Partitioning - 64K block size - Using the Windows interface

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Pawluk

I want to partition my 320GB HDD with 2 additional drives, D:\ and E:\ and
would like to partition one of these drives with 64K block sizes.

Unfortunately, I have never done this on Windows XP and after reviewing the
Windows XP "Using the Windows interface" help file, I do not know how to
specify the 64K block size.

The 64K block size is supposed to enhance my PVR TV recording playback
features. I plan on using the other drive for DVD recordings.

Any assistance is sincerely appreciated.

Thanks,

Pawluk
 
BootIt Next Generation is available from:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html and it does partitioning,
makes a compressed image, does many other partitioning chores and is a boot
manager. It is not quite as easy to use as Partition Magic but it is half
the cost and has more features. Unlike the crippled PMagic demo, BING is a
*full function* demo you can try for FREE for 30 days. The web site has a
lot of support articles.
 
According to Disk Management, I am supposed to . . .
1.. Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk, and then click New
Partition, or right-click free space in an extended partition, and then
click New Logical Drive.
2.. In the New Partition Wizard, click Next, click Primary partition,
Extended partition, or Logical drive, and then follow the instructions on
your screen.
Unfortunately, when I "Right-click" in the window pane identified as C:\
when the window pops up there is no option called New Partition, etc.

I am the only user and have full administrative rights.

The only (apparently) relative option listed in the window that pops up when
I "Right-click" in the window pane identified as C:\ is "Change Drive Letter
and Paths..." which opens a new window called Change Drive Letter and Paths
for C: () and when I click the Add button, it opens the "Add Drive Letter or
Path" window with a bullet at Mount in the following empy NTFS folder. I am
confident that this option is NOT the correct way to create new partitions.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again,

Pawluk
 
Aren't you trying to partition a new (320GB) drive? C:\ is most likely
your Windows drive, you can't partition or format that drive. Look for
the 320GB disk, that is the one that you want to partition and format.
You can have up to 4 primary partitions on a Basic disc or you can have
many more than 4 logical drives inside an extended partition. Using the
format GUI you should be able to select 64K clusters, or you can use the
format utility at the Command Prompt:

format volume [/fs:file-system] [/v:label] [/q] [/a:UnitSize] [/c] [/x]

Open a Command Prompt and issue format /? for more help.

The Default Cluster Size for the NTFS and FAT File Systems
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314878

John
 
Pawluk said:
I want to partition my 320GB HDD with 2 additional drives, D:\ and E:\ and
would like to partition one of these drives with 64K block sizes.

Unfortunately, I have never done this on Windows XP and after reviewing
the Windows XP "Using the Windows interface" help file, I do not know how
to specify the 64K block size.

The 64K block size is supposed to enhance my PVR TV recording playback
features. I plan on using the other drive for DVD recordings.

Any assistance is sincerely appreciated.

Thanks,

Pawluk
Click to expand...

You can't partition the system drive with the OS installed using Windows XP.

It sounds like you already have XP installed on the 320 GB drive.

If so... get BootIt Next Generation as Ron suggests. Use the makedisk exe to
create a bootable disk, and select partition work when creating the bootable
disk.

Back up your data. You can use BootItNG to make an image of the drive first,
then use BootItNG to resize the partition. 30 GB should be enough for XP, as
long as you don't keep user data on the system partition, in any case adjust
size as you feel needed.

When the resize is done, boot back into Windows, go into Disk Manager, then
create you new partitions in the unused space. When you format these drives,
you will be prompted for cluster size, this is where you set 64 KB.

You can use BootItNG to create the new partitions, but BootItNG won't format
using NTFS, so you need to do that another way - Disk Manager is the
easiest.

Make sure you have your PVR program use the partition to for your
recordings.

HTH.
 
Ron Badour said:
BootIt Next Generation is available from:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html and it does partitioning,
makes a compressed image, does many other partitioning chores and is a
boot manager. It is not quite as easy to use as Partition Magic but it is
half the cost and has more features. Unlike the crippled PMagic demo,
BING is a *full function* demo you can try for FREE for 30 days. The web
site has a lot of support articles.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP 1997 - 2007
Click to expand...



Pawluk said:
According to Disk Management, I am supposed to . . .
1.. Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk, and then click New
Partition, or right-click free space in an extended partition, and then
click New Logical Drive.
2.. In the New Partition Wizard, click Next, click Primary partition,
Extended partition, or Logical drive, and then follow the instructions on
your screen.
Unfortunately, when I "Right-click" in the window pane identified as C:\
when the window pops up there is no option called New Partition, etc.

I am the only user and have full administrative rights.

The only (apparently) relative option listed in the window that pops up
when I "Right-click" in the window pane identified as C:\ is "Change Drive
Letter and Paths..." which opens a new window called Change Drive Letter
and Paths for C: () and when I click the Add button, it opens the "Add
Drive Letter or Path" window with a bullet at Mount in the following empy
NTFS folder. I am confident that this option is NOT the correct way to
create new partitions.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again,

Pawluk
Click to expand...


Pawluk:
Although you didn't indicate the present partitioning scheme of your 320 GB
HDD, I'm assuming that it's a single partition encompassing the total disk
space, approx. 298 GB.

Assuming that is so, in order to achieve your objective, you will need a
partition management type of program such as the one Ron suggested. You
will, in effect, use that program to "shrink" the current single partition
so that you have the needed "unallocated" disk space in order to create the
additional two partitions you desire on that disk. (We use Partition Magic
8.01 for this type of manipulation, but the program Ron mentions will do the
job as well).

Then you will use the XP Disk Management utility (or the partition
management program) to create the two additional partitions out of that
unallocated disk space. In doing so, you can format one of those two
partitions with the 64K file cluster ("Allocation unit size") that you want.

The other alternative to using a third-party partition managment program at
this point would be to simply "start over" by making a fresh install of the
XP OS onto your 320 GB HDD and creating the three partitons during the
process. Needless to say this would destroy all the present data on your
HDD.
Anna
 
Thank you for your suggestion, Ron.

I downloaded BING and following its' PDF file, I also downloaded MakeDisk,
then I created an ISO disk, changed my BIOS to boot from my CD/DVD-ROM
drive, installed BING, but did not complete the partitioning process.

I did not complete it because it appears that when BING is installed in its
own partition (as recommended by the software prompts), I had to choose
between DELL Diagnostics and Windows XP. DELL Diagnostics is on a
non-removable FAT-32 partition and my Windows XP is on the C:\ partition.
In addition to my 320GB HDD, with single C:\ partition at 298GB, I have two
optical drives, DVD-ROM as my D:\ drive, and DVD+/-RW as my E:\ drive.

Regarding my issue with the BING menu, it would appear that if I am not
happy with BING, after 15 to 30 days, that I must uninstall BING and return
to my current setup.

Given the sophomoric appearance, and EGA (or less) GUI resolution, plus the
additional software and disc creating requirements, in addition to BING's
menu bullshit, the $35 price tag, in this consumer's opinion, is excessive.

I suppose its reasonable to conclude that I may have done something wrong.
Perhaps once installed, the BING menu bullshit goes away. Maybe after 15 to
30 days, BING does NOT automatically disable the HDD if the user elects not
to pay $35 and register the software.

As a result, and am no better off than I started when I first posted my
question, less a CD-R (used for the startup disc) and a DVD-R (used for
backing up my files).

Perhaps I should spend a few minutes and locate an older version of
PartitionIt or Partition Magic (for less than or equal to BING's $35 price
tag). Of course, while I am on the fence regarding BING, I am still
somewhat open to additional comments, criticisms and suggestions.

Thank you.

Pamela Pawluk
 
Thank you for your suggestion, John. My grandfather was a John, John
Pawluk.

I downloaded BING as suggested by you and Ron Badour, and following its' PDF
file, I also downloaded MakeDisk, then I created an ISO disk, changed my
BIOS to boot from my CD/DVD-ROM drive, installed BING, but did not complete
the partitioning process.

I did not complete it because it appears that when BING is installed in its
own partition (as recommended by the software prompts), I had to choose
between DELL Diagnostics and Windows XP. DELL Diagnostics is on a
non-removable FAT-32 partition and my Windows XP is on the C:\ partition.
In addition to my 320GB HDD, with single C:\ partition at 298GB, I have two
optical drives, DVD-ROM as my D:\ drive, and DVD+/-RW as my E:\ drive.

Regarding my issue with the BING menu, it would appear that if I am not
happy with BING, after 15 to 30 days, that I must uninstall BING and return
to my current setup.

Given the sophomoric appearance, and EGA (or less) GUI resolution, plus the
additional software and disc creating requirements, in addition to BING's
menu bullshit, the $35 price tag, in this consumer's opinion, is excessive.

I suppose its reasonable to conclude that I may have done something wrong.
Perhaps once installed, the BING menu bullshit goes away. Maybe after 15 to
30 days, BING does NOT automatically disable the HDD if the user elects not
to pay $35 and register the software.

As a result, and am no better off than I started when I first posted my
question, less a CD-R (used for the startup disc) and a DVD-R (used for
backing up my files).

Perhaps I should spend a few minutes and locate an older version of
PartitionIt or Partition Magic (for less than or equal to BING's $35 price
tag). Of course, while I am on the fence regarding BING, I am still
somewhat open to additional comments, criticisms and suggestions.

Thank you.

Pamela Pawluk


John John said:
Aren't you trying to partition a new (320GB) drive? C:\ is most likely
your Windows drive, you can't partition or format that drive. Look for
the 320GB disk, that is the one that you want to partition and format. You
can have up to 4 primary partitions on a Basic disc or you can have many
more than 4 logical drives inside an extended partition. Using the format
GUI you should be able to select 64K clusters, or you can use the format
utility at the Command Prompt:

format volume [/fs:file-system] [/v:label] [/q] [/a:UnitSize] [/c] [/x]

Open a Command Prompt and issue format /? for more help.

The Default Cluster Size for the NTFS and FAT File Systems
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314878

John
According to Disk Management, I am supposed to . . .
1.. Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk, and then click
New Partition, or right-click free space in an extended partition, and
then click New Logical Drive.
2.. In the New Partition Wizard, click Next, click Primary partition,
Extended partition, or Logical drive, and then follow the instructions on
your screen.
Unfortunately, when I "Right-click" in the window pane identified as C:\
when the window pops up there is no option called New Partition, etc.

I am the only user and have full administrative rights.

The only (apparently) relative option listed in the window that pops up
when I "Right-click" in the window pane identified as C:\ is "Change
Drive Letter and Paths..." which opens a new window called Change Drive
Letter and Paths for C: () and when I click the Add button, it opens the
"Add Drive Letter or Path" window with a bullet at Mount in the following
empy NTFS folder. I am confident that this option is NOT the correct way
to create new partitions.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again,

Pawluk
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thank you for your support, Anna. My daughter's name is Anna. :o)

I downloaded BING as suggested by Ron Badour and John John, and following
its' PDF file instructions, I also downloaded MakeDisk, then I created an
ISO disk, changed my BIOS to boot from my CD/DVD-ROM drive, installed BING,
but did not complete the partitioning process.

I did not complete it because it appears that when BING is installed in its
own partition (as recommended by the software prompts), I had to choose
between DELL Diagnostics and Windows XP. DELL Diagnostics is on a
non-removable FAT-32 partition and my Windows XP is on the C:\ partition.
In addition to my 320GB HDD, with single C:\ partition at 298GB, I have two
optical drives, DVD-ROM as my D:\ drive, and DVD+/-RW as my E:\ drive.

Regarding my issue with the BING menu, it would appear that if I am not
happy with BING, after 15 to 30 days, that I must uninstall BING and return
to my current setup.

Given the sophomoric appearance, and EGA (or less) GUI resolution, plus the
additional software and disc creating requirements, in addition to BING's
menu bullshit, the $35 price tag, in this consumer's opinion, is excessive.

I suppose its reasonable to conclude that I may have done something wrong.
Perhaps once installed, the BING menu bullshit goes away. Maybe after 15 to
30 days, BING does NOT automatically disable the HDD if the user elects not
to pay $35 and register the software.

As a result, and am no better off than I started when I first posted my
question, less a CD-R (used for the startup disc) and a DVD-R (used for
backing up my files).

Perhaps I should spend a few minutes and locate an older version of
PartitionIt or Partition Magic (for less than or equal to BING's $35 price
tag). Of course, while I am on the fence regarding BING, I am still
somewhat open to additional comments, criticisms and suggestions.

Thank you.

Pamela Pawluk
 
Thank you for your perspective and suggestion, HTH.

I did download BING as suggested by Ron Badour, and following the
instructions outlined in its' PDF file, I also downloaded MakeDisk, then I
created an ISO disk, changed my BIOS to boot from my CD/DVD-ROM drive,
installed BING, but did not complete the partitioning process.

I did not complete it because it appears that when BING is installed in its
own partition (as recommended by the software prompts), I had to choose
between DELL Diagnostics and Windows XP. DELL Diagnostics is on a
non-removable FAT-32 partition and my Windows XP is on the C:\ partition.
In addition to my 320GB HDD, with single C:\ partition at 298GB, I have two
optical drives, DVD-ROM as my D:\ drive, and DVD+/-RW as my E:\ drive.

Regarding my issue with the BING menu, it would appear that if I am not
happy with BING, after 15 to 30 days, that I must uninstall BING and return
to my current setup.

Given the sophomoric appearance, and EGA (or less) GUI resolution, plus the
additional software and disc creating requirements, in addition to BING's
menu bullshit, the $35 price tag, in this consumer's opinion, is excessive.

I suppose its reasonable to conclude that I may have done something wrong.
Perhaps once installed, the BING menu bullshit goes away. Maybe after 15 to
30 days, BING does NOT automatically disable the HDD if the user elects not
to pay $35 and register the software.

As a result, and am no better off than I started when I first posted my
question, less a CD-R (used for the startup disc) and a DVD-R (used for
backing up my files).

Perhaps I should spend a few minutes and locate an older version of
PartitionIt or Partition Magic (for less than or equal to BING's $35 price
tag). Of course, while I am on the fence regarding BING, I am still
somewhat open to additional comments, criticisms and suggestions.

Thank you.

Pamela Pawluk
 
What I mean by BING menu bullshit is that when I reboot, a new boot "menu"
appears asking me to choose either DELL Diagnostics or Windows XP. If
re-partition my C:\ drive to include two (2) new logical drives, it seems
reasonable to conclude that the BING menu will reflect the these two drives
for a total of four (4) choices - and that is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE.
 
What I mean by BING menu bullshit is that when I reboot, a new boot "menu"
appears asking me to choose either DELL Diagnostics or Windows XP. If
re-partition my C:\ drive to include two (2) new logical drives, it seems
reasonable to conclude that the BING menu will reflect the these two drives
for a total of four (4) choices - and that is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE.
 
What I mean by BING menu bullshit is that when I reboot, a new boot "menu"
appears asking me to choose either DELL Diagnostics or Windows XP. If
re-partition my C:\ drive to include two (2) new logical drives, it seems
reasonable to conclude that the BING menu will reflect the these two drives
for a total of four (4) choices - and that is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE.
 
What I mean by BING menu bullshit is that when I reboot, a new boot "menu"
appears asking me to choose either DELL Diagnostics or Windows XP. If
re-partition my C:\ drive to include two (2) new logical drives, it seems
reasonable to conclude that the BING menu will reflect the these two drives
for a total of four (4) choices - and that is simply NOT ACCEPTABLE.
 
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