How to Effectively Use Your Hard Disc?

After installing a new hard disc, we have to format it and make partitions on it before using. Do you know how many partitions should be there and what should the minimum space you should allocate for different types of applications. It is a good practice to have operating system i.e. Windows on the separate partition. The data should be on the other partition. This is because if you ever have to format the drive due to boot failure, your data may remain safe. This is an estimated amount of space you should allocate out of your 80 GB hard disc:

1. Windows XP: 7 GB

2. Program Files: 3 GB

3. My Documents: 3 GB

4. Games: 10 GB

5. Downloads: 6 GB

6. Music: 20 GB

7. Movies: 29 GB

8. Back Up: 1 GB

9. Temp: 500MB

Here is a simple trick you can configure your computer machine in a way that all the installed programs are stored/installed on the drive D: instead of C: using following procedure:

1. Go to Start -> Run and type regedit. Press enter.

It will open registry editor.

2. Click on + sign before HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder.

3. Then click on + sign before Sotware folder.

4. Click on + sign before Microsoft folder.

5. Click on + sign before Windows folder.

6. Click on CurrentVersion.

7. Now double click on ProgramFilesDir.

It will open a dialogue box of Edit String.

Change the letter C: to D: and close the dialogue box. Close all the programs. Now check by installing a program. See where your program is stored/installed.