Question regarding my laptop's recovery (D:/) drive?

I tend to write too much. Simplification....GO!

- Lappy is running out of HDD space.
- A new HDD is wasted $$ if a new lappy is 1-2 years away.
- I will back up what I deem essential (documents, music, etc).
- I will write down what programs I've downloaded and want to keep.
- I will activate the recovery drive to restore to factory settings.
- I will delete recovery (D:/) drive to save some space.
- I will put music, documents, and programs back on the cleaned OS.
- I will buy an external HDD as my backup (for lappy and desktop).
- Opinions... GO!

I was also recommended just doing a fresh install of Vista via MS' website (didn't even know you could do that). I could either download the drivers and put them on a USB drive beforehand or just download them after I complete the fresh install. They get downloaded either way so I don't see the difference.

I'm done yammering. I will let you grace me with your humble (and highly appreciated) expertise. Thank you.

 

Short version:

When you're running out of HDD space... you address the shortage of capacity.

Buying a new HDD is not a waste of money - especially if you'll be using this for the next 18-24 months.

What I would suggest is a Scorpio Black 750GB HDD - partitioned - along with an install of Win7x64 and upgrading to 4GB RAM (while you can still find it). Don't forget you can download (legally) the Win7x64 ISO from this site (or use google... search doesn't work so good here) and run it for 120days (again: use google) to evaluate it/save to buy it.

Don't touch your old (80GB??!!!???) HDD - sell it with this system when you decide to buy a new one (keep the recovery partition...).

I would also recommend you buy an external HDD (at least 500GB) and use MS SyncToy to keep your data backed up.

Directly address the problem, and (with an external HDD), the potential problems you may face in the next few months/years.

Deleting the Recovery partition is simply asking for disaster to strike imo.

Good luck.

 

Recovery partitions are usually no more than 20 GB, usually around 8-12 GB. Buying a new hard drive isn't a bad investment, hard drives are cheap these days and SATA 2.5" 9.5mm drives can be reused in a newer system..

Clone your old drive onto a larger new drive and resize the partitions.

 

Whoops. Forgot to mention it's only 80GB. Should have been easy to guess, but please excuse that lack of detail.

 

Honestly, with a 80GB hard drive you'll be starving for space no matter what you do. New laptop HDDs aren't too expensive either. I would definitely consider a new HDD a good investment. You can easily get a 500GB 7200RPM for a decent price and keep the recovery partition.

 

Get a new HDD and turn your old one into an external HDD. That way you won't feel like you "wasted" a hard drive.

When you get a new laptop you can switch them back and have a external hdd with more space.

 

Thanks for the insight in regards to buying a new HDD. Guess I wasn't thinking in practical terms. In an ideal world (where I actually have money to spend) I'd probably want this SSD, but for now I will probably save up for this HDD. I've also owned this particular laptop for 3 and a half years so 250GB is more than enough hard drive space (750GB sounds ridiculous even for my desktop, lol).

In terms of the lifespan of the lappy itself (see my sig for more details), I think if I'm going to upgrade the HDD then I should do as you said, tiller, and upgrade to Windows 7. The question is, with the 64 bit version, would I be fine at 3GB of RAM or should I bump it up to 4+? Don't even know if my CPU will accept over 4GB (it should), but I'll have to Google its specs. The only things left to really upgrade on it are the OS, the HDD, and perhaps the monitor to something with a built-in camera, lol. In that case I shouldn't have to sell the thing until I'm out of college.

As far as external backups go, I'm aiming at a 1TB HDD (and a firebox ). Or I'll just do as R3d mentioned and turn my 80GB drive into a temporary external backup. MS SyncToy was also recommended to me somewhere else so I'll look into it.

 

I can't really recommend either of your SSD/HDD choices.

Intel 320 Series 160GB model or the 750GB Scorpio Black.

Why am I so insistent on the largest capacity model? Because that is the only way of ensuring you are getting the latest tech in the drive (platter density is only one parameter that gets upgraded with each generation).

Even if you only need ~100GB for your uses - I would still buy the 750GB model, partition it to the largest size you want during Win7x64 install (the smaller the capacity, the faster it will perform) and enjoy the fastest mechanical storage setup you can find in the second half of 2011.

Download the Windows Upgrade Advisor to know what you're in for - before you start spending money.

See:
Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor


As for the RAM; I'd recommend 8GB.

But, since your needs haven't been listed, I'll assume they're more modest than mine and venture to guess that 3GB will be adequate and that you should be able to remove the 1GB stick you have now and put it a 2GB stick for 4GB total with no problems.


Your cpu is already 64bit capable:

See:
Intel® Core?2 Duo Processor T8100 (3M Cache, 2.10 GHz, 800 MHz FSB))


So with Win7x64 you're also good to go. (As long as all your peripherals have 64bit drivers - or are natively supported by Win7x64 and/or Windows Update).

Keep in mind that the Key you buy to install Win7 can be used to install the x86 or the x64 bit versions of the Windows version you buy.

Hope this answers some more of your questions?

 

OK, short and sweet:

I can go without the SSD, then. Money is kind of an issue (hence the $50 HDD). Another problem is the accumulating laptop components I have. Craig's List seems to be the only option in getting a decent amount of money from selling my RAM, CPU, and this "DIRT 3" game coupon.

Anyway, you said to partition the larger drive into the smallest section possible for Windows 7. Wouldn't a smaller HDD just be better because you don't have to contend with all of the extra space?

Thanks for looking up the CPU info, granted I already knew that. Should have looked it up before posting (20-20 hindsight), but thanks nevertheless.

OS - Don't see a need for 64-bit if I'm staying below 4GB of RAM. Desktop has 64-bit (see sig).

RAM - the desktop has 8GB. 3GB for now and perhaps another GB in the future will suffice for the lappy.

Thanks for the help. As I said before, highly appreciated.

 

I think the recommendation to partition is performance/backup related. With an OS partition of say... 60-80GB, that's the only partition that will be affected during a reinstall of Windows should the need arise. Your user data would be safe on the other side of the wall.

Another reason for the partition, my personal favorite, is for keeping your house in order. You want your remote control by your right hand and your beer by your left. But... when you fill your living room full of magazines and laundry and cd's and trash, it can be harder to find the remote, the batteries, the battery cover, the beer, and the bottle opener... making a the seemingly simple task of changing a channel to be very laborious and time consuming.

Keeping your OS seperate from your user data, especially on such a large platter, ensures that even at its worst, performance will not be as bad as it currently is for you.

I just partitioned a friend's 5400RPM 320GB HDD on Vista x64. Though I couldn't tell the difference in performance (I'm spoiled w/ my SSD/HDD combo), he was amazed at how snappy things had become. It's very wasteful/inefficient for photos and music to be on the outside of the platter, hogging up the space that your OS should be on for faster read access/grouping.

 

Yeah, the major reason to partition for me is for keeping performance not only high - but consistently high.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-hitachi-7k500-benchmark-setup-specifics.html


As for the 64bit version vs. the 32bit version - yes, there are two major (to me...) differences. One is that there is a slight performance boost with Win7x64 (~5-10%). The other is with the higher security model enforced by x64.

Your call, really... but for me any benefit is a major benefit.