Hard Disk Partitioning

[Guest]

By partitioning the hard drive and having the OS and applications in the
system partition, can we setup auto system recovery (ASR) only for that
partition?

Also, if I don't have any partitioning in my hard disk right now, do I have
to wait until I reformat the disk next time to start having partitions? In
other words, can we partition the disk anytime without affecting any data on
the drive?

 

[LVTravel]

Don't know about ASR but you will need a third party program
such as Partition Magic, and there are many others, to
change the partition layout on any hard drive that has data
on it without destroying the data.

And BTW, just for formalities, since the drive is formatted
it also has at least one partition already there so you
already "start having partitions".


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[Guest]

Oh Yeah... sure! It does have one partition now But that is obvious and
hence can be assumed though.

Thanks for your response.

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[Patrick Keenan]

By partitioning the hard drive and having the OS and applications in the
system partition, can we setup auto system recovery (ASR) only for that
partition?

You should be able to, but there are probably much better choices for
creating images, in particular ones that don't rely on floppy disks as ASR
does. Acronis TrueImage comes to mind, along with other imaging utilities.

Also, if I don't have any partitioning in my hard disk right now, do I
have
to wait until I reformat the disk next time to start having partitions?

If your system is running, if there is any data on the drive, it does have
partitions. It's just that there is only one.

In
other words, can we partition the disk anytime without affecting any data
on
the drive?

You cannot re-partition with any tools within XP at any time other than
during setup, and it is destructive. You will normally delete a partition
and specify a new one at a new size. You can use 3rd party utilities,
such as Partition Magic, to resize existing partitions.

However, as to "not affecting any data", if you look at their
documentation, you will find that there are probably references to backing
up data before altering the partitions, which is a reference to a risk of
data loss.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Dunno about ASR, but I believe so. As for repartitioning, check out BootIt
NG from www.bootitng.com. Download the EXE, run it to create the floppy or
CD boot installation disk, boot to it, Cancel the installation and use
Partition Work. Lets you create, delete, move, and resize partitions.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

By partitioning the hard drive and having the OS and applications in the
system partition, can we setup auto system recovery (ASR) only for that
partition?

I'll pass on that question, since I don't use ASR.

Also, if I don't have any partitioning in my hard disk right now, do I have
to wait until I reformat the disk next time to start having partitions? In
other words, can we partition the disk anytime without affecting any data on
the drive?

First, a word on the terminology. You *do* have partitioning on the
drive right now. To partition a drive is to create one or more
partitions on it, and the drive can't be used unless at least one
partition has been created. So you do have a single partition,
presumably C:.

So your question presumably is about repartitioning so you have
multiple partitions, rather than just one.

Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista provides any way of
changing the existing partition structure of the drive
nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is with third-party
software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there
are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next
Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you
should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used
it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such program), but
it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

Whatever software you use, make sure you have a good backup before
beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a problem, things
*can* go wrong.

 

[John John]

By partitioning the hard drive and having the OS and applications in the
system partition, can we setup auto system recovery (ASR) only for that
partition?

If you use the ASR Wizard it will only backup the System and Boot volumes.

Also, if I don't have any partitioning in my hard disk right now, do I have
to wait until I reformat the disk next time to start having partitions? In
other words, can we partition the disk anytime without affecting any data on
the drive?

If you have no partitions on the disk you can use the Disk Management
tool and partition the disk as you please. If the disk has partitions
but still has available unallocated space you can create partitions in
the unallocated space. If the disk contains 1 partition that uses all
the disk space then you cannot create new partition with the built in
Windows Disk tools, you will need a third party utility to resize the
existing partition and create new ones.

John

 

[dobey]

Dunno about ASR, but I believe so. As for repartitioning, check out BootIt
NG from www.bootitng.com. Download the EXE, run it to create the floppy or
CD boot installation disk, boot to it, Cancel the installation and use
Partition Work. Lets you create, delete, move, and resize partitions.

Actually when you create the bootable disk you can specify partition work
and it will boot straight into maintenance mode.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

I don't see that option. How is it done?