with updates and such. Also, i know a few programs out there that demand to be installed on the Cdrive, so i'll want to leave a little room for them too.

Also, my steam folder, which is currently over 20GB, will be a PITA to wait for it to reinstall. Can i copy/paste my gcf and files to the new steam directory on Ddrive? for that matter, can i just copy the whole entire folder over? (this worked for me for SCII, which i was very pleasently surprised about)

Last question. there is a 10GB recovery partition that came with my laptop. Considering i constantly create backup images for my entire harddrive, is there any reason i can't remove this small partition?

thanks in advance for any help/suggestions! =)

Heh, had an issue with this just a few weeks ago.

Definitely go for more than the minimum Win7 asks for. Keep in mind that all your temp/user data files (which is usually a fuckload of data) will be stored in your sys drive unless you change the default locations in the registry (if so, do it immediately after installing to avoid any initial clogging).

If you want to go through the trouble, I think ~30gb would be a safe bet. I know someone running win7 off a 32gb solid state drive without any problems.

I gave mine 18 gigs at first, started running out of space in less than a day, and eventually had to scrap it all and reinstall again. Running on a single partition now, figured it's not worth the bother given the already tiny HDD in my laptop.

And you should be able to move your steam apps easily, did that when reinstalling myself without any trouble.

sweet that's much smaller than i thought(i was thinking a minimum 50gb). This will leave me much more room for my program files, and now i will have room for my entire steam collection on the D_drive..

what do you think about migrating the steam files rather than reinstall?

Migrating steam shouldn't cause any problems at all.

As for the system drive, it really depends on what your needs are. I think 32 should be more than enough for casual/gaming use.
Although personally I'd go for more than 32 just to be safe, but that's coming from someone who gave his system partition 18 gigs to work with. It just sucks having to scrap it all purely because your system's not getting enough space. ;D

ya, maybe i'll go more, though i want to leave enough room for all my program files.. Steam alone is over 20gb and i don't even have L4d installed, which is an additional 5-6gb. (i really need a bigger HDD)

backing up my stuff now.. can't wait to nuke the HDD and start fresh!

)

Same, looking into externals right now. I need a place for the music, etc. at least.

You could copy steam to a thumb drive and use it that way for all steam cares, the only reason it uses a installer is for convenience, steam is completely portable, and the only thing you lose by moving it is shortcuts and a couple registry files that tell Windows Installer information on how to uninstall steam. That's it.

I have my main drive (250GB) divided in two partitions: 40GB in C: (Windows and whatever) and the remaining 200GB D: for everything else. Last time around, C: got filled up pretty quick. I later formatted it and right now it's got 11GB free.

As for Steam, I didn't format D: when I reinstalled windows in C:, so I reinstalled it to the same directory and since all files were already there I didn't need to download anything again.

Copy the steamapps folder in your old Steam install to your new one, and it'll work.

Ha that's very good to know that Steam are portable.. i wish i knew that like 2 years ago! =)

I gave mine 18 gigs at first, started running out of space in less than a day, and eventually had to scrap it all and reinstall again.

If that happens again, you could use a partition editor like Gparted to change your partitions on the fly. I never tried it but i herd it works well..