Partitioning my new HD

[Guest]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1 for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with Norton's
at one time.

I have been reading all over the net and Microsoft but I am still very
confused. A friend of mine told me when I go to Disk Management to make all
the partitions as Extended.

Well I went to make my first partition and had the option of Primary,
Extended or Logical so I made a partition as Extended and allotted 48.83 GB
to it.

When I went to make my next partition I was only given the option to make it
Primary.

I think I understand that a Primary drive is bootable which means Windows OS
is on it? I don't have to have all the partitions with this do I?

Also what I need to know is how to partition this. I have enough memory to
make the 4 drives 48.83 GB each but with all the reading I have done I still
do not understand what an Extended drive and Logical drive is.

Since I only got one choice of doing Extended option...Must I make them all
Primary or can I make them all logical?

I am SO tired of the obscure explanations out there and giving me dozens of
choices without really letting me know what I am doing it for and which is
best. LOL
And I am not going to buy some 3rd party software when Windows offers me the
means to do the job.

If you understand what I want I would be VERY appreciative of your help. I
am intermediate in my knowledge so when it gets too technical it's over my
head and if it leaves things out-assuming I know something it's too much.
But at the same time I do not need certain information that is elementary
with computers...just frustrating is all.

Thanks,
PAL

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1 for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with Norton's
at one time.

I have been reading all over the net and Microsoft but I am still very
confused. A friend of mine told me when I go to Disk Management to make all
the partitions as Extended.

Well I went to make my first partition and had the option of Primary,
Extended or Logical so I made a partition as Extended and allotted 48.83 GB
to it.

When I went to make my next partition I was only given the option to make it
Primary.

I think I understand that a Primary drive is bootable which means Windows OS
is on it? I don't have to have all the partitions with this do I?

Also what I need to know is how to partition this. I have enough memory to
make the 4 drives 48.83 GB each but with all the reading I have done I still
do not understand what an Extended drive and Logical drive is.

Since I only got one choice of doing Extended option...Must I make them all
Primary or can I make them all logical?

I am SO tired of the obscure explanations out there and giving me dozens of
choices without really letting me know what I am doing it for and which is
best. LOL
And I am not going to buy some 3rd party software when Windows offers me the
means to do the job.

If you understand what I want I would be VERY appreciative of your help. I
am intermediate in my knowledge so when it gets too technical it's over my
head and if it leaves things out-assuming I know something it's too much.
But at the same time I do not need certain information that is elementary
with computers...just frustrating is all.

Thanks,
PAL

- Make the primary partition 20 GBytes. This is plenty
big enough for Windows and all applications. It your
case it's too late to change it.
- Create an extended partition that takes up the rest of
the disk. An extended partition is like a container that
contains lots of logical drives.
- Create the required logical drives inside the extended
partition.
- Think hard about how many logical drives you want to
create. In general, the fewer, the better. Having too
many leads to running out of space on some and having
too much free space on other partitions. Unless you use
a third-party partition manager (e.g. Acronis Disk
Director), you cannot change the size of a partition
unless you first delete it.

 

[John]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1 for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with Norton's
at one time.

I have been reading all over the net and Microsoft but I am still very
confused. A friend of mine told me when I go to Disk Management to make all
the partitions as Extended.

Well I went to make my first partition and had the option of Primary,
Extended or Logical so I made a partition as Extended and allotted 48.83 GB
to it.

When I went to make my next partition I was only given the option to make it
Primary.

I think I understand that a Primary drive is bootable which means Windows OS
is on it? I don't have to have all the partitions with this do I?

Also what I need to know is how to partition this. I have enough memory to
make the 4 drives 48.83 GB each but with all the reading I have done I still
do not understand what an Extended drive and Logical drive is.

Since I only got one choice of doing Extended option...Must I make them all
Primary or can I make them all logical?

I am SO tired of the obscure explanations out there and giving me dozens of
choices without really letting me know what I am doing it for and which is
best. LOL
And I am not going to buy some 3rd party software when Windows offers me the
means to do the job.

If you understand what I want I would be VERY appreciative of your help. I
am intermediate in my knowledge so when it gets too technical it's over my
head and if it leaves things out-assuming I know something it's too much.
But at the same time I do not need certain information that is elementary
with computers...just frustrating is all.

Thanks,
PAL

First off Windows needs a primary partition to boot from which you
obviously have with your C: drive. Think of an extended partition as a
container that is intended to house logical partitions. An X86 disk
drive can have up to four partitions which are *all* primaries. One and
only one of which can be an extended partition to house the additional
logical partitions that every computer user wishes to have (joke) to get
around the four partition limit.

John

 

[JS]

First you should delete that 48.8GB Extended partition you created.
Next create an Extended partition that uses all the remaining (not used by
the C partition) unallocated (not yet defined) space on the drive.
Once you have created the Extended partition you will need to create 4
logical partitions within the extended partition.
After each logical partition is created it will need to be formatted.

See this article for more help:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_07.htm

Note: If you have one or more CD or DVD drives they may already have been
assigned drive letters D and E. They can be re-assigned if necessary so when
you are finished your drive/partitions will have the letters C, D, E, F and
G.

JS

 

[Rock]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1 for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with Norton's
at one time.

<snip>

Your best option to guard against data loss is to always have a full and
complete backup of all essential data. A hard drive failure could cause
the loss of windows and all your data. Don't just plan for a windows
crash. Data loss is a matter of when not if.

 

[Guest]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1 for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with Norton's
at one time.

I have been reading all over the net and Microsoft but I am still very
confused. A friend of mine told me when I go to Disk Management to make all
the partitions as Extended.

Well I went to make my first partition and had the option of Primary,
Extended or Logical so I made a partition as Extended and allotted 48.83 GB
to it.

When I went to make my next partition I was only given the option to make it
Primary.

I think I understand that a Primary drive is bootable which means Windows OS
is on it? I don't have to have all the partitions with this do I?

Also what I need to know is how to partition this. I have enough memory to
make the 4 drives 48.83 GB each but with all the reading I have done I still
do not understand what an Extended drive and Logical drive is.

Since I only got one choice of doing Extended option...Must I make them all
Primary or can I make them all logical?

I am SO tired of the obscure explanations out there and giving me dozens of
choices without really letting me know what I am doing it for and which is
best. LOL
And I am not going to buy some 3rd party software when Windows offers me the
means to do the job.

If you understand what I want I would be VERY appreciative of your help. I
am intermediate in my knowledge so when it gets too technical it's over my
head and if it leaves things out-assuming I know something it's too much.
But at the same time I do not need certain information that is elementary
with computers...just frustrating is all.

Thanks,
PAL

THANKS SO MUCH GUYS!!! YOU REALLY HELPED ME OUT!

I only wish I had talked to you to set up C: drive as 20 GB instead of 37 or
whatever it is but now I understand the Extended and Logical and I will also
do the full backup of these partitions as discussed in one of the other posts.

I see this site is a GREAT help with guys like you )))

PAL

 

[alanglloyd]

THANKS SO MUCH GUYS!!! YOU REALLY HELPED ME OUT!

I only wish I had talked to you to set up C: drive as 20 GB instead of 37 or
whatever it is but now I understand the Extended and Logical and I will also
do the full backup of these partitions as discussed in one of the other posts.

I see this site is a GREAT help with guys like you )))

Get Partition Magic to reduce your C: drive and set your partitions as
you want without losing what you have already placed there. It really
is magic.

Alan Lloyd

 

[alanglloyd]

IMO the C: and D: drives should have the OS and program files
respectively. Then split the remainder as you wish to contain the data
you generate, and to suit your working style.

Alan Lloyd

 

[JS]

Since you are installing your applications to the C drive I would not change
the size as you may need the space in the future.

JS

 

[Jonny]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then
got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage
and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1
for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of
this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with
Norton's
at one time.

I have been reading all over the net and Microsoft but I am still very
confused. A friend of mine told me when I go to Disk Management to make
all
the partitions as Extended.

Well I went to make my first partition and had the option of Primary,
Extended or Logical so I made a partition as Extended and allotted 48.83
GB
to it.

When I went to make my next partition I was only given the option to make
it
Primary.

I think I understand that a Primary drive is bootable which means Windows
OS
is on it? I don't have to have all the partitions with this do I?

Also what I need to know is how to partition this. I have enough memory
to
make the 4 drives 48.83 GB each but with all the reading I have done I
still
do not understand what an Extended drive and Logical drive is.

Since I only got one choice of doing Extended option...Must I make them
all
Primary or can I make them all logical?

I am SO tired of the obscure explanations out there and giving me dozens
of
choices without really letting me know what I am doing it for and which is
best. LOL
And I am not going to buy some 3rd party software when Windows offers me
the
means to do the job.

If you understand what I want I would be VERY appreciative of your help.
I
am intermediate in my knowledge so when it gets too technical it's over my
head and if it leaves things out-assuming I know something it's too much.
But at the same time I do not need certain information that is elementary
with computers...just frustrating is all.

Thanks,
PAL

You can have up to 4 primary partitions on a physical hard drive. For these
purposes, an extended partition is part of that count. You can make the
remainder of the hard drive entirely an extended partition after creating a
partition for windows etc. Within that extended partition, you can create
logical partitions.

(Please ignore MS XP's modification of boot partition definition in the
following. It is a distractor, and opposes bootable definition from the
bios bootstrap routine. XP developers call it a system partition instead)

An active primary partition is bootable if boot files exist in the right
location in that partition.
A primary partition is not bootable.
An extended partition is a "container" for logical partitions.
A logical partition can only exist within an extended partition.

Although possible, not smart to create more than one extended partition for
the purposes you noted.

 

[Frank]

I have a 250 GB HD and I installed it. I formatted the C: drive for 37 GB
and then installed Windows XP Pro, Office 2003 pro and Norton's. I then got
all my updates for Windows, Office and Norton's.

What I want is very simple: I only want to add 4 partitions for storage and
a little more safety in case Windows C: should crash: 1 for financial, 1 for
music, 1 for graphics and 1 for personal documents. As I have TONS of this
stuff that I use on a daily basis, I do not want to lose all if Windows
should crash so this is my best option. Also less time to scan with Norton's
at one time.

I have been reading all over the net and Microsoft but I am still very
confused. A friend of mine told me when I go to Disk Management to make all
the partitions as Extended.

Well I went to make my first partition and had the option of Primary,
Extended or Logical so I made a partition as Extended and allotted 48.83 GB
to it.

When I went to make my next partition I was only given the option to make it
Primary.

I think I understand that a Primary drive is bootable which means Windows OS
is on it? I don't have to have all the partitions with this do I?

Also what I need to know is how to partition this. I have enough memory to
make the 4 drives 48.83 GB each but with all the reading I have done I still
do not understand what an Extended drive and Logical drive is.

Since I only got one choice of doing Extended option...Must I make them all
Primary or can I make them all logical?

I am SO tired of the obscure explanations out there and giving me dozens of
choices without really letting me know what I am doing it for and which is
best. LOL
And I am not going to buy some 3rd party software when Windows offers me the
means to do the job.

If you understand what I want I would be VERY appreciative of your help. I
am intermediate in my knowledge so when it gets too technical it's over my
head and if it leaves things out-assuming I know something it's too much.
But at the same time I do not need certain information that is elementary
with computers...just frustrating is all.

Thanks,
PAL

I am not to enthused about these partitioning schemes. Too much can
and usually does go wrong. I put everything on one drive and then
use a back up image on an external drive. Daily, weekly, monthly
whatever.