Guest Dan Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on it)? Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! Thanks in advance for any help.
Guest Ghostrider Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro Dan wrote: > Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... > > HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) > Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig > > HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) > Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig > Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig > Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig > > Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on > it)? > Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E > partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the > active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! > Thanks in advance for any help. What is it that you really want to do? One thing for sure, dividing HD #1 will wipe out Drive C. However, consider the alternative of buying a larger hard drive and cloning Drive C into a partition that is less than the full size of the new hard drive. For example, get an 80 GB HD; clone Drive C into just 40 GB. Save the remaining 40 GB for later use. As for the second parat of the question, removing Drive D should not result in any issues with remaining Drives E or F. However, my choice would be to clone HD #2 into another HD composed of just an extended partition with 3 logical drives. I am a little concerned about Drive D being an active, (primary?) partition.
Guest Terry R. Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro The date and time was 9/3/2008 7:18 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out on the keyboard: > Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... > > HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) > Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig > > HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) > Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig > Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig > Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig > > Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on > it)? > Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E > partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the > active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! > Thanks in advance for any help. Hi Dan, First, two 40 gig drives is very small. You could partition C using a 3rd party program like Partition Magic, but chances are you need at least 40 gig for the OS & programs and data. Usually logical drives are created in an extended partition. So E and F should both be logical drives within an extended partition. If you have Partition Magic to do the C drive, then you can easily remove partitions from HD2, so you could extend drive F to the full space of HD2, which sounds like you want to do. XP's disk management can create and delete, but PM can resize and do much more. I use PM for partition backups in addition to resizing when needed. In addition, I suggest you get an external backup drive, to back up your entire system. You don't realize how valuable your data is until you lose it without a backup. -- Terry R. ***Reply Note*** Anti-spam measures are included in my email address. Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
Guest Dan Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro Every HD must have an active partition. This is usually the first partition. Not to be confused with primary and secondary (or slave) HD which is what I think you were concerned about. I want to partition the primary HD so that the system partition is only 12 GB. There's no need for Windows and program files to use the entire 40 GB. Just seems like poor disk management if you ask me. From there, the second partition can be used for saving documents, for example. The secondary HD is partitioned poorly also (my mistake a few years ago). However, I have nearly 20 GB of music I don't want to lose. That's why I was asking about deleting a partition and its effects on another (latter?) partition. But I think to be safe, I'll just backup to DVD or the primary HD (once it's partitioned). "Ghostrider" wrote: > > Dan wrote: > > > Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... > > > > HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) > > Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig > > > > HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) > > Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig > > Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig > > Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig > > > > Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on > > it)? > > Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E > > partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the > > active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! > > Thanks in advance for any help. > > What is it that you really want to do? One thing for sure, dividing > HD #1 will wipe out Drive C. However, consider the alternative of > buying a larger hard drive and cloning Drive C into a partition that > is less than the full size of the new hard drive. For example, get > an 80 GB HD; clone Drive C into just 40 GB. Save the remaining 40 > GB for later use. > > As for the second parat of the question, removing Drive D should > not result in any issues with remaining Drives E or F. However, my > choice would be to clone HD #2 into another HD composed of just an > extended partition with 3 logical drives. I am a little concerned > about Drive D being an active, (primary?) partition. > >
Guest Dan Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro Thanks Terry. Yeah, I've been thinking of upgrading to a larger HD. However, WindowsXP, and all my program files including SP3 and all other program updates are only using 9 GB right now. I want to partition it so that the "SYSTEM" drive will be 12 GB in size. I think the extra 3 GB will suffice as a free space cushion. Does that sound crazy? Personally, I think it's good use of disk partitioning. If a restore is ever done (and I've got a recent image of the HD) then I can restore the system files ONLY and leave the second partition alone which may contain recently updated documents, photos, ect. "Terry R." wrote: > The date and time was 9/3/2008 7:18 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out > on the keyboard: > > > Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... > > > > HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) > > Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig > > > > HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) > > Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig > > Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig > > Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig > > > > Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on > > it)? > > Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E > > partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the > > active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! > > Thanks in advance for any help. > > Hi Dan, > > First, two 40 gig drives is very small. You could partition C using a > 3rd party program like Partition Magic, but chances are you need at > least 40 gig for the OS & programs and data. > > Usually logical drives are created in an extended partition. So E and F > should both be logical drives within an extended partition. If you have > Partition Magic to do the C drive, then you can easily remove partitions > from HD2, so you could extend drive F to the full space of HD2, which > sounds like you want to do. > > XP's disk management can create and delete, but PM can resize and do > much more. I use PM for partition backups in addition to resizing when > needed. > > In addition, I suggest you get an external backup drive, to back up your > entire system. You don't realize how valuable your data is until you > lose it without a backup. > > -- > Terry R. > > ***Reply Note*** > Anti-spam measures are included in my email address. > Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply. >
Guest Terry R. Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro The date and time was 9/3/2008 9:26 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out on the keyboard: > Thanks Terry. Yeah, I've been thinking of upgrading to a larger HD. > However, WindowsXP, and all my program files including SP3 and all other > program updates are only using 9 GB right now. I want to partition it so > that the "SYSTEM" drive will be 12 GB in size. I think the extra 3 GB will > suffice as a free space cushion. Does that sound crazy? Personally, I think > it's good use of disk partitioning. If a restore is ever done (and I've got > a recent image of the HD) then I can restore the system files ONLY and leave > the second partition alone which may contain recently updated documents, > photos, ect. > > "Terry R." wrote: > >> The date and time was 9/3/2008 7:18 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out >> on the keyboard: >> >>> Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... >>> >>> HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) >>> Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig >>> >>> HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) >>> Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig >>> Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig >>> Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig >>> >>> Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on >>> it)? >>> Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E >>> partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the >>> active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! >>> Thanks in advance for any help. >> Hi Dan, >> >> First, two 40 gig drives is very small. You could partition C using a >> 3rd party program like Partition Magic, but chances are you need at >> least 40 gig for the OS & programs and data. >> >> Usually logical drives are created in an extended partition. So E and F >> should both be logical drives within an extended partition. If you have >> Partition Magic to do the C drive, then you can easily remove partitions >> from HD2, so you could extend drive F to the full space of HD2, which >> sounds like you want to do. >> >> XP's disk management can create and delete, but PM can resize and do >> much more. I use PM for partition backups in addition to resizing when >> needed. >> >> In addition, I suggest you get an external backup drive, to back up your >> entire system. You don't realize how valuable your data is until you >> lose it without a backup. >> >> 9 gig? That's either very efficient or not very many apps! ;-) My OS partitions vary between 3 (win9x) to 7 (XP), but I have a data drive and an application drive (8 gig) also. I have additional space around those partitions, so if needed I can expand their size, but I haven't done so in quite a while, except for the data drive (which also has a mirror). If you don't have a need for more space, it sounds like you already know what you want to do. -- Terry R. ***Reply Note*** Anti-spam measures are included in my email address. Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
Guest Dan Posted September 4, 2008 Posted September 4, 2008 Re: Partitioning drives with XP Pro Not very many apps is quite a subjective phrase! I think I've got plenty enough, but the next person probably thinks I'm running on fumes! I think I've installed about a dozen to [MAYBE] 18 apps ranging from MS Office 2000 (one of the larger ones on my machine) to smaller apps like 7-zip. "Terry R." wrote: > The date and time was 9/3/2008 9:26 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out > on the keyboard: > > > Thanks Terry. Yeah, I've been thinking of upgrading to a larger HD. > > However, WindowsXP, and all my program files including SP3 and all other > > program updates are only using 9 GB right now. I want to partition it so > > that the "SYSTEM" drive will be 12 GB in size. I think the extra 3 GB will > > suffice as a free space cushion. Does that sound crazy? Personally, I think > > it's good use of disk partitioning. If a restore is ever done (and I've got > > a recent image of the HD) then I can restore the system files ONLY and leave > > the second partition alone which may contain recently updated documents, > > photos, ect. > > > > "Terry R." wrote: > > > >> The date and time was 9/3/2008 7:18 PM, and on a whim, Dan pounded out > >> on the keyboard: > >> > >>> Running Windows XP Pro SP3. This is the setup.... > >>> > >>> HD #1 - 40 gig (one partition) > >>> Drive C:\ (System) 40 gig > >>> > >>> HD #2 - 40 gig (three partitions) > >>> Drive D:\ (Backup) 3 gig > >>> Drive E:\ (Setup Files) 1 gig > >>> Drive F:\ (Music) 33 gig > >>> > >>> Two questions...Is there a way to partition the first drive (with Windows on > >>> it)? > >>> Secondly, if I use disk management in XP to delete the drive D or E > >>> partitions on HD #2, will I lose data in drive F partition? Drive D is the > >>> active partition, E is an extended and F is a logical drive...I think! > >>> Thanks in advance for any help. > >> Hi Dan, > >> > >> First, two 40 gig drives is very small. You could partition C using a > >> 3rd party program like Partition Magic, but chances are you need at > >> least 40 gig for the OS & programs and data. > >> > >> Usually logical drives are created in an extended partition. So E and F > >> should both be logical drives within an extended partition. If you have > >> Partition Magic to do the C drive, then you can easily remove partitions > >> from HD2, so you could extend drive F to the full space of HD2, which > >> sounds like you want to do. > >> > >> XP's disk management can create and delete, but PM can resize and do > >> much more. I use PM for partition backups in addition to resizing when > >> needed. > >> > >> In addition, I suggest you get an external backup drive, to back up your > >> entire system. You don't realize how valuable your data is until you > >> lose it without a backup. > >> > >> > > 9 gig? That's either very efficient or not very many apps! ;-) > > My OS partitions vary between 3 (win9x) to 7 (XP), but I have a data > drive and an application drive (8 gig) also. I have additional space > around those partitions, so if needed I can expand their size, but I > haven't done so in quite a while, except for the data drive (which also > has a mirror). > > If you don't have a need for more space, it sounds like you already know > what you want to do. > > -- > Terry R. > > ***Reply Note*** > Anti-spam measures are included in my email address. > Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply. >
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