Al:
While Jack has given you a very good introduction to partitioning, he
left out the part about formatting your new partitions. In other words,
if you create new partitions D: and E:, run format D: and format E:.
Don't format your C: partition, though, or you will lose your present
Win installation. Here's a tip: At the end of each format, you'll be
asked to supply a label. I've found it useful to give descriptive names
to each partition such as "Programs", "Archives", etc. You should also
consider using various partition sizes depending on what your usage. For
example, if you download a lot of music files, you could create a really
big partition for them.
One thing that will get messed up is the location of your CD-ROM drive.
It used to be on D:, but now its going to be on the next available
letter (F:). It's been a while since I went through this, and I can't
remember if this causes registry problems; I hope that one of the other
listers will leap in here.
You would do well to go to http://freepctech.com/guides, where there is
some excellent material on partitioning and formatting hard drives.
HTH
Carroll Grigsby


Jack R Payton wrote:
>
> Al:
>
> Re: Harddrive partitions
>
> Question:
>
> Al [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> 1) I do not understand the basics of partitions of a harddrive.
> 2) Why is it desirable to partition a drive?
> 3) What happens when you partition?  Do you end up with a number of
> separate harddrives, or do they automatically read each other?
> 4) I have a 20Gig harddrive and only one "C" 2Gig drive, and no other
> drives; the C drive is about full.  What happens when it gets full?
> 5) Will I have to repartition, reformat, reload WIN98SE and all of my
> data?
>
> A. Background: Previously, operating systems were limited in the size of
> the computer's harddrive they could access or read - typically, 520mb,
> 1G, 2G, 4G, 8G, etc - some still are.
>
>    The answer was/is to partition the HDD into segments called "logical
> drives" which are within the OS's access-size limit. Then, the OS can
> read the entire HDD as a bunch of smaller drives within its access-size
> limit. In Windows Explorer and similar programs, logical drives are
> viewed - and accessed/addressed by the computer - as any other additional
> drives, such as floppies, CDROM's, Zip's, etc, except that the access
> speed for HDD partitions is the same as for the original HDD. Instead of
> the HDD showing up as the C: drive, it would show as C:, D:, E:,....
>
>    With a HDD smaller than the OS HDD access limit, partioning is
> unnecessary for accessing the entire capability of the HDD, however,
> partitioning still has a advantages:
>
>    a) program/file accessing is a bit faster when the computer only has
> to search one or two MB instead of 20mb
>
>    b) defragging is easier to do a single logical drive than the entire
> HDD
>
>    c) partitioning provides a significant means of organization -
> organizing files/folders into different LD's
>
>    d) if the C: drive (first logical drive with DOS boot sector, etc) is
> restricted to mainly the OS & swap file, re-installing the OS will be
> easier because the rest of your programs won't have to be reinstalled -
> that's not entirely true, but you won't have to be concerned about the
> file structure of the other LDs, and not greatly concerned about backing
> up data files if you've kept all *data* files on drives other C: -
> because a Windows OS reinstall will rewrite your current Windows registry
> to square one; 5) the OS operation will be easier & faster
>
>    e) Some say that putting the Windows swap file on a separate,
> individual partition will enhance operation (others say opting to put fix
> the size of the swap file at a nominal 2.5x the system RAM is even
> better, no batter where you put the swap file).
>
> B. Your real problem? It sounds like you or someone has only established
> only a single 2G partition (the "Primary DOS Partition" or C:\ drive) of
> your 20G HDD. If so, you can't access to the other 18G until you create
> an "Extended Partition," and then - if desired - subpartition the
> Extended partition into additional logical drives.
>
>    If that's the problem, use the fdisk.exe program [in Windows\command
> folder] to finish partitioning your HDD. Fdisk will prompt you to select
> an action - first select "Create DOS partition or Logical drive." Then
> select "Create an Extended Partition" [which you - or someone - seems not
> to have done]. If Fdisk says "The Extended DOS partition already exists,"
> you should have already seen a second drive D: in Win Explorer. Presuming
> you have no D:\ drive in Explorer, select "Create extended DOS
> partition." Fdisk will provide the option of creating an extended DOS
> partition from your remaining space, some 18G. You can then leave the
> entire 18G as logical drive D:\, or further divide the extended DOS
> partition into other logical drives. In either case, fdisk provides you
> the available (real) HDD space to divide into logical drives.
>
> When you finish using Fdisk, your HDD will be divided into: a "Primary
> DOS partition" (booting, OS, etc) - crive C:\, and an "Extended DOS
> partition," which you have subdivided into one or more logical drives,
> starting with drive D:\, or D:\, E:\, F:\, etc. Check out your docs for
> more info.
>
> C. After you get your HDD partitioned to add an "Extended DOS partition,"
> you shouldn't have to reinstall Windows - or, anything else, if you don't
> want to. However, you'll probably want to move/rearrange your data files
> and some of your program files to your new partitions (logical drives).
>
>    Moving data files is a no-brainer - data file location isn't a key
> registry problem, requiring only a reset in the data's parent program. If
> there's no "parent" - no problem at all. Programs are a different
> situation. Their operation is keyed to the registry. If you have - or
> install - a program such as Norton/Symantec's CleanSweep, you can "move"
> application programs to another drive/loaction, as CS changes the
> applicable registry entries in doing so. Otherwise, you're either stuck
> or must uninstall/reinstall.
>
> Bottom line answers to your original queries:
>
> 1) Do you end up with a number of separate harddrives? [YES, in a way;
> but the partitions on your HDD are called "logical" drives.]
> 2) Do they automatically read each other? [YES]
> 3) I have a 20Gig harddrive and only one "C" 2Gig drive, and no other
> drives; the C drive is about full.  What happens when it gets full? [If
> you don't partition/repartition, it's like you only have a single 2G
> HDD.]
> 4) Will I have to repartition, reformat, reload WIN98SE and all of my
> data? [YES and/or NO - see above.]
>
> Gawd, I've written a book! Anyway, good luck - Jack Payton

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