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Windows XP: Partition of a Hard Drive? Why?
Partition of a Hard Drive? Why?
by MediaTechGuru - 7/15/05 7:25 AMIn search of the reason on why to partition a hard drive? I have a master drive to run OS and system files...a second drive for personal files and a 3rd to backup all files on second drive?
Partition drives...
by MarkinTO - 7/22/05 9:42 AM In reply to: Partition of a Hard Drive? Why? by MediaTechGuruThe first reason, is to make doing drive maintenance faster!
The second, is splitting up software and data files,
The third, is backing up files & software,
The forth, Any version of Windows needs hard-drive space for 'virtual memory',
The fifth, to essentially back-up what's on the first drive!
The sixth, what happens when one of your other partitions dies...? At least then, you stand a chance of recovering some programs and data!
Do you really need more reasons...?
Oh and seeing as you seem to have all the bases covered, have you back'ed up all your computer to CD's or DVD's?
Almost NO CHANCE of program recovery.
by R. Proffitt
- 7/16/05 5:13 AM
In reply to: Partition drives... by MarkinTO
That one is a myth best squashed. In 1995, Windows rolled out with new ideas such as the registry and shared DLLs.
I've found few softwares survive as the owner hoped in such a partition.
Bob
Dont partition, use more drives
by PeterSmits - 7/22/05 5:58 AM In reply to: Partition drives... by MarkinTOIn the good ol' days, you would partition a drive for all the good reasons mentioned before and also because the HDDs were expensive. Nowadays its much cheaper and easier to just add two or more HDDs to the system. All the pros that apply to partitioning are still there, but your much more protected when a drive breaks and maintenance is much easier.
When installing multiple HDD you also have the advantage on installing one small, yet very fast drive for your programs and one very big, bit slower and cheaper, drive for all your multimedia data. And then maybe another very slow, very big and very reliable drive for backup. Maybe its also wise to make this last one an external drive.
I guess the only exceptions are laptops where its not possible to have that many drives in your system.
I agree 100%, and let me add:
by lpaster - 7/22/05 6:53 AM In reply to: Dont partition, use more drives by PeterSmitsIf possible, always use two hard disks; the cost is cheap and the advantage is HUGE.
I usually use one drive for OS + data and second drive to hold a full backup of the first drive.
Another option is to use 2 drives in RAID1 configuration:
It will give you high level of fault tolerance with little loss in performance.
and if one disk breaks, you loose no data at all, and the computer will still be usable.
Raid1
by manfromspain1 - 7/22/05 8:29 AM In reply to: I agree 100%, and let me add: by lpasterIs there an easy way to configure Windows XP to use Raid1. Also, could the mirrored drive be an external drive?
Partitioning cam make a system faster
by Robert K - 7/22/05 6:03 AM In reply to: Partition drives... by MarkinTOIf any of you are old enough to remember the vinyl record there is some relationship to a hard drive here.
Just like a vinyl record, the surface speed on the outermost part of the hard drive platter is faster than the inner. In simple terms, the surface speed is about half once you have reached 50% of the drive.
The hard drive fills from the outer part of the platters and work their way inward. This is why many computers slow significantly once their hard drive has less than 50% left. This could be 150GB free!
I partition a new drive so 25% of the drive is C:\ and the rest is D:\, allowing the fastest read-write access for the OS and applications. All music and video files (the largest files) go on D:\.
It is quite amazing as when D:\ is almost completely full, the system is still rocket fast.
...and make it easier to do a clean re-install
by outriaage - 7/22/05 7:40 AM In reply to: Partitioning cam make a system faster by Robert KAnother reason to put just the OS in a small (10G should do it) partition of its own is malware. Even when running a decent firewall, multiple adware removers, and anti-virus apps, the pesky little buggers sometimes just sneak in anyway.
Move My Documents to another drive; persuade as many programs as possible to do the same with their data, and when things just get out of hand, save the data that couldn't be persuaded to move, re-format the OS partition and re-install everything.
Minor added benefit is if you are fond of running 30-day free trials of exotic apps, you automatically get another 30 days to play before sadly deciding not to buy.
Only downside I've found is the few programs that only allow a limited number of re-installs. I haven't hit that one yet.
Good point- Never keep valuable data on your system drive
by Product Developer - 7/22/05 8:04 AM In reply to: ...and make it easier to do a clean re-install by outriaageAll my systems have multiple internal and external drives and I never, ever keep valuable data on a system drive. If the O.S. or other major piece of software takes a dive, all I have to do is ghost it back to the fresh, known good install all the while the valuable project files reside safely on another drive.
This allows one to try new programs without risking a full reinstall if the new program hoses up the registry or other vital function.
Another good idea is to use just one basic machine for internet, P2P file sharing and email access and another for work and projects completely isolated from the outside world. The on line machine can be used to screen for viruses and malware before you move files to the safe machine. A local network allows sharing of specific files but nothing dangerous ever gets through.
Partition Hard drive
by jacf - 7/22/05 9:14 AM In reply to: Good point- Never keep valuable data on your system drive by Product DeveloperI do not know how many Directory or threads they have on their drives,The users involved in this discussion I have several directories and without patitions it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack when I am moving files or looking for programs I like to keep some programs that are not important off C:,
also My second drive which I pulled off my former unit is in this computer was attacked by a worm and crashed that machine, I have been able to isolate it becuase it was on on one of my partitions and so it did not screw up C: drive, and now I only have one directory that I cannot access I made sure of that before I really started using this drive otherwords the boot sector does not start on this drive.
Don't believe me well its been in use for ten months
and the dir. is still there
Your logic is faulty Robert!
by maurieh - 7/22/05 7:44 AM In reply to: Partitioning cam make a system faster by Robert KHard disks, just like vinyl platters, work on angular velocity rather than linear velocity - thus the same amount of data per revolution is laid down regardless of whether one is at the outside or inside track. The whole argument of your posting would seem to be wrong - perhaps another factor, such as fragmentation of data, is causing your speed changes.
re:faulty logic
by kiddleddee - 7/23/05 5:12 AM In reply to: Your logic is faulty Robert! by mauriehSee this site, halfway down, for a discussion of data transfer rates relative to position on the disc.
http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_disk_sector_structures.htm
Your both right
by conceptualistic - 7/24/05 7:58 PM In reply to: Your logic is faulty Robert! by mauriehOld HDDs such as mode 3 and perhaps mode 4 used to be formatted such that clusters and sector were divided like rays originating at the center and proceeding diriectly to the edge. In this case each ring contained the same amount of data, so each revolution of the platter netted the same amount of data. But this was inefficient because the data density at the inner cylinder was the limiting factor, and the outer cylinders were progressively less dense and less efficiently using the platters potential. Todays drives have built-in firmware that fixes this. Your formating software is the same as it ever was and believes the HDD to be just like the old HDDs. The firmware however has the cluster and sector "flags" scattered all over as to use the platter at equal density though out it's surface area. Thus todays HDDs infact retrieve more information from one revolution of the outer ring than from the inner rings.
Can you partition an "In Use" drive? Or what?
by bdbonner - 7/22/05 10:49 AM In reply to: Partitioning cam make a system faster by Robert KAll this discussion over partitioning hard drives has me wondering whether I ought to partition my laptop's 80G hard drive. I am running WinXP, and have been plagued with PC Problems [whole reason I have the new laptop] since April.
Can I partition the C drive even though I've already got stuff there? Then move the data files to the new drive? What will I screw up? Is there really a benefit?
Thanks,
Barbara
Safe Partitioning
by Trashman Dave - 7/22/05 1:04 PM In reply to: Can you partition an "In Use" drive? Or what? by bdbonnerThe best way that I have found is to use a program
called "Partition Magic Version 8 ". It is the safest
way I have found to partiton an "in use" hard drive
without destroying any data. It is simple to use,
but it costs about $80.00. Good Luck.
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