Create A Drive D:

[Guest]

Sorry for the long message. Please do not ignore it. I bought a computer with
Compaq years ago, it came with Windows XP Home Edition, no Service Pack, it
came with two drives, C: and D:, D: used for backups, in one Hard Drive. But
eventually the Hard Drive fried, Compaq did not want to help unless I paid
$100 which would eventually said to reinstall OS, or buy new Hard Drive
through them, or use their restoration disc, which did not work anyway. So I
decided to install a new Hard Drive with a new setup disc for said OS with
Service Pack 2. I installed everything except right up until I came across
the Partition part of the setup. Had no idea what to do so I chose the limit
based on my new Hard Drive. After the installation ended, I started up my new
OS but it only came with one drive, C:, and I do not have a D: for backups,
in the one Hard Drive. So what should I do to create the D: drive within my
one Hard Drive? Manufacturer: Compaq. Model: Presario 5000 Series: 5321SR.
Old Hard Drive: Seagate 40 GB. New Hard Drive: Maxtor 80 GB. If you need any
more info please leave a message. Thank You. And sorry again for the really
long message.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Sorry for the long message. Please do not ignore it. I bought a
computer with Compaq years ago, it came with Windows XP Home Edition,
no Service Pack, it came with two drives, C: and D:, D: used for
backups, in one Hard Drive. But eventually the Hard Drive fried,
Compaq did not want to help unless I paid $100 which would eventually
said to reinstall OS, or buy new Hard Drive through them, or use
their restoration disc, which did not work anyway. So I decided to
install a new Hard Drive with a new setup disc for said OS with
Service Pack 2. I installed everything except right up until I came
across the Partition part of the setup. Had no idea what to do so I
chose the limit based on my new Hard Drive. After the installation
ended, I started up my new OS but it only came with one drive, C:,
and I do not have a D: for backups, in the one Hard Drive. So what
should I do to create the D: drive within my one Hard Drive?
Manufacturer: Compaq. Model: Presario 5000 Series: 5321SR. Old Hard
Drive: Seagate 40 GB. New Hard Drive: Maxtor 80 GB. If you need any
more info please leave a message. Thank You. And sorry again for the
really long message.

Two points:

1. Unfortunately, no version of Windows 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.

2. Backup to a second partition on your only hard drive is better than no
backup at all, but only *slightly* better. I don't recommend backup to a
second non-removable hard drive because it leaves you susceptible to
simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the most common
dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks,
even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept in
the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the life of
your business depends on your data) you should have multiple generations of
backup, and at least one of those generations should be stored off-site.

 

[Stan Brown]

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 11:11:28 -0800 from Shujinko

Sorry for the long message. Please do not ignore it.

For the future, there are things you can do to improve your
likelihood of useful answers:

1. Start with a short statement of the problem; then give details.
Your problem statement seems to be "How can I create a D: partition
on my disk for backups?"

2. Keep paragraphs short. Many people have problems reading on
screen, and it's harder when the paragraph is twenty or thirty lines
long.

3. Leave out the irrelevant stuff. While I can understand you're
annoyed at Compaq, all that business about the failures and their
charge for off-warranty service contributes zilch to the actual
problem statement.

You did a good thing: you gave details of hardware and software. That
helps us to help you.

So I decided to install a new Hard Drive with a new setup disc for
[XP Home] with Service Pack 2. I installed everything except right
up until I came across the Partition part of the setup. Had no idea
what to do so I chose the limit based on my new Hard Drive.

Okay, fair enough.

After the installation ended, I started up my new OS but it only
came with one drive, C:, and I do not have a D: for backups, in the
one Hard Drive. So what should I do to create the D: drive within
my one Hard Drive?

First, let me challenge your assumption. Having backups on the same
physical disk is really not very safe. If (gods forbid) your computer
is stolen, there go your backups. If your disk goes bad, you won't be
able to access your backups. You've already had one disk go bad.
Believe me, lightning _can_ strike twice in the same place.

So if you want to make backups (a good thing) you really want to be
doing them to an external drive. These are cheap -- a 160 GB USB
drive should cost you less than $100 these days. Do your backups to
the external drive, and keep it unplugged and away from your computer
except when you're actually making a backup or restoring from one.

You'll need software. I use Acronis True Image release 8. Release 9
is current; I don't know much abut it but it should be just fine.

Now to answer the question you asked, even though I don't think it's
a good idea. You have two choices: reinstall Windows and this time
set up partitions on the disk, or get third-party software. Much
software can carve out partitions without losing what's already on
the disk. Partition Magic used to be the the obvious choice, but
since Symantec has taken it over I believe it's a different program
and I don't want to recommend it. Perhaps someone has a
recommendation?

 

[Guest]

I highly recommend Symantec Partition Magic 8. I bought it bundled with
Norton Ghost and a utility for working with older OS (Like Win. ME) for about
$25.00. It lets you add delete and resize partitions, and change the drive
letters. Works like a dream and has some safe guards to keep you from
screwing things up.

Norton Ghost lets you back up everything on your HD to a disk or to another
Hard drive. They have both been around for a long time & most repair men that
come to work on your computer carry a copy of both these utilities.

--
Linusverl

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 11:11:28 -0800 from Shujinko

Sorry for the long message. Please do not ignore it.

For the future, there are things you can do to improve your
likelihood of useful answers:

1. Start with a short statement of the problem; then give details.
Your problem statement seems to be "How can I create a D: partition
on my disk for backups?"

2. Keep paragraphs short. Many people have problems reading on
screen, and it's harder when the paragraph is twenty or thirty lines
long.

3. Leave out the irrelevant stuff. While I can understand you're
annoyed at Compaq, all that business about the failures and their
charge for off-warranty service contributes zilch to the actual
problem statement.

You did a good thing: you gave details of hardware and software. That
helps us to help you.

So I decided to install a new Hard Drive with a new setup disc for
[XP Home] with Service Pack 2. I installed everything except right
up until I came across the Partition part of the setup. Had no idea
what to do so I chose the limit based on my new Hard Drive.

Okay, fair enough.

After the installation ended, I started up my new OS but it only
came with one drive, C:, and I do not have a D: for backups, in the
one Hard Drive. So what should I do to create the D: drive within
my one Hard Drive?

First, let me challenge your assumption. Having backups on the same
physical disk is really not very safe. If (gods forbid) your computer
is stolen, there go your backups. If your disk goes bad, you won't be
able to access your backups. You've already had one disk go bad.
Believe me, lightning _can_ strike twice in the same place.

So if you want to make backups (a good thing) you really want to be
doing them to an external drive. These are cheap -- a 160 GB USB
drive should cost you less than $100 these days. Do your backups to
the external drive, and keep it unplugged and away from your computer
except when you're actually making a backup or restoring from one.

You'll need software. I use Acronis True Image release 8. Release 9
is current; I don't know much abut it but it should be just fine.

Now to answer the question you asked, even though I don't think it's
a good idea. You have two choices: reinstall Windows and this time
set up partitions on the disk, or get third-party software. Much
software can carve out partitions without losing what's already on
the disk. Partition Magic used to be the the obvious choice, but
since Symantec has taken it over I believe it's a different program
and I don't want to recommend it. Perhaps someone has a
recommendation?

Manufacturer: Compaq. Model: Presario 5000 Series: 5321SR.
... Hard Drive: Maxtor 80 GB