I have a Dell 8200, Windows 2000 Professional - 80 Gig harddrive, 512 mg memory which has been having lots of little glitch problems for a long time. I'm using it as a stand alone computer, not networked, no server, etc. I want to get Windows 2000 back to the way it orginally was when new, so I am considering using a software such as Partition Magic to reformat and partition, possibly even dual booting using Windows 98 and Windows 2000. I've never used anything like Partition Magic so am quite dumb about it all. What I am curious to know is: With an 80 Gig harddrive, what size partitions do I need if I want to keep my Windows 2000 secure and problem free and also to switch it to nfts while using Windows 98 for working with programs, files, documents, etc. I build/maintain several websites so I need quite a lot of space for html files, templates, photos and such. I would gladly appreciate any help anyone can give me....Thanks in advance

P.S. If I download the software Partition Magic from the internet, installing it on my computer, without having the physical disk, once I do the partitions, then reformat, won't I lose the Partition Magic software in the reformat process and not be able to use it again? Just a dumb question that makes me wonder if I am purchasing a piece of software to be used only once.

[System Summary]

OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 2 Build 2195
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Dimension 8200
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 1 Stepping 2 GenuineIntel ~1795 Mhz
BIOS Version 12/07/01
Windows Directory C:\WINNT
System Directory C:\WINNT\System32
Boot Device \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1
Total Physical Memory 523,280 KB
Available Physical Memory 332,052 KB
Total Virtual Memory 1,799,812 KB
Available Virtual Memory 1,437,024 KB
Page File Space 1,276,532 KB

If this is just a one-time deal I wouldn't spend the money on Partition Magic. Partition Magic is cool if you want to move your partitions around without reformatting. But it's a bit overkill if you just want to start fresh with a clean slate.

I'd just boot the system with the Win98 cd if it's a bootable one (make a boot disk if it isn't) and use fdisk. Delete your partitions with that then create a new partition for Win98. I'll let you deide on how much space to allocate for C:. If it were me I'd keep the Win98 partition smallish... like 8GB or so. I'd only make it as big as it needed to be for whatever you need to do that win2k won't... whew say that 3 times fast
save that partition and reboot. After reboot start the install of Win98. When you're done installing Win98 you can install Win2k. During the Win2k install choose the unallocated space left over and the Win2k installer will format it for you.

A couple things to keep in mind.... Win98 cannot read NTFS without 3rd party software. If you need your Win98 side to read the Win2k side you'll want to format Win2k FAT32. If you don't NEED to read the Win2k partition from Win98 go NTFS. If security is more important go NTFS. Other thing to keep in mind... when you go to install Win2k if you pop in the disk from within Win98 to begin the install your root drive for Win2k will be the next letter after all you other drives. For example, if you have just c: and a cdrom d: then Win2k will be e: if that bugs you then start the install by booting off the Win2k disk. Booting off the Win2k disk for the install will result in your Win2k root to be d:

Have fun!

Jim