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Thread ID: 113173 2010-10-08 06:08:00 1TB – to partition or not? tuiruru (12277) Press F1
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1142602 2010-10-08 06:08:00 Hi

OK – I've got the 1TB WD External hard drive from DSE (see my previous post - forums.pcworld.co.nz )

Should I create some more partitions on it – from what I've read (not knowing much about this sort of thing) smaller partitions on a large drive is more efficient?

If so, how do I go about it? I'm using Vista SP 2 on a Toshiba Satellite A 300 that has two physical drives of an arguable 320 Gb) so is it alright to use Vista's Disk Management tool to shrink the existing partition on the new drive? I have downloaded, but not installed, a couple of freeware aps - EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition:FREE and Partition Assistant Home Edition - are these any good or are there better alternatives?

I've got other questions but I'll wait to see what other info you need from me before taking up more of your time

Thanks
tuiruru (12277)
1142603 2010-10-08 06:21:00 what will you be using the drive for mostly? jareemon (5207)
1142604 2010-10-08 07:40:00 Well mostly to back up the other two drives so that if one of them goes down, especially the primary with th OS system on it, I'll have all the data plus the OS and all the other apps I've installed ready to go once I've I've got a new internal HD.

Iwas going to ask what an ISO is later....

Also didn't know whether to start playing with Linux......
tuiruru (12277)
1142605 2010-10-08 08:46:00 Personally for altering partitions, I use Acronis Disk Director (www.acronis.com) from the bootable CD - its not free, but there are several others that are. wainuitech (129)
1142606 2010-10-08 09:40:00 So, if I go ahead and do it, how many and how big? tuiruru (12277)
1142607 2010-10-08 09:49:00 How many and how big is totally upto you. Making a partition to small is pointless, as you cant store much data in it.

I was asked yesterday by a customer who I'm taking a new PC to Tomorrow, to partition the 1TB drive he asked for into two - round about equal size partitons -- so it was easy enough with the program I mentioned before. Generally you boot up the program, and move a slider to resize the partition, then create another in the now blank space.

note: pays to reboot after each operation, some times it can turn pear shaped if you dont.

Example: shrink partition - reboot, then make a new partition in the blank space, reboot.

One problem I see with people with to many partitions is --where they put stuff (which partition) :confused:
wainuitech (129)
1142608 2010-10-08 09:52:00 Unless you need some specific reason there is not much point, it's easier to have one big one then you don't run out of space, and you can more easily migrate everything to a bigger drive if needed Agent_24 (57)
1142609 2010-10-08 09:54:00 I don't see the point of partitioning the backup drive. Every partition needs head room, for which read waste space. The more partitions, the more waste space.

Just use it as is and if you ever get a really compelling reason to partition it later, do it then.
linw (53)
1142610 2010-10-08 10:31:00 I'd make the primary 800GB, and anything else left un-partitioned for Linux to take control of if you wanna play with it :) Chilling_Silence (9)
1142611 2010-10-08 18:21:00 If it's a backup drive then I wouldn't bother. pctek (84)
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