*snip*
>I typically like to install the operating system on IDE drives using FAT. As Ed has mentioned Boot Magic is a great tool for this and allows me to have my development system with Win98 and Win2000 on the same machine. If the server needs raid, then I put the data on those. I have a client who is wrestling with a total raid configuration that went down hard last week. He's "saving money" by just picking my brain and him doing the work. So, now he is installing an IDE drive that will launch NT.
>
>Hard drives have become so cheap, they are now a great backup solution also. I use ghost to backup my webserver from one 30 gig drive to another periodically.
>This gives me a lot more peace-of-mind than a tape backup, because I can see the results. I've had tape drives/tapes go bad and been unable to restore.

So what exactly is a good layout to have? I've got a machine with a 2.5GB and a 7GB hard drives that I want to upgrade to W2K Server. Should I partition the drives into any particular sizes? Where should the OS live (and size)? The swap file (size (128MB ram))? I'd really like to know from someone who's been down these paths before. Thanks!