Partitioning!!!

[lufbra]

Can anyone please explain the concept of partitioning, what is the use of doing it, and why?
I have a 20gig's hard drive, would it be worth my while partitioning it?
Thanks in advance.
Dave.

[ironside]

dave there is many reasons why some do and some dont, I dont myself.
but back before the final edition of windows 95 you could only use a 2.5 gig harddrive and anything more then that had to be partitioned off.

but after the next release of windows it had
capability of using all of your harddrive and the need of partitioning wasnt needed.

but now comes the time where some folks likes to partition to put just windows on it so if anything happens they can format just there c: and keep everything else.
im the lazy type i dont do any of it, every thing is on my c:drive and when i get ready to format i lose everthing and have to start over,but i do save everthing to cd.
im getting ready to install ME and that means a format i think this time im going to use ghost and make back up copy of my drive.

im sure someone will answer better then I
but that should start your answer.

[lufbra]

Thank you Irons.
Like you, I have everything on the c-drive, but I'm just trying to figure out what partitioning does in the way of making things easier for anyone.
As for Windows ME, are you sure you really want to go that way? I've heard so many bad things about it!!!
Dave.

[ironside]

ya for what i do ME is probley the easist thing for me to run, I dont need any office or nt stuff so that leaves out win2000.

ok back to your question if you want to put just windows on say drive c: and the rest of your applications on drive d: and then say your drive c: got corupted then everything on drive d: would still be there because you would only format drive c:
then its just a matter of reinstalling windows
but all of the rest of your files would still be there.

[lufbra]

Thanks Irons, I think I'm just beginning to understand the advantage of partitioning, although if I back up everything anyway, is it still worth doing?
As for Windows ME again, I really don't think it offers that much more than you can already get for Windows 98! I have the SE version here, and that one is pretty good, I'd rather not pay the update price just to get a small ammount of extra features with ME!!
Dave.

[ironside]

so who paying not i, my friend got it for me perks of having a friend in the business.
but the partitioning is a personal choice but like i said someone else will be along to explain it better then me.
what i told you is my own personal views and i believe if you have every thing back up on cd you dont need to partition.

[tramtwo]

There are three advantages in my book. The first advantage is to keep the Hard disk from being fragmented. The second advantage is that you can format only the partition that you want with out loss of data. And the third is that programs like defrag and scandisk and virus checks run much faster on the smaller partitions.

I have three partitions. One for windows, one for data and saved setupfiles, and one for window's swap file. I know some people who have many partitions. They have windows one one and just documents on another, mp3s on one and graphics on another and they also have another OS on yet another.

Another reason to have a partition is that you can have an easier time when you back up. If you have all your important data on just one partition you just back up that drive letter and you do not need to backup a lot of useless info or try and figure out where your important files are.

I would highly recommend it.

Dale

How to Use Fdisk and Format to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q255/8/67.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0)

[lynnm]

Hello lufbra

Partitioning a disk reduces the cluster sizes Windows uses. Very large partitions have very large clusters.Your 20GB. drive uses 16Kb. clusters.Every file you create will therefore use some multiple of 16Kb clusters. This can result in a lot of slack which is wasted space.

For example if you or one of your programs create a 2Kb. file that file will occupy 16Kb. on the disk. If a 17Kb.file is created then 32Kb. will be used to store the data. Granted with 20GB. disk space the wasted space is not a big deal. In the preceding example if your 20GB drive were partitioned into 5 MB partitions you would be using 4Kb clusters. The 2Kb file would use one 4Kb. cluster and the 17Kb file would use five clusters. In the first example there would be 15Kb. of wasted space and in the second example the slack would be reduced to 3Kb.

Over and above the slack space issue is the fact that data access is a little faster when the drive needs only search within a 5 GB. partition to find data as opposed to having to search within a 20GB. partition.

Many of us partition our large drives so that we can more effectively manage the available space. I put Windows95 on one partition, Windows 2000 on another, Program files on another etc.etc.In the event that Windows 95 goes into the tank for example I need not wipe out and re-install Windows 2000 in order to do a clean re-install of Windows 95.

As was pointed out earlier whether one partitions is largely a matter of personal opinion. It is not wrong to not partition. My opinion however is that partitioning makes for more efficient computing.

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It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron Rarely flies upside down in the moonlight.- (Foo Ling ca.1707)

[This message has been edited by lynnm (edited 22 October 2000).]

[lufbra]

Thank you very much guys, I do appreciate the time you all put into helping me out here, and from what has been said so far, I'm beginning to like the idea of partitioning. Now I gotta go look for a program that'l help do it!!!
Dave.
PS. Tram, I shall look at the site you added later on today, when I get more time.

[MishY]

Lufbra,

Partition Magic is excellent - enabling you to change the size of your partitions whenever you want unlike the standard fdisk.

But with a 20Gb drive even just setting two 10Gb partitions would speed up what must be a lonnnngggggg defrag lol So you could easily just do that with fdisk and save yourself some money.

Partition Magic if you have it is suprisingly easy to use, and fits well in an arsenal of tools. Up to you dude http://www.cybertechhelp.com/ubb/smile.gif

There is also Ranish Partition Manager which is a free program which does almost all Partition Magic does. I can dig up a link for you if you'd like ????

MiShY

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Cyber Tech Help (http://www.cybertechhelp.com)
You Break 'em - We Fix 'em

[lufbra]

Thanks Mishy, I do like the sound of a freeware program, would the one you are talking about be available at most freeware pages, I can do a search in some of them.
As for defragging the computer, I do that pretty regular, usually once a week, and I clean out all the "temp" stuff too, almost every day. So running the defrag doesn't take all that long, and it certainly isn't bothering me how long it takes, as I can do it overnight if need be.
Dave.