| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 29505 | 2003-01-22 09:50:00 | FAQ # 34b multiple partitions | tweak'e (174) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 116020 | 2003-01-22 09:50:00 | multiple partitions. with today’s large hard drives keeping everything in order can be a major hassle. one way to help with that is to use multiple partitions. the idea is to simply split the drive up into more usable proportions. almost everyone will have to format c: at one time or another. with partitions data can be stored onto d: so it is not lost when c: is formatted. also, having smaller drives to deal with makes defrag/scandisk a lot easier to deal with. defragging a 20 gig drive is a whole lot faster than a 60 gig drive. most hard drives are fastest at the start of the drive and get slower as you get closer to the end. thus the partition on the front of the drive is the fastest and the one on the end is slowest. this can be useful. instead of having data spread all over the disk (as with a single partition drive) you can store data (eg mp3's) which doesn’t require speed on the slower partitions thus keeping the fast partition free for the programs that require a fast drive. a basic setup:- a 60 gig drive split into 3x20 gig drives. c holds OS and most programs. d: & e: holds bulk data. good thing is that it's simple. drawbacks:- you will lose any programs and data stored on c: (if data isn't transferred to another partition or backed up) when it's formatted. all programs will need to be reinstalled, however the original program installers can be kept on the other data drives making it easy to reinstall. eg having wincabs on d: means you don't have to use the windows cd to reinstall windows. medium setup:- a smaller c: partition with OS and special programs only. d: partition holds majority of programs and data. this is a little bit more complicated to use as any program that integrates highly (eg antivirus, firewall, MS office) into the OS needs to be installed onto c:. after a format of c: and OS reinstall, a lot of programs will only require relinking (eg shortcut to desktop) for them to work. others may require an "over the top" install for them to run exactly as they did before. this is VERY handy (says he who has done many format/installs this year without losing any data). drawbacks:- you can lose some speed when you have a program accessing data off multiple partitions. this is especially so if c: is far too big (which means other data is on a slow part of the disk while a big part of the fast part of the disk is empty), so pick your partition sizes wisely. pro setup (swapfile partitions and other special partitions):- some other day. most pros know more than enough to make their own minds up :) |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 116021 | 2003-01-23 22:06:00 | problems with partitions in win9x/me unfortunatly win9x/me dosn't have the letter assigning abilities of win2k/XP. if your system has multiable hardrives or partitions, adding another hardrive will alter what letters are assigned to the drives. for eg c: will often stay the same, d: will be the new drive, the old d drive will now be e: drive, the old e: drive will be f: drive. unfortunaly this causes havoc as a program is looking for the data on d: drive but the data is now on e: drive so the program won't run. There is a cure! Letter assigner (www.v72735.f2s.com) by Vadim Burtyansky will asign letters to the drives so when a new drive is added it gets the next advailable letter without upsetting the existing arrangement. small tip- make sure you press SAVE otherwise it will not keep your existing arrangement when you add a new drive. |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 116022 | 2003-07-06 06:47:00 | Fixing the drive letters in Win2k and XP including the system drive. Normally you would change improper drive letters, by right clicking My Computer, selecting Manage, then navigating to Disk Management. This would allow you to change all the drive letters except the drive that is running Windows because it is in use. Now that can be a real hassle if you have installed a new hard drive, and your Windows partition is now changed to H:\ drive, instead of C:\. Normally to fix that, you would have to unplug the slave drive, and completely reinstall Windows on the new drive to get it back to C:\. Not anymore! I just found out today, that if you install Partition Magic 8 (www.powerquest.com) in Windows, it can fix all the drive letters up for you - including the partition the operating system is on. Partition Magic will reboot the system and make the changes before windows starts. Heres how to do it: -> Load up PM8 in Windows. -> Select the drive whose letter you want changed. -> Click partition from the menu bar. -> Scroll down to advanced. -> Then select "Change drive letter". -> Change it to what you want, and apply changes. This will save you quite a lot of time installing Windows lots of times to get the drive letters correct. |
PoWa (203) | ||
| 116023 | 2003-07-06 06:58:00 | > if you have installed a new hard drive, and your Windows partition is now changed to H:\ drive, instead of C:\ 2k and XP will keep the letters the same even if you add a new drive, unless your booting off the new drive, in which case you will want/need the os on the first drive. |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 116024 | 2004-07-16 02:45:00 | The text from this thread ( . pcworld . co . nz/post . jsp?forum=1&thread=45248&message=252746" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz), orginally posted by PoWa, might be useful to others as it is relevant to this topic . OK I've been looking for this solution for a long time and eventually found it! Very useful if you install all your programs to a different partition ie D:\Programs instead of the normal . Hopefully this is pretty useful to someone out there Got it out of an E-book called: O'Reilly, Windows XP hacks . 7 . 3 . 6 Change the Default Location for Installing Programs XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed . However, you can change the default installation drive and/or directory by using a Registry hack . Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion . Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir . By default, the value will be C:\Program Files . Edit the value to any valid drive or folder; XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs . NOTE: Making changes to the Registry should not be done carelessly - if you use Registry Editor incorrectly you can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system . See FAQ #6 ( . pcworld . co . nz/thread . jsp?forum=1&thread=24468&message=80604&q=faq+%236#80604" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz) for information on how to backup your registry prior to making changes . |
Susan B (19) | ||
| 1 | |||||