HD Partitions

so, i got my computer back, but Asus put my computer into two partitions, which are both visible, both about 250GB one for Data, and another for installed programs.. Any way i can merge them into one?

 

Any third party software should work, such as Acronis Disk Director.

 

MERGE the partitions, which implys keeping the data and resolving any registry entries pointing to directories on the partition being dropped?

Gary

 

Why would you want to do that OP? It's better like it is.

 

i figured it out, but why is it better? everything was installing to the primary anyways

 

Some people think it is better to separate your data from your programs, because if a trojan you download somehow overwrites every single file on your harddrive, your data on a different partition will be somewhat protected.

Of course such viruses require massive amounts of CPU resources and are easy to contain......

 

No, the reasons it is better is because if your O/S flakes out, then you can reinstall it without worrying about losing your data on the separate partition.

Additionally, you can also tune your computer (via partitions) for the way you work to keep the speed up as much as possible.

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5617217#post5617217


Cheers!

 

Um... the trojan can easily just mess with both of your partitions.

Whether to partition or not personal preference. My advice is don't partition unless you have a reason to do so. Although since it's already partitioned, there's no major harm in leaving it I guess.

If you want a program to merge them, I think this may be of interest: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=452653

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Yes, that's the real benefit of partitioning.
However, in the very rare event that my OS gets hosed AND System Restore fails... I'm ok with reinstalling the OS and restoring my data from backup if necessary.

IMO you are at least as likely to make your computer slower as you are to make it faster... although chances are you won't notice the difference either way. I would not recommend partitioning for performance reasons.

 

Did you see/read the link I included? Was there anything I presented in error?

Even some very, umm, 'unsophisticated' users have commented to me their system was noticeably faster and all I did was 'shrink' their HD to contain just their O/S and apps - used the remaining space for their data, of course.

Sure, if you meddle with Windows without a plan of attack, things might get worse. But, partitioning is the most basic 'tweak' you can do to keep Windows running as fast as possible.

So, you've recommended to not do it. Now, I ask - what performance hit have you seen that can be attributed to partitioning?

Cheers!

 

On the other hand, if your HDD flakes, I hope you have all your info backed up. Personally I don't care for partitions, but I've always had two HDDs installed so one is the OS and programs, and the other is data. I also keep a mirror image of my OS HDD as well as my Data HDD. Just in case, you never know.

 

I have been a big proponent of two partitions, one for system and apps and another for ALL data for many years. My reason is the ability to image and restore the OS without affecting data. And that is primarily for the speed of accomplishing that. My "information management" regimen is that the two types of information (executables and data) have different life cycles and therefore different backup strategies. The one for executables only requires sporadic backup in partition image format. The one for data requires daily sync/backup to external storage (supported by long term tape backup). If I had one big partition, my image backup would be HUGE. Thanks no.

There are other ways to accomplish the same thing with external servers configured to mirror the laptop. But I don't have that available. All I need is my laptop and an external storage device (or system).

But this is the first time I have heard of a speed benefit. I am curious if this was measured or anecdotal?

Gary

I don't think anyone belives that any more. Or if they did they sure as hell shouldn't. Even the simplest "kiddie script" knows to ennumerate the list of drive letters.

Gary

The ULTIMATE partitioning! ...big ol' grin...

Two drives is without a doubt the best way. For my desktop I have the OS/Apps on C: in removable drive bays. The data is on D: on a permanently mounted large drive. I use the same backup scheme as on my laptop.

But few of us have laptops with two drive bays, so partitions allow us to use the same information management strategy you use sans the extra drive.

Gary

 

You can reinstall Windows without having to wipe your partition. For years, Setup has simply moved all your old Windows files to a different folder and installed a new copy of Windows. Your data files remain unaffected.

Yeah, well, the past responses tell me otherwise.

 

Two partitions may help protect data in the event of hardware/OS failure, but I would not count on it because partition can be damaged in such the event. I would still back up my data to an external/network drive. But, then, if I'm going to back up regularly anyway, I'm not sure about the point of partitioning at the first place.

 

No one suggested that partitions offered any protection or that they were an alternative to backups. I use partitions to make that backup job more specific to the kind of information. The apps and OS don't need to be backed up daily my data does. For the OS and apps I have an image that I refresh once a month or so, more often if I install a bunch of updates or new apps. The data gets a daily synch to an external drive.

Gary

 

Come on now tilleroftheearth, you're not being entirely fair. After all, it is possible for you to run out of space.