When and how to partition drives

[Guest Danger_Duck]

Hi,

A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two so

that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes the other.

They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with the operating

system, you can just reformat that partition and reinstall the operating

system without affecting the data.

 

Is this a true statement (or could someone alert me if I misinterpreted what

they were saying), and if so, how would I do this when I already have an

unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk space already used up?

 

I must say that I am also not entirely sure which directories the operating

system occupies.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Guest David Walker]

Re: When and how to partition drives

 

=?Utf-8?B?RGFuZ2VyX0R1Y2s=?= <DangerDuck@discussions.microsoft.com>

wrote in news:00BAC6DA-A9FF-4AD2-9B24-BEF5C2728188@microsoft.com:

> Hi,

> A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two

> so that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes

> the other. They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with

> the operating system, you can just reformat that partition and

> reinstall the operating system without affecting the data.

>

> Is this a true statement (or could someone alert me if I

> misinterpreted what they were saying), and if so, how would I do this

> when I already have an unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk

> space already used up?

>

> I must say that I am also not entirely sure which directories the

> operating system occupies.

>

> Thanks in advance!

>

 

I think this is a good idea, and I always do this. It takes a little

bit of learning before you jump into it.

 

The easiest way to do this is to make sure all of your data is backed

up, and then partition your drive into one piece for Windows and the

rest for data. For the Windows partition, 20 GB should be fine; if you

install lots of software, you can use 40 GB or 50 GB for the Windows

partition.

 

You can partition the disk during the install process. One way to do

this (after you have backed up all of your data to something like an

external USB drive) is to boot your computer from your Windows install

CD, answer the questions that you want a NEW install (not an upgrade or

a reinstall), and eventually you will get to a screen where you can

delete the existing single partition, create a new one that is NOT the

maximum size, but instead, use 20000 MB (which will show up later as 19

GB), or 40000 MB (which is almost 40 GB), or get creative and use some

number like 20480 MB to get exactly 20 GB.

 

Then install Windows from your CD. Once you have finished this

installation, go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer

Management/Disk Management to create a new partition in the rest of the

drive, format it, and give it a drive letter of D (for Data) or whatever

letter you like. (I'm assuming windows XP -- Vista has some slight

differences in where you find things like Disk Management.)

 

You now have to reinstall all of your other programs. You don't have to

worry about which directories are operating system (and sofware)

directories; they will automatically be installed to the new partition

on the C drive if you use the defaults.

 

You can move your "My Documents" folder to the D drive by doing this:

Right-click on the My Documents folder on the desktop and you'll get a

menu; select Properties from this menu, and select the Move button.

Move the folder to D:\Documents (or something similar).

 

If your programs save their "user data" to the My Documents folder, it

will now be on your D Drive. If they save their data elsewhere, you DO

have to learn how to configure each program to save their "data files"

onto your data partition. You can create a folder in D for each

program's data files, if you want.

 

To get really good, you could also install a second hard drive, format

that and give it a volume label of "backup", and use a free backup

program like SyncBack (or the inexpensive paid version SyncBackSE) to

copy everything from the "data" partition to the "backup" disk nightly

(at 2 AM or whenever), OR back up the D drive nightly to your external

USB hard drive (a $100 investment that is well worth it).

 

This is not trivial, but it's not as hard as it sounds. Mainly, after

reinstalling everything, you need to look in each program and make sure

you know where that program is storing its "user data files" (whatever

they are called for each program).

 

THEN, if your operating system ever goes belly-up, you can reformat your

C drive, reinstall Windows, reinstall your programs, then move the My

Documents folder to D again (being careful to tell Windows to merge the

folder with whatever data is already there). Your data will all

magically be present in My Documents after you do this.

 

You need to make sure that your E-mail data folder gets saved on your D

Drive. By default, if you use Outlook, it will be somewhere deep in "C:

\Documents and Settings\...", so it won't be on the data drive, but it

can be moved to drive D from within Outlook. I don't know about Outlook

Express, or other e-mail programs.

 

Finally: If your main disk drive actually crashes (physically), you'll

have to buy a replacement disk, install it, reinstall Windows (and

partition the disk during this step), reinstall your programs, reboot,

create a data partition, and restore your data from your backup.

 

If your operating system dies due to a horrible virus, or an

installation of something that has gone bad, you still have to reinstall

Windows (new "clean" installation) and reinstall your programs, but your

data will still be on the D partition.

 

That was a high-level overview, but I hope it helps. (I left out how to

save user preferences and settings from each program, which are often

kept in a sub-folder of "C:Documents and Settings", but that is a little

more advanced.)

 

 

David Walker

[Guest neutrino]

Re: When and how to partition drives

 

On Jul 16, 2:21 am, Danger_Duck <DangerD...@discussions.microsoft.com>

wrote:

> Hi,

> A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two so

> that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes the other.

> They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with the operating

> system, you can just reformat that partition and reinstall the operating

> system without affecting the data.

>

> Is this a true statement (or could someone alert me if I misinterpreted what

> they were saying), and if so, how would I do this when I already have an

> unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk space already used up?

>

> I must say that I am also not entirely sure which directories the operating

> system occupies.

>

> Thanks in advance!

 

Not entirely - partitioning is definetely worth doing, for example you

can set you Email store folder on the partition other partition, and

you'll never lose your email, when you reinstall & set th estore

folder to the same location - all your email is safe and restored.

but as far as all the applications/programs are concerned, although

there still present on the partition, there will be very few that will

run without needing to be reinstalled - assuming you do a full

reinstall of XP - that fresh instal won't know anything about the

installed programs on the other partition.

the best way to do all this - in safeguarding against something going

wrong with the operating system - a fowl-up on C drive, would be to

get to a point where XP is fully installed, fully up to date, and all

systems running as you want, and all app's installed - then at that

point you take a backup, suggsest you look at Norton Ghost or Acronis

true image... backup your whole C drive onto the other partition, with

that done - Now your covered! no matter what happens to the operating

system - you have a full backup to roll back to - fowl-up C - restore

from backup and your back to normal, if a few weeks or months has

passed by, all you'd need to is re-update for any updates released

since the backup, and reinstal anything you'd instaled since the

backup. and when you'v done that - then you'd want to take a fresh

backup ~ in sync with the present time. wouldnt hurt to even have a

couple of backups to fal back on ` just in case - I took one prior to

updating to SP3, just-in-case, and retained it, and took another

backup after sp3 installed.

[Guest Ken Blake, MVP]

Re: When and how to partition drives

 

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:21:03 -0700, Danger_Duck

<DangerDuck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two so

> that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes the other.

> They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with the operating

> system, you can just reformat that partition and reinstall the operating

> system without affecting the data.

>

> Is this a true statement

 

 

Yes, it's true, but to me it's *not* a good reason for partitioning

that way. Something going wrong with your operating system is only one

(and not even the most likely) of the many things that can happen to

your drive and what's on it. What you suggest still leaves you

susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of

the most common dangers: hard drive crashes, severe power glitches,

nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

 

If your data is important to you, you need to protect it against all

dangers by backup to external media. Separating it in a partition by

itself is not real protection at all.

 

You can read my thoughts on both partitioning and backup in these two

articles I recently wrote:

 

http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

 

http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

 

> (or could someone alert me if I misinterpreted what

> they were saying), and if so, how would I do this when I already have an

> unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk space already used up?

 

 

Two points here:

 

1. You do *not* have an unpartitioned disk. A disk can't be used until

it's partitioned. What you have is a disk with only a single partition

on it.

 

2. Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista provides any way

of changing the existing partition structure of the drive

nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is with third-party

software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there

are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next

Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you

should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used

it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such program), but

it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

 

If you do this, whatever software you use, make sure you have a good

backup before beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a

problem, things *can* go wrong.

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Please Reply to the Newsgroup

[Guest Danger_Duck]

Re: When and how to partition drives

 

Thanks! Both answers make sense

 

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

> On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:21:03 -0700, Danger_Duck

> <DangerDuck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>

> > A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two so

> > that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes the other.

> > They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with the operating

> > system, you can just reformat that partition and reinstall the operating

> > system without affecting the data.

> >

> > Is this a true statement

>

>

> Yes, it's true, but to me it's *not* a good reason for partitioning

> that way. Something going wrong with your operating system is only one

> (and not even the most likely) of the many things that can happen to

> your drive and what's on it. What you suggest still leaves you

> susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of

> the most common dangers: hard drive crashes, severe power glitches,

> nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

>

> If your data is important to you, you need to protect it against all

> dangers by backup to external media. Separating it in a partition by

> itself is not real protection at all.

>

> You can read my thoughts on both partitioning and backup in these two

> articles I recently wrote:

>

> http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

>

> http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

>

>

> > (or could someone alert me if I misinterpreted what

> > they were saying), and if so, how would I do this when I already have an

> > unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk space already used up?

>

>

> Two points here:

>

> 1. You do *not* have an unpartitioned disk. A disk can't be used until

> it's partitioned. What you have is a disk with only a single partition

> on it.

>

> 2. Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista provides any way

> of changing the existing partition structure of the drive

> nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is with third-party

> software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there

> are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next

> Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you

> should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used

> it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such program), but

> it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

>

> If you do this, whatever software you use, make sure you have a good

> backup before beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a

> problem, things *can* go wrong.

>

> --

> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

>

[Guest Ken Blake, MVP]

Re: When and how to partition drives

 

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:57:00 -0700, Danger_Duck

<DangerDuck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Thanks! Both answers make sense

 

 

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

 

> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

>

> > On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:21:03 -0700, Danger_Duck

> > <DangerDuck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> >

> > > A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two so

> > > that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes the other.

> > > They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with the operating

> > > system, you can just reformat that partition and reinstall the operating

> > > system without affecting the data.

> > >

> > > Is this a true statement

> >

> >

> > Yes, it's true, but to me it's *not* a good reason for partitioning

> > that way. Something going wrong with your operating system is only one

> > (and not even the most likely) of the many things that can happen to

> > your drive and what's on it. What you suggest still leaves you

> > susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of

> > the most common dangers: hard drive crashes, severe power glitches,

> > nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

> >

> > If your data is important to you, you need to protect it against all

> > dangers by backup to external media. Separating it in a partition by

> > itself is not real protection at all.

> >

> > You can read my thoughts on both partitioning and backup in these two

> > articles I recently wrote:

> >

> > http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326

> >

> > http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

> >

> >

> > > (or could someone alert me if I misinterpreted what

> > > they were saying), and if so, how would I do this when I already have an

> > > unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk space already used up?

> >

> >

> > Two points here:

> >

> > 1. You do *not* have an unpartitioned disk. A disk can't be used until

> > it's partitioned. What you have is a disk with only a single partition

> > on it.

> >

> > 2. Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista provides any way

> > of changing the existing partition structure of the drive

> > nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is with third-party

> > software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there

> > are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next

> > Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you

> > should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used

> > it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such program), but

> > it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

> >

> > If you do this, whatever software you use, make sure you have a good

> > backup before beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a

> > problem, things *can* go wrong.

> >

> > --

> > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

> > Please Reply to the Newsgroup

> >

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Please Reply to the Newsgroup

[Guest Lil' Dave]

Re: When and how to partition drives

 

"Danger_Duck" <DangerDuck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:00BAC6DA-A9FF-4AD2-9B24-BEF5C2728188@microsoft.com...

> Hi,

> A few friends of mine have talked about partitioning a hardrive in two so

> that the operating system takes one part and all other data takes the

> other.

> They say that this way, if anything ever goes wrong with the operating

> system, you can just reformat that partition and reinstall the operating

> system without affecting the data.

>

> Is this a true statement (or could someone alert me if I misinterpreted

> what

> they were saying), and if so, how would I do this when I already have an

> unpartitioned C:\ drive with half the hard disk space already used up?

>

> I must say that I am also not entirely sure which directories the

> operating

> system occupies.

>

> Thanks in advance!

 

If you have one hard drive only in or attached to your PC, it kinda depends

what breaks. Under those conditions, if the hard drive fails, everything

may be unrecoverable. Under those conditions, if the windows partition is

corrupted, your data is still safe in the other partition. Under those

conditions, if the physical area where the master boot record fails to

retain that mbr, you may need special tools to access either partition for

recovery.

 

Likely, your friends may mean unworkable, unbootable XP. So, if you don't

have your XP, you can't get to your apps to open your data. Under those

conditions, they are correct. A new XP or a repaired XP with apps will

allow full access again.

 

Irregardless, where you keep your data, always keep the same data on

removable media. AND, when done copying, REMOVE or make unaccessible the

media to XP.

--

Dave