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    dumb question

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by audreyhorne, Dec 22, 2007.

  1. audreyhorne

    audreyhorne Notebook Consultant

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    ive never partitioned a hard drive before.. i'm not even sure what/why i would want to do this? could someone explain in baby terms. thanks. :p
     
    audreyhorne, Dec 22, 2007
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  2. Atsushi

    Atsushi Notebook Geek

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    Install more OSs
     
    Atsushi, Dec 22, 2007
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  3. audreyhorne

    audreyhorne Notebook Consultant

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    oh what if i dont want to do that, is there apoint?
     
    audreyhorne, Dec 22, 2007
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  4. Illegal Operation

    Illegal Operation Notebook Evangelist

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    Partitioning is handy but not necessary. Basically, you have 1 physical hard drive. If you partition it you can split it into a virtual 2nd or 3rd drive. So you have a C, D, and E drive.

    Aside from installing a 2nd OS, you can also use it for storage. Having a 2nd partition is handy if you have the partition with your main operating system crash. It can result in potential file loss. Having a 2nd partition can remedy this.

    Also, with larger hard drives, partitioning can help with speed. Larger hard drives can be slower because of indexing and the fact that the computer has to search through more stuff. Cutting say a 300gig hard drive to 150 will speed up processes.

    Hope that helps a little.

    oh BTW, this was totally not a dumb question. :D
     
    Illegal Operation, Dec 22, 2007
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  5. audreyhorne

    audreyhorne Notebook Consultant

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    haha good! i have to admit sometimes the terms you guys throw around fly right over my head so I thought I'd put up a dislcaimer.


    anyways, this alone is enough to convince me i need to make a second partition when my new laptop arrives. thanks for the info.
     
    audreyhorne, Dec 22, 2007
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  6. Illegal Operation

    Illegal Operation Notebook Evangelist

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    Not sure which laptop you're planning on getting but be forewarned. Some Dell laptops come with the hard drive already having more than one partition. This is done for the media direct feature that is installed. Here is a link that will explain to you what it is...

    http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm

    I also don't know what size hard drive you plan on getting but realize that you may find some space missing already and this is why along with system backups sometimes. Some people don't care for this and go with reformatting the entire hard drive, re-installing the OS and then setting it up to their liking.
     
    Illegal Operation, Dec 22, 2007
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  7. audreyhorne

    audreyhorne Notebook Consultant

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    i'm getting the m1330 with 160 gb of space. pretty sure that comes with media direct.

    ive never used vista before so i think ill want to install the os myself anyways..just to get a feel for it. i saw the superlong thread about mediadirect+vista but it's a little hard to imagine w/o my laptop. hopefully i won't have too much trouble setting it up.
     
    audreyhorne, Dec 22, 2007
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