Should I Partition?

[Impruv]

Well, I just recovered my system and I was wondering; should I partition? The main reason for partitioning is keeping some important files on one partition so if something happens, I can save them right? But I already have a 160GB External Harddrive...what else does partitioning benefit me?

 

[macbook]

Yes, Partition, its always good to keep a seperate HD just in case! i learnt the hard way.

 

[Impruv]

your saying i should partition because its good to have a seperate HD? ...but I have an external HD where I backup my entire My Documents and system settings

 

[Brian_Fenner]

I have my hard drive partitioned into three sections.............

"C" = Operating system and programs (Ghost this partition)
"D" = Personal files, pictures, MP3's, etc. (weekly backup)
"E" = Video files (no backup)

I use an external hard drive to save the Ghost images and backups.
If the OS gets trashed or badly infected with spyware/virus's all I have to do is re-Ghost the C partition. Because my personal files change fairly often I back this up weekly and can easily recover any trashed files without going through a full Ghost operation.
My E partition is used for video editing and encoding............I don't care much if this gets trashed so I don't Ghost or backup this partition.

Partitions make it easy to Ghost or backup as you just grab the whole "drive' rather than picking and choosing individual files. Also, your personal files are less vulnerable being on a different partition than the OS is on.
Also, if you wish...............another advantage is you can run different OS's on different partitions...........just pick which partition you wish to boot from.

Hope this helps...........

 

[Impruv]

Well since I just recovered using the recovery disks, and installed a few games back, can I make a partition with a program or something at this state? or would I have to reformat again etc...?

 

[Brian_Fenner]

Well since I just recovered using the recovery disks, and installed a few games back, can I make a partition with a program or something at this state? or would I have to reformat again etc...?

You can create new partitions just about any time..........

I use Partition Magic...........Windows based program that's very easy to use and you can add partitions or change their size at any time. Very nice utility but it's fairly expensive for what a person wants to do and the limited times you use it.
Otherwise you can use the Recovery tools utility in XP to add a partition..........this is much more crude and not near as user friendly but works okay.

 

[Impruv]

okay thx...Ill get partition magic ...or try out the XP one. thx again