Re: Partitioning a drive in Vista

Hi,

Yes, this is correct. If you create 4 partitions, the last one mode will be
an extended one so you can create multiple volumes within it. Anything less
than 4 and it will create primaries by default.

I would suggest you reconsider your plan and create only 2 volumes,
OS/programs and data. Installing programs to their own volume will not gain
you much and may actually work against you. If you have to reinstall the OS,
the programs will need to be reinstalled anyways, so having them on a
separate volume will not make the recovery process any faster. If the
program folder and the OS are on separate volumes, you may experience some
delay in execution, or even some thrashing, as the drive head jumps back and
forth between the partitions.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Vote for my shoe: http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"dummy act" <> wrote in message
news: m...
> New to Vista and want to repartition the drive in my HP machine to utilize
> a C, D and E partition (OS, Data, 3rd party software). Partition Magic
> does not support Vista.
> Looking at the Disk Management in Vista, It looks like I can shorten the
> current drive and add new partitions. The new partitions are Primary
> Partitions, not Extended as in XP.
> Is this the correct thing to do in Vista and create multiple Primary
> Partitions on the disk? I assume if I add a second disk drive it could
> also contain multiple Primary Partitions.
>

I'm curious Rick why people create a separate Data partition? Why not just
create a Data directory in the O/S partition and store all the stuff there that
one would put in a separate partition? That's how I've managed my machines, and
I'm just wondering if that approach is somehow inferior to a separate partition?

Thanks.

Bill
-----------------------------------------


Rick Rogers wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Yes, this is correct. If you create 4 partitions, the last one mode will
> be an extended one so you can create multiple volumes within it.
> Anything less than 4 and it will create primaries by default.
>
> I would suggest you reconsider your plan and create only 2 volumes,
> OS/programs and data. Installing programs to their own volume will not
> gain you much and may actually work against you. If you have to
> reinstall the OS, the programs will need to be reinstalled anyways, so
> having them on a separate volume will not make the recovery process any
> faster. If the program folder and the OS are on separate volumes, you
> may experience some delay in execution, or even some thrashing, as the
> drive head jumps back and forth between the partitions.
>

Hi,

The only real benefit is that the system volume can be formatted and
reinstalled to without having to backup the data. As it's on a separate
volume, it should be unaffected by recovery options. However, this may not
apply to some manufacturer's system recovery disks which do a wipe and
relead.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Vote for my shoe: http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Bill Martin" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> I'm curious Rick why people create a separate Data partition? Why not
> just create a Data directory in the O/S partition and store all the stuff
> there that one would put in a separate partition? That's how I've managed
> my machines, and I'm just wondering if that approach is somehow inferior
> to a separate partition?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Bill
> -----------------------------------------
>
>
> Rick Rogers wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Yes, this is correct. If you create 4 partitions, the last one mode will
>> be an extended one so you can create multiple volumes within it. Anything
>> less than 4 and it will create primaries by default.
>>
>> I would suggest you reconsider your plan and create only 2 volumes,
>> OS/programs and data. Installing programs to their own volume will not
>> gain you much and may actually work against you. If you have to reinstall
>> the OS, the programs will need to be reinstalled anyways, so having them
>> on a separate volume will not make the recovery process any faster. If
>> the program folder and the OS are on separate volumes, you may experience
>> some delay in execution, or even some thrashing, as the drive head jumps
>> back and forth between the partitions.
>>

Bill Martin wrote:

> I'm curious Rick why people create a separate Data partition? Why not
> just create a Data directory in the O/S partition and store all the stuff
> there that
> one would put in a separate partition? That's how I've managed my
> machines, and I'm just wondering if that approach is somehow inferior to a
> separate partition?

Because if you need to reinstall Windows or the drive dies, it's handy to
have all your data safe on another drive. It also makes backing up a bit
easier. Having a separate partition on a single drive is OK but less
desirable because if the drive dies, everything goes.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Bill Martin wrote:
>
>> I'm curious Rick why people create a separate Data partition? Why not
>> just create a Data directory in the O/S partition and store all the stuff
>> there that
>> one would put in a separate partition? That's how I've managed my
>> machines, and I'm just wondering if that approach is somehow inferior to
>> a
>> separate partition?
>
> Because if you need to reinstall Windows or the drive dies, it's handy to
> have all your data safe on another drive. It also makes backing up a bit
> easier. Having a separate partition on a single drive is OK but less
> desirable because if the drive dies, everything goes.

It seems as though the obvious is oftentimes overlooked.
This should benefit many readers.
Thank you, Malke. Harry.

>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
>