To partition or not to partition...2TB external hdd for laptop?

I just picked up a 2TB wd passport hdd for my laptop. I am going from desktop to laptop so I have some desktop hdd with files I want to access, move and store. I bought some external hdd enclosures for those hdd's for now.

I want to use the 2TB wd ext hdd to store files and have an area to backup files etc. I also want to have a backup of my laptops bootable C: drive etc.

Does it make sense to partition my 2TB ext drive if I want some areas for file storage, some for file backup and one area specifically to back up my laptops bootable c: ?

Suggestions?

thanks

 

Makes sense if you want to limit/control the storage allocated for each.


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Does it prevent one partition from being faulty if the other goes bad?

 

If the drive is going bad, the drive is going bad, no matter the partition. That said, is something screws up the file system for one partition and it's not a hardware problem, the second one will be fine. You can also wipe a partition entirely without touching the data on the other.

 

I don't see any obvious way to make more partitions out of the one 2TB partition on the wd passport hdd. I thought it was easy.

 

Windows disk management should be able to do it.


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Laptop backup on your 2TB if it all goes out your HDD backup isn't going to help you. Rather you need to move backups to another ext drive. Just like your using your ext 2tb WD drive for. Never keep all your eggs in one basket....No you don't need to partition it just make separate folders for it on a single drive that will save you time and partition will loose more space...

 

Laptop backup on an external 2TB wd isn't going to help? The 2TB wd is an external hdd. I bought it for backups and storage. If partitions aren't really needed I could avoid them. I just wanted security for a partition that was strictly to backup the laptop bootable partition.

 

What your doing will not help...want to make bootable make a backup of the image and setup on dvd from the options menu that will do more to save you time to setup your bootable system to restore or fix crashed HDD should that occur. That is how I do mine laptop - use Acronics true image to make bakup drive images to ext HDD and there it saves working drive image to reboot back should the laptop hdd fails and same for me desktop the image of the main HDD is stored on another HDD but not on the same drive itself to protect should I have to wipe and reboot the Main HDD to working order.

 

Ok. A bootable image on dvd would work if it could simply install the system back onto the internal hdd. If I did the same thing using an external hdd I guess it would need to have the first or only partition as the one C: bootable image.

 

I would never keep my backup bootable image on my main drive that is asking for trouble should the main fail everything even partitions will fail. And you don't need to make partition on your ext drive if you want to save a image that should be a file only the program you used to create it will detect and boot from it. And you can't use ext HDD as bootle drive the O/S will want a C:\ drive and will not recognize the ext HDD as a C:\ drive that is hard wired in the BIOS. Making a image with something Acronis and bootable dvd will do alot more to save your time to rebuild your system should a failure occur and with this setup at least your ext HDD will have a Acronis image of the laptop HDD and when you need to restore it back if problems occur you can and not hassle with partitions on your ext HDD to use but a single large file image of the HDD that Acronis will use to restore your laptop back. I have the ext drive for say on laptop it store the image as a single large Acronis file for the laptop hard drive and when I update software I use my OD to boot and restore the image from the ext HDD back to the laptop HDD and then I update my software after the reboot and then remake the image back onto the ext HDD where it stays intact and off power when not in use to protect the data from damage. That is how I do it for laptop and it has worked fine for me and the times I build the restore dvd is when a family member is to far for me to trek to their house to restore their computer they can use the OD and restore dvd to boot and then reboot and use their computer again should they have problem with their program and laptop since the last system reboot just like the factory restore dvd one would get if they ordered from the factory but this is the windows custom built and restore dvd that has worked. These are the methods I used to protect and restore data should they fail but as anything you must copy your data/file you created before restoring as that will wipe clean everything unless one doesn't have their important data/file store on there and for my Desktop it is easy as those data are stored on different drives in my mid-tower to prevent data loose should the main HDD go out then I just reboot the Acronis image stored on separate HDD and I am back in business and running without delay in downtime. Oh and my Mid-tower is my Server/NAS so this is why I have this setup all my laptops can connect to and read from the mid-tower server setup and storing of data from the laptop. So basically I have a small home-group/network setup at my house which requires I have this kinda setup to protect my data/files.