97 replies to this topic

[kobrakommander56]

Amen

[Hamish+]

I heard about partitions but I'v got a problem.

I only have one partition (with my OS) and I don't have the windows CD.

Is it possible to add another partition without disrupting whats on this one?

[Eldmannen]

Hamish+, on Feb 11 2006, 10:44 PM, said:

I heard about partitions but I'v got a problem.

I only have one partition (with my OS) and I don't have the windows CD.

Is it possible to add another partition without disrupting whats on this one?

Not normally. But there is 3rd party software (such as Partition Magic) that supposedly can do that. But I dont trust it.

[burtman]

Eldmannen, on Dec 24 2005, 04:17 AM, said:

Thanks for the replies!

I wrote it because I thought I should educate some people about computers and stuff. Sad thing is that maybe this thread will disappear soon, maybe I or someone should put it on a website or something.
If anyone has a website and thought it was useful, feel free to put it on your website or something.

Partition their drives is something everybody should do, it can save them alot of hassle and provide them with much convenience.

As rridgely having two harddrives is also a good idea, unfortunately that makes more noise, cost more, eats more electricity, etc. But it can be good.

Two hard drives can also be runned in something called RAID, which there are different modes to. You can mirror the content of the harddrive in real-time or provide reading from two disks which can provide fast performance. This is not so common for home users, but it is common for servers.
Redundant array of independent disks (RAID) on Wikipedia

This thread made me realise that I should have partitioned my drive - but, buying these commercial machines, you don't really get a chance to partition.

Anyway, without my games etc., I've only used 13 gig of a 240Gig HD - the games fill another >150 Gb (if anything needs partitioned ...!) - I really want to shift my swapfile at least.

Is there any utilities that allow you to take a chunk of exisiting drive, and create a new partition ? (preferably free as I'll probably do it only once)

I've tried a few shareware utils., but all they suceed in doing is telling me if 7Meg unallocated (wonder is that the total of my slack space ??) I'd prefer not to reformat (mainly cos I don't really know how) etc.

In case it helps, I have also have a 4 Gig recovery partiton (D drive) included when I bought the m/c - the rest is free-ish (and an aparent 7Mb unallocated)

I would like to create a partition for the swapfile (can the MFT go on a partition ?), one for games, one for work stuff ... am I getting carried away ?

Anyway, I think my question is - can I create an additional partition after Windows has been installed ?
(so far I'm thinking the answer is no), BUT if anyone knows otherwise, please help !!

Ta,
B.

[Eldmannen]

burtman, on Feb 19 2006, 03:25 AM, said:

This thread made me realise that I should have partitioned my drive - but, buying these commercial machines, you don't really get a chance to partition.

Anyway, without my games etc., I've only used 13 gig of a 240Gig HD - the games fill another >150 Gb (if anything needs partitioned ...!) - I really want to shift my swapfile at least.

Is there any utilities that allow you to take a chunk of exisiting drive, and create a new partition ? (preferably free as I'll probably do it only once)

I've tried a few shareware utils., but all they suceed in doing is telling me if 7Meg unallocated (wonder is that the total of my slack space ??) I'd prefer not to reformat (mainly cos I don't really know how) etc.

In case it helps, I have also have a 4 Gig recovery partiton (D drive) included when I bought the m/c - the rest is free-ish (and an aparent 7Mb unallocated)

I would like to create a partition for the swapfile (can the MFT go on a partition ?), one for games, one for work stuff ... am I getting carried away ?

Anyway, I think my question is - can I create an additional partition after Windows has been installed ?
(so far I'm thinking the answer is no), BUT if anyone knows otherwise, please help !!

Ta,
B.

That is why you either do not buy a commerical machine, or ask to get it delivered without an OS pre-installed, or repartion the computer as soon as you get it.
Now, formating a harddisk is not difficult, actually, it is very easy.
You can right click on the disk/partion in "My Computer" and select "Format..."
Or you can boot with a floppy disk so you get to the CLI (Command Line Interface), and type: format C: or format D: or whatever.
Doing any of the 2 mentioned steps above will format your disk/partion and erase all content on it.
Partition a disk is a little more difficult than formating it. You can do this at the by booting the computer with a bootdisk and running the command 'fdisk'. Then you need to tell it how many paritions to create, what size they should be, etc and declare an active partition. The active partition is usually the first and is the one that the OS (Operating System) is/will be on.

[Hamish+]

I partitioned my drive last month using Partition Magic and there were no probs :-)

[DjLizard]

Partition Magic is, in fact, really good.

[zaphirer]

DjLizard, on Jul 31 2006, 08:49 PM, said:

Partition Magic is, in fact, really good.

A shame all Symantec products can be that good  

[DJpailo]

I would love to do this but doubt I can with only 80GB hard Drive.

[Eldmannen]

DJpailo, on Sep 1 2006, 08:38 AM, said:

I would love to do this but doubt I can with only 80GB hard Drive.

My disk is only 80 gb too. But I have it partitioned.
C: - 20 gb. (Operating system, programs, games)
D: - 40 gb. (Media, music, movies)
E: - 20 gb.

[zaphirer]

If I could get a Raptor or other 10k drive I would partition it so that OS and games would be on the 70/130 GB drive,
with media, music, movies on whatever slower, 7200 drives I have lying around.

ATM however, I don't really have a need for it - so it's all one 160GB fat... thing...  One C:/ for all my stuff plus the family pictures, videos, etc.

[opt]

I have a 200GB hard drive that is only recognized as 128.

So i just partitioned the rest using disk management

Do I have to like install windows on that separate partition and stuff for the 50GB to work?

I want partition magic but dont want to spend $70...

[rridgely]

I really like gparted live. Its linux boot up cd that is only a disc partitioner.(works very well and requires no linux knowledge)
http://gparted.sourc....net/livecd.php

Also this site is giving away paragons partitioner for free:
http://www.vnunet.co...on-manager-2005

[XPSP2]

rridgely, on Nov 23 2006, 03:38 PM, said:

I really like gparted live. Its linux boot up cd that is only a disc partitioner.(works very well and requires no linux knowledge)
http://gparted.sourc....net/livecd.php

Also this site is giving away paragons partitioner for free:
http://www.vnunet.co...on-manager-2005

I assume gparted works with windows? If it does, do you know of a good link for instructions on use? Also will this destroy info on existing partitions?

[XPSP2]

XPSP2, on Dec 30 2006, 08:33 PM, said:

I assume gparted works with windows? If it does, do you know of a good link for instructions on use? Also will this destroy info on existing partitions?

I assume I assumed wrong.
I used Partition Manager 2005, worked great!

[zaphirer]

GParted is the best partitioner I've ever worked with

[DennisD]

rridgely, on Nov 23 2006, 08:38 PM, said:

I really like gparted live. Its linux boot up cd that is only a disc partitioner.(works very well and requires no linux knowledge)
http://gparted.sourc....net/livecd.php

Also this site is giving away paragons partitioner for free:
http://www.vnunet.co...on-manager-2005

Hi rridgely,

I`m picking your brains again here from your Nov. 23rd post re. partitions. (Yep, takes me awhile to get round this place).

Since I cracked the DVD backup method, I find I`m fragmenting my HD a lot with saving and deleting these big ISO files.  So therefore having to defragment more often.

I`ve an 80gb HD, (big enough for me at the moment), with a 6gb recovery partition. Still 56gb free.
My idea is to make a seperate partition, maybe about 10gb to use simply for Decrypter and then Shrink files.

I intend deleting all files when DVD backup confirmed OK.

A: Is this possible with gparted, which I`ve just dl`d but not installed ?
B: Would this cause premature wear to this part of the HD moreso than the poss damage caused by too frequent defragmenting ?

Thanks
Regards

Edit: Just dl`d the Paragon one as well to try.

[rridgely]

Ok, I should have checked this post sooner... I forgot I posted in it.

Gparted is a live linux cd. What you do is burn it to a disc as a imagefile and then boot into it. Don't worry though because its not really linux, it right away opens the partition program and its really simple.
--------------

Dennis I get what your saying.
That could work, but when you partition make sure that you defrag your hard drive before you make the partition.(this will help make sure you don't loose any data.) Also make sure you back up any data that you have on your hard drive that you would be sad if you lost before making the partition.

Since you already have paragon I would just use that. Its a nice program.
Partitioning the drive shouldn't wear it out any.(as long as your not doing it once a week or anything.)

If that didn't answer everything just let me know.

[DennisD]

Yep man, that just about covers it.

Today I backed up everything to DVD, as I was planning a destructive recovery to clean out all the crap from the dozens of applications I`ve tried and discarded over the last 6 months.

After doing that would probably be the ideal time to setup another partition.

I liked the other ideas I`ve read in this thread. Partition for music, or in my case, downloaded art. I`m a big fan of art along the lines of Giger.  Have found some amazing, wierd, bizarre, surreal and simply stunning examples of the power of the imagination.

And some of it definitely scary.

If anyone else is into Giger type stuff, will happily provide some links.

I`ll let you know how I get on.

Thanks
Regards

[Eldmannen]

DennisD, on Jan 20 2007, 02:34 AM, said:

Today I backed up everything to DVD, as I was planning a destructive recovery to clean out all the crap from the dozens of applications I`ve tried and discarded over the last 6 months.

Good idea to make backup. Backup is always good to have.

DennisD, on Jan 20 2007, 02:34 AM, said:

I liked the other ideas I`ve read in this thread. Partition for music, or in my case, downloaded art.

Yes, you can have like D: (Music) and E: (Downloads) or you could have D:\Music\ and D:\Downloads\