partitions what are they?

[crusious31]

ok i bought a comp a while back, on the box it said it had a 60gig hard drive, i get it home and notice there is a C and a D hard disk drive. One is 15point something gigs and the other is 39 point something gigs. I guess this is somehow makeing up that total of 60gigs but my question is, is this one hard drive that is set up as two?or is it two different hard disk drives? And what are you guys talking about when you say partitions? i am kinda under the impression that partitions are what makes one hard drive look like two( which is what could be in my case) or are they something else. thanks much

[Psycho Logical]

Partitioning, Partition Sizes and Drive Lettering

[muchmark]

You might get a basic idea on what is partitioning here.

[Virjo]

It's kinda like chopping your HDD in half, thirds, quarters, etc. without doing any permanent damage. Instead, it does it inside the HDD. I don't know exactly how, and I don't particularly care either, as long as it works.

As for finding out whether there is two or one HDD in your computer, have a look inside. Easiest.

Actually, it is good to have a partition, so that your data is stored on another "drive". If you accidentaly delete Word, for example, and you (uh-oh) forgot to backup, then you can still recover them. It also makes reinstalling much easier.

[vibe666]

retailers aren't much in the habit of giving you free HD's, so I can pretty much guarantee that you have one HD partitioned into two.

think of an office with a partition wall down the middle, you now have 2 offices of half the size of the original.

OK so the 2 'drives' you have don't equal the total for the drive (15+39 isn't anywhere near 60 as you have probably figured. the 60gb quoted space is unformatted space, which needs to be formatted, and indeed already has been which will lose quite a bit of space when it is formatted.

hope i'm not getting too confusing, but unformatted space is what you are quoted, but formatting wastes some space, so you don't get the unformatted capacity when you use the drive.

you can seperate this into partitions, which already has been done for you.

keep stuff you downloaded on this partition, as well as backups of your documents, it will come in handy for the times when you need to re-install windows (and you will, at some time or another).

The bottom line is that it's a good thing that yuo have partitions on your HD, make the most of it, and read up on them in the links provided.

have fun.

[elroy]

All HD's come totally blank from the hard drive factory. To use them all of them must have a partition installed. The partition basically indicates the beginning and the end of the hard drive disk and the size of the useable space. When setting up a new HD you need to boot with a boot floppy and type FDISK at the A prompt to create a partition. NOTE: this will erase all data on the HD. Next you must re-start the pc and format the HD. If you want 2 partitions, while in FDISK create a primary partition with part of the space and an extended partition with the remaining space. On the extended partition you will need to create a logical partition. Or on the extended partition you can create 2 or 3 or 4 logical partitions. After re-starting and formating each partition you will have a C,D,E,F drives etc. One of the benefits is that you can format the C partition and you still have the data on the other partitions. Ex: re-install Windows on C and still keep everything on D,E etc.

[crusious31]

thanks alot for the help , but theres two more ?'s, lol. Is there a way to fdisk just one particular partition? Or do you have to do the whole disk? And say i wanted to do this later-on, windows XP was pre installed so i only have recovery CD's. Will these work to re-load windows or will i need to purchase a copy? And is there a way to beck up windows and then once re-loaded just clean it out? thanks much

[vibe666]

if you have the restore CD it should let you choose the drive letter to restore to. just make sure you select C: and that it won't overwrite the whole HD. you might want to check with your PC supplier that this will not be the case, just to be sure.

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by crusious31
thanks alot for the help , but theres two more ?'s, lol. Is there a way to fdisk just one particular partition? Or do you have to do the whole disk? And say i wanted to do this later-on, windows XP was pre installed so i only have recovery CD's. Will these work to re-load windows or will i need to purchase a copy? And is there a way to beck up windows and then once re-loaded just clean it out? thanks much

Yes you can FDISK only to a partition you specify, that's what FDISK is for, to manage your partitions

Recovery CDs sucks, 99% of the time, they kill all your partitions, and load their own **** onto your HDD

No if you backup windoze, you are backing it up with all the junk

if you want a clean Windoze, you'll need to format, and do a Fresh Install

[crusious31]

cool thanks

[old dude]

Originally posted by AllGamer


Yes you can FDISK only to a partition you specify, that's what FDISK is for, to manage your partitions

Recovery CDs sucks, 99% of the time, they kill all your partitions, and load their own **** onto your HDD

No if you backup windoze, you are backing it up with all the junk

if you want a clean Windoze, you'll need to format, and do a Fresh Install

Mostpeople that build their own computers, including me, have a dim view of restore systems in general.

On the other hand, that might be just the right thing for others so some of the advice I might give one is colored by my interests in computers whereas a restore environment is just what is needed for my brotherinlaw.

If you are going to use a system that depends on a restore disk then you probably should not make any changes anywhere because if you find yourself having to use the restore, all changes will be wiped out anyway.

[AllGamer]

Exactely

reason why Compaq, IBM, Dell and many big names, like Sony, uses those BAD yet good Restore CDs

they are made for people with little to non regards for computer

so if something is broke, just throw the CD in and Restart

so they basically don't want you dealing with NIC, sound, modem upgrades
much less do things to your HDD FAT system

cuz they'll all gone lost after the CD is ran