Partitioning drives with XP Pro

[Guest Dan]

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]

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.]

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]

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]

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.]

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]

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.

>