Smallest windows OS

[Mardal]

Hey all.

Im getting a SSD for my new laptop(ul30vt, 4gb ram), and since im on a tight budget, im getting a small one 40gb-64gb. Im only gonna use my laptop for school and web surfing, so it should be sufficient, and all other big files ill have on an external hard drive. But still i wanna use the limited space as efficiently as possible.

So i was wondering what different editions of windows(both 7 and XP) would take up of space on my new SSD?

Also, is there a big difference between the OS's in the need for free space on the disk they need for cache(perhaps the wrong word?)?

I really like windows 7, its the only OS ive been using the last year, but if i could save like 10gb, i might consider going back to XP.

[-pops-]

Consider carefully whether a SSD with external HDD is really what you want. SSD's are very expensive and somewhat pointless if you are then relying on an ordinary mechanical HDD for storage and backup.

[Digerati]

If you are on a tight budget, then a regular hard drive is your best bet. But to answer your question, as seen here 64-bit Win7 requires 20Gb minimum to install but then, as with any OS, updates and temp files will start consuming more. So I would get no less than 40Gb since you will be installing most of your files to an external drive.

I see no point in even considering XP. XP is over 10 years old and was designed to support DOS era hardware. But more importantly, XP was NOT designed to protect you in today's security environment. I also note that XP does not support hardware acceleration and so it will never support modern browsers, such as the soon to be released Internet Explorer 9.

-bill

[Mardal]

Thanks for the replies.

The files im gonna have on my external hard drive would mainly be media files, for watching and listening only, and its not something i would use very often, only on holidays and trips etc.

So there is 4gb difference between 32 and 64 bit windows 7, right?. What do i gain from 64, that i dont get from 32? i know about the ram thing, but im not really in need of more than 3,5, or whatever 32-but supports.

What about ultimate vs home vs starter vs home basic and so on? Is there there significant difference in space requirements?

[-pops-]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

What do i gain from 64, that i dont get from 32?

You may not be able to use all your 4GB RAM with a 32-bit system (see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hiltonl/archive/2007/04/13/the-3gb-not-4gb-ram-problem.aspx and many other Internet resources).