I used to have two hard drives on my desktop –a 60 GB, and an 80 GB. I used the 60 GB for Linux and the 80 GB for Windows. One problem I always had was utilizing all the disk space. It was much more than I need! I manage all my digital photos and music on my Apple iBook, and I do not write, nor save, many documents to my hard drive.
Several months ago, I switched to Linux (Fedora), and sold my 80 GB hard drive for petty cash. Yes, I securely “shredded” the data on the hard drive before I mailed it out, thank you very much. Life is going well on the Linux end, but there are some things that I really miss on Windows, particularly a quick fix of playing NHL 2004 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 for leisure.
Fortunately, I kept a 10 GB hard drive from my old PC that I disposed several years ago, as an emergency hard drive, just in case I ever needed it. I never used it for emergency purposes, and I considered using it as a doorstop on numerous occasions. Luckily, I didn’t do that, and I decided to do a fresh install of Windows XP Home Edition (with Service Pack 2) onto the drive. I also decided to install all the programs that I need in Windows onto the hard drive. To be “secure,” I decided that the system will not connect to the Internet.
Here is a list of all the important Windows applications I need:
- Windows XP
- WinXP Service Pack 2
- DVD Software
- Roxio
- Ad-Aware
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Blender 3D
- Cygwin
- Eclipse
- Firefox
- GAIM
- Java SDK
- Microsoft Office XP
- NHL 2004
- Norton SystemWorks
- nVidia GeForce2 Driver
- RollerCoster Tycoon 2
- SSH Secure Shell (non-commercial)
- Winzip
- ZoneAlarm
It didn’t take too long to install everything listed above onto the 10 GB hard drive –considering most of applications listed are free: I downloaded and burned the latest version of them onto a CD beforehand.
Finally, I cleared out my temporary files folder(s), ran the routine spyware and virus checks just to be safe (even I am not connected to the Internet), and defraged my hard drive. All the applications were installed successfully onto the hard drive, and I had a good 4 GB left!
Now I can enjoy playing NHL 2004 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 again, as well as the peace of mind that I can fall-back or even resort back to Windows when I need to. What I learned: don’t waste computer products, such as an old hard drive; and you really don’t need a monster hard drive to do everything in the world that you want!
really?
With some programs now taking up more than 10GB on their own, there's a definite need for larger hard disks (though I concur that most people seem to use them only to store the mp3s and movies they download using Kazaa).
For example, I am a flight simulator fanatic. My installation of that program alone (with assorted plugins and ancillary programs) is currently running at around 25GB.
Installed Apps..
Curious as to why you would need ad-aware, gaim etc installed if the PC's never going to connect to the internet?
10GB is huge!
Maybe I'm dating myself, but I remember running I I had Solaris 2.7 on a 400MB drive. /usr/local/ and /home were NFS mounted though.
I currently have XP running on a 20GB drive to do DVD burning (TivoToGo). 15GB is space for videos.
I also have VMware guests at work with 2GB of space.
Compare your setup to a Knoppix CD (700MB) and it's not that impressive. Sorry.