Korean Job Discussion Forums

gdimension · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Location: Jeju

So, I just bought a new computer, and I'm no computer guy.

I've never done it before, but I understand it is probably a good thing to do, so how does one go about partitioning a hard drive? How big should the partitions be? How many should I make? What do I put in each? How do I do it?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Download Acronis Disk Director Suite

Put it in Wizard mode and partition away.

No risk.

fizban · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Location: Bucheon

If you've only got one physical drive, then the above poster is correct in that you'll need to acquire software to make partitions. Otherwise you can just use the Command Prompt and the 'fdisk' command.

Partitions don't do anything magical. They simply create the illusion of multiple hard drives from a single drive.

Some people like to create partitions so that they can reformat their OS or have multiple OSs, while keeping all of their content files on the same drive without having to "back it up". But you'll have to re-install applications regardless of which partition you put it on because once the OS is re-installed, the registry for the application is gone, which is like the ID for the program to the OS.

Or if you deal with a lot of multimedia or large 100+ MB files that require a lot of editing, copying, saving, etc on a daily basis then a partition is a way to keep those files on a portion of the hard drive. And you can defrag only this part on a regular basis as opposed to the entire hard drive.

Again, unless you've a specific reason to partition, there's no point in doing it. Because while it creates the illusion of multiple hard drives, it is still only one drive. So if doesn't matter how many partitions you have if you've got a mechanical failure.

The easiest solution for backing up content is to buy an external hard drive. They're cheap and portable.

koon_taung_daeng · Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Location: south korea

i have my hard drive partitioned with one C being60 gigs and D being 200 gigs, its a good idea because if you have to reinstall windows you will just lose everything on C and D should be all good

gdimension · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Location: Jeju

I appreciate the advice.

OneWayTraffic · Joined: 14 Mar 2005

The other thing is if you have a small partition for storing backup data- important stuff- Format it in FAT32 as it's easier to access from DOS without extra software. I spent the better part of 48 hours pulling data of a disk after it crashed and I couldn't even reinstall (Windows crashed on setup) until I'd deleted the whole drive.