Hard Disk - Tip!

[JohnnyX]

If you are going to buy a new PC or upgrade your existing one, then include a second Hard Disk. Most PCs already have the ability and capacity to use it.

Hard disks are relatively inexpensive - 40Gb less than £40.00 and 80Gb less than £50.00.

Use this second disk to store your data - documents, mp3, videos, digital photos, etc.

If your PC becomes screwed and requires a reinstall, the second disk will be unaffected.

Without the second disk, the chances are that you could lose all your data during a reinstall.

Cheers. :)

[rigsville]

Thanks for the tip Johnny, this is exactly what I do!

[JohnnyX]

Thanks for the tip Johnny, this is exactly what I do!

Me too, of course. :)

[Greg-VT]

;) Or you could not worry about the extra expence of getting a second hard drive, and just partition the one you already have. Have a 5-10 Gb partition for windows (drive C: ), and the remaining space as another partition (drive D: ) for all you documents, games, music, movies etc.

Very similar.

If your PC becomes screwed and requires a reinstall, the information on the second partition will be unaffected. Just format the C: partition and install windows back onto that. And data on D: is still intact...

...without the need to fork out more $$$ for another hard drive. :D

Besides that... there is really no point in haveing a 20Gb HDD for just windows ;)

[JohnnyX]

;) Or you could not worry about the extra expence of getting a second hard drive, and just partition the one you already have. Have a 5-10 Gb partition for windows (drive C: ), and the remaining space as another partition (drive D: ) for all you documents, games, music, movies etc.

Very similar.

If your PC becomes screwed and requires a reinstall, the information on the second partition will be unaffected. Just format the C: partition and install windows back onto that. And data on D: is still intact...

...without the need to fork out more $$$ for another hard drive. :D

Besides that... there is really no point in haveing a 20Gb HDD for just windows ;)

There are other reasons why it is better to use 2 hard disks in your PC.

Two that come to mind are:

1. Statistics show that the disk most likely to fail is one with a System Partition on it. :(

2. If that happens to you have anything you urgently need to access on the second disk, you have the option to take it out and plug it in another PC. :p

Cheers. :)

[Greg-VT]

There are other reasons why it is better to use 2 hard disks in your PC.

Two that come to mind are:

1. Statistics show that the disk most likely to fail is one with a System Partition on it. :(
With a system partition? All computers have a 'system' partition on them. And I've never heard of a disk failing due to having 2 partitons, and how it's possible I have no idea. A partition should not even effect the drive other then 'partitioning'. Got prove of these statistics? :p

2. If that happens to you have anything you urgently need to access on the second disk, you have the option to take it out and plug it in another PC. :p

Cheers. :)
You can do the same with a 2nd partition. The second PC will read the 2nd partition just as well as the first PC did. Assuming the 2nd partition is FAT32, or the second PC's primary partition is NTFS.

[JohnnyX]

Hi Greg-VT,

We seem to be on the same track, yet continents apart. :eek:

Just to further explain some of my earlier points:

1. The cost of an additional Hard Disk in a PC today is negligible, (in terms of the cost of the PC), compared to the benefits you gain.

2. In my earlier post I talked about "disk most likely to fail". I meant the disk is knackered - fit for the dustbin. In that case it doesn't matter how it's partitioned, all the information is in the bin.

3. As for "the disk most likely to fail". A Hard Disk is a mechanical computer component. It will eventually fail. In a multi-disk system, the disk most likely to fail is the most used one, that's a fact. The most used disk in a default system is the one that has the system partition on it. I have seen the facts and figures somewhere before - that's because I have been in IT for 20 years and have seen a lot anyway. Most of what I have seen, I have also experienced. ;)

Cheers. :)

[rigsville]

The other disadvantage of just partitioning your hard drive is when the time comes to re-install your operating system.

Most branded computers come with a system restore CD and not the actual operating system installation CD, these tend to wipe the entire hard disk (including your data partition)I've seen some that don't even highlight the fact that it's going to wipe ALL your data.

As Johnny said, the cost of an additional drive is very low these days, plus you can always physically disconnect your data drive come re-install time...just to be sure :)

[Samurai_24]

I'm with Johnny on this one :) Fantastic idea! But if you can't afford a second disk, partitioning is the next best thing.

[Greg-VT]

Ah I see.

Well it all depends on your own needs I suppose. Personally I'd be happy just to partition - quick, easy, and doesnt cost as much :p. Plus your other hard drive's extra space would just be sitting there with the new drive.

[Saz]

Either hard disk is likely to fail, be it a primary drive or a slave drive. My boyfriend has 5 hard drives in a linux box. The third HD failed, taking 80 gig's of movies and mp3's with it. He was not happy...

Usually when a PC fails, the data can still be recovered, its just the usual way of accessing it (Windows) isn't accessible. If the actual HD itself goes though, you've more or less had it.

Partitioning can cause HD failure, but usually when programs like Partition Magic are used to do the Parition.

I had a PC in work today that had a head crash - very nasty. It made a loud noise, then ground to a halt and BSOD.

[Tika]

Partitions are excellent. Most of the computer guru's I know suggest partitioning to protect your data for the average user. If youre going to get into multiple hard drives, you can do all that fun stripeing stuff. :D, but thats not necessary unless you have a ton of stuff you cant do with out. But then of course you should always back up your data people!!

[Greg-VT]

LoL. Talking about backups and partitioning...

I had a guy bring his PC in today. His system had a 120Gb Hard drive, split into 5 partitions. Running Windows XP on NTFS. Each partitions had data on it. Documents, games, movies, photos, music, windows... and etc.

For some reason, he decided to mess around with fdisk. He put the disk in the drive, deleted all his partitions, and created a new partition.

Not too bad? Well... guess what boot disk he was using to fdisk?? WINDOWS 95!!!

That's right. His new partition was FAT16, and only 2Gb. From that point, he was wondering why the hell Windows wouldnt work, and why he only had a 2Gb partition. Not to mention that he wanted all his data back :rolleyes:. Twit.

:D

Ahh well. Atleast now he knows to take backups and not to fdisk! I'm running some data recovery on his system. He should get it back in about 50-70 pieces.

[Cain]

We are talking about HHD failure not OS failure or something so it may work good, but if I have 2 drives worth 40 gigs each or even if one is 40 and the other is 20 I'd end up using all the space down to where each partition on each drive will have no more than 900 mb free space :o

I just can't stand the thought of another 20 gig drive sitting somewhere doing nothing other than backup, it's just me :p

|Cain|

[Chimpcheng]

This has probably been answered elsewhere but I just can't find it, but I hope you can help?

My laptop comes partitioned into C: (about 10GB) and D: (about 30GB). However, as nearly all my stuff is on the C: I have only 3GB of memory left and I'm not massively sure what to do about it. The D: has a folder in it called WUTemp, but it's empty. Is there a way of taking some of the D: memory and moving it to the C:? Or is it okay to save stuff to the D: and if so what could I safely save there?

A friend said DO NOT use Partition Magic as his brother lost his entire HDD thanks to this programme. If this is the case does XP have a way to resize or even merge drives? Or can anyone recommend a programme. I'm even willing buy such a programme.......honest....... ;)

[LilBunnyRabbit]

...I'd recommend Partition Magic, but do a backup first.

[YODA]

I'd recommend uninstalling any software you have that you have the original disks for (Apart from Windows) - and reinstalling them on D:

I'd also recommend keeping your data there.

[Chimpcheng]

I'd recommend uninstalling any software you have that you have the original disks for (Apart from Windows) - and reinstalling them on D:

I'd also recommend keeping your data there.


Hmmm, problem for me as my laptop came with none of the original discs!! I don't even have an XP boot up disc. Curse you Microsoft. I'm gonna tear you a new one Billy Gates :woo: :woo:

All I got was some BenQ recover discs.

Am I able to just send the programmes there? For example, can I just click on something like Kazaa and send it to the D:? without causing an upset? One of my mates said never save programmes to a D:only data. :confused:

[Samurai_24]

That is a common configuration. Your OS files stay on C and your data goes on D. You can safely save files to your D drive. WUTemp is a folder that windows uses temporarily while you perform Windows Update, so don't worry about it. You can save anything you want to on your D drive. You can even install programs to it. Partition Magic is one of the better known-to-work solutions for merging partitions without losing data. Your brother's situation is not common. Otherwise, back up your data to CD, and re-install XP. During the XP installation, you can delete both your partitions, and create one big partition.

[Samurai_24]

Am I able to just send the programmes there? For example, can I just click on something like Kazaa and send it to the D:? without causing an upset? :confused:

No, this would hose up your windows registry. You can save all your data files there however, like pictures, documents, movies etc. That will free up some of your C space.

[Chimpcheng]

Thanks people,

As you've probably seen I'm totally computer illiterate, so thanks ever so much for all the help peeps. People keep saying to me make back ups, so could I make a back up of XP and if so will Window's guide me or do I need to know what I'm doing before playing around with the software?

I've no idea how to make back ups, boot ups or whatever (is it just drag and drop in a media?). I know, I'm stupid :cry:

[YODA]

All I got was some BenQ recover discs.


Those are your Windows XP system discs - amongst other bits that were pre-installed.

[Chimpcheng]

Those are your Windows XP system discs - amongst other bits that were pre-installed.

Really? I shall have to check what's on them. I just assumed that they were recovery discs for BenQ's own software (i.e. their own media player etc.) Thanks YODA. :p

[budogirl]

I have a packard bell computer (boo hiss!) which at just under one year old started running really slowly and making a crackling noise. Then it froze and hard drive died :Angel:
The wonderful customer after sales service replaced the hard drive and told me I would have to buy back the old one to take it to data recovery people to retrieve my data :woo: . They said they didn't know what was wrong with it or whether I would be able to get anything back either. Even though I had not backed up much stuff (der!! :rolleyes: I lost a lot of voluntary business work and digital pictures) I couldn't afford to pay someone to attempt recovery. :cry:

Anyway, I reinstalled everything but for some reason, do not have paint or the games like Solitaire anymore (I have windows xp home edition).
Does anyone know why this is???

[com160]

if you go to control panel/ add remove programs/ add windows componants you will be able to install them from there but you will need the XP cd.

[budogirl]

if you go to control panel/ add remove programs/ add windows componants you will be able to install them from there but you will need the XP cd.

Ah, thanks for that - it sounds quite easy to sort out but I don't know if I have the cd... :rolleyes:
cheers! :D

[booksie_girl]

Am I able to just send the programmes there? For example, can I just click on something like Kazaa and send it to the D:? without causing an upset? One of my mates said never save programmes to a D:only data. :confused:
You can't just send a program to D drive, although you can install it to there. Most programs will run from D drive, although there are a few that will insist on being in C.

[Topher]

If you have two drives, do you need to install Windows on both?

OK - was that a dumb question?

[bcullen]

If you have two drives, do you need to install Windows on both?

OK - was that a dumb question?
Nope and nope....but you could run Linux on one drive partition ;)