Partitioning your 1TB HD--is it even necessary anymore?

[RayLopez99]

Back in the days I have partitioned my HDs, with a C: and D: logical
partition, supposedly for performance reasons or some such reason I
don't remember.

I also keep a physical partition (a second slave HD) in FAT32 so I can
use an MS-DOS program like Norton Ghost to backup the C: drive.

But now I'm getting a new state of the art machine for around $2k and
I wonder, with a 1TB HD, should I do away with partitions? And also
just use Acronis Windows to backup onto an external USB drive?

RL

 

[TVeblen]

Back in the days I have partitioned my HDs, with a C: and D: logical
partition, supposedly for performance reasons or some such reason I
don't remember.

I also keep a physical partition (a second slave HD) in FAT32 so I can
use an MS-DOS program like Norton Ghost to backup the C: drive.

But now I'm getting a new state of the art machine for around $2k and
I wonder, with a 1TB HD, should I do away with partitions? And also
just use Acronis Windows to backup onto an external USB drive?

RL

The main benefit of partitioning, IMHO, is to separate your personal
data from the operating data to make backups simpler and finding your
stuff easier too. I partition my hard drives with backups in mind:
Personal, Family, Business, Music, etc. I don't want to or need to back
up everything at the same time.

The secondary benefit is housekeeping. By keeping the OS and programs on
a smaller partition (60 - 80GB), chores like disk imaging for
backup/recovery, disk cleanup, and defragging go much faster. A 1TB
drive will take forever.

I use Acronis TI Home to backup to an external USB drive. Works great
booting right off the CD. No complaints.

 

[Jan Alter]

The main benefit of partitioning, IMHO, is to separate your personal data
from the operating data to make backups simpler and finding your stuff
easier too. I partition my hard drives with backups in mind: Personal,
Family, Business, Music, etc. I don't want to or need to back up
everything at the same time.

The secondary benefit is housekeeping. By keeping the OS and programs on a
smaller partition (60 - 80GB), chores like disk imaging for
backup/recovery, disk cleanup, and defragging go much faster. A 1TB drive
will take forever.

I use Acronis TI Home to backup to an external USB drive. Works great
booting right off the CD. No complaints.

To TVeblen
Q: Why would you boot off a CD to back up your system instead of backing up
from Windows if using TI Home? What kind of boot CD is it that you re using?
Is it the TI Home Rescue disk you're referring?

 

[TVeblen]

To TVeblen
Q: Why would you boot off a CD to back up your system instead of backing up
from Windows if using TI Home? What kind of boot CD is it that you re using?
Is it the TI Home Rescue disk you're referring?

The TI Home install CD is bootable. It uses a Linux loader. All the
basic functions of TI backup and recovery are available here, but the
advanced features of the program are not.

There were some problems with the boot loader on some systems in
previous Acronis disks, so the company has posted on their website, for
owners, an updated ISO image that has a modern boot loader.

I've never used the Rescue CD. I burned one when I first got TI, but
have never used it (where did I put it?). But I would guess that it may
be the same thing.

While I know people do backups of the OS partition with TI from within
Windows and don't report any problems, it has been my opinion that doing
the image from outside of Windows would produce a much more reliable
copy. What with all the system files and processes in use, how exact can
the image be? I have restored images made this way more times than I
care to remember - it is my default method of recovering the kid's
computers from "issues" - and I've never had a hiccup. Some people say
the backup goes faster from outside Windows. I've done it both ways,
can't notice a significant difference.

But, to each their own. Whatever floats your boat I say!

 

[RayLopez99]

While I know people do backups of the OS partition with TI from within
Windows and don't report any problems, it has been my opinion that doing
the image from outside of Windows would produce a much more reliable
copy. What with all the system files and processes in use, how exact can
the image be?

But, to each their own. Whatever floats your boat I say!

For Windows Vista, on another machine, I have used Acronis for Windows
to backup the entire HD image from inside of Windows, then restored
the HD image using Acronis, and did not notice any problems. But, I
like your solution too, and if I can remember I'll try and download
the Linux bootable CD from Acronis if and when I build my new system
and install Acronis.

Followup question: for a 1 TB HD, how big should your logical "D:"
drive be, where you keep personal data? On my present machine, my
personal data, which includes photos, business data, chess data files,
and compiled C# files, is about 3 GB total. Multiply that by 10 just
to be safe, and 30 GB is about right. Round off to 100, just to give a
factor of safety, and 900 MB for C: and 100 MB for D:, does that sound
right?

RL

 

[TVeblen]

For Windows Vista, on another machine, I have used Acronis for Windows
to backup the entire HD image from inside of Windows, then restored
the HD image using Acronis, and did not notice any problems. But, I
like your solution too, and if I can remember I'll try and download
the Linux bootable CD from Acronis if and when I build my new system
and install Acronis.

Followup question: for a 1 TB HD, how big should your logical "D:"
drive be, where you keep personal data? On my present machine, my
personal data, which includes photos, business data, chess data files,
and compiled C# files, is about 3 GB total. Multiply that by 10 just
to be safe, and 30 GB is about right. Round off to 100, just to give a
factor of safety, and 900 MB for C: and 100 MB for D:, does that sound
right?

RL

You want to keep the C: drive a small, manageable size to accomplish the
goals I outlined above. Something in the 60 to 80 GB range is typical.

It also depends on how many programs you install or plan to install on
C:. You can get a read of that on your current machine. The new C:
partition should be about twice the size as the space currently taken up
by the current OS and all your programs, give or take.

If you are going to do just one other partition then make it the rest of
the drive's capacity. Because you do not necessarily need to image the
drive to backup your personal data - you can just backup or
copy-and-paste the files - the large size will not be the same issue.

 

[Jan Alter]

The TI Home install CD is bootable. It uses a Linux loader. All the basic
functions of TI backup and recovery are available here, but the advanced
features of the program are not.

There were some problems with the boot loader on some systems in previous
Acronis disks, so the company has posted on their website, for owners, an
updated ISO image that has a modern boot loader.

I've never used the Rescue CD. I burned one when I first got TI, but have
never used it (where did I put it?). But I would guess that it may be the
same thing.

While I know people do backups of the OS partition with TI from within
Windows and don't report any problems, it has been my opinion that doing
the image from outside of Windows would produce a much more reliable copy.
What with all the system files and processes in use, how exact can the
image be? I have restored images made this way more times than I care to
remember - it is my default method of recovering the kid's computers from
"issues" - and I've never had a hiccup. Some people say the backup goes
faster from outside Windows. I've done it both ways, can't notice a
significant difference.

But, to each their own. Whatever floats your boat I say!

appreciate the explanation.
I have been backing up images with TI Home since starting to use it from
Ver.8, and now the current ver 2010. It's been a lifesaver for me many
times. I can pretty much understand your reasoning for backing up with a
boot disk for a possibly cleaner image with less possible conflicts of
system files. I'll be trying it your method to see how it goes

Again, thanks,

 

[TVeblen]

appreciate the explanation.
I have been backing up images with TI Home since starting to use it from
Ver.8, and now the current ver 2010. It's been a lifesaver for me many
times. I can pretty much understand your reasoning for backing up with a
boot disk for a possibly cleaner image with less possible conflicts of
system files. I'll be trying it your method to see how it goes

Again, thanks,

Just be certain to connect your external drive before booting with the
TI disk so it is recognized at the BIOS level.
Other than the funky low-res graphics, everything else is just the same.

 

[Flasherly]

But now I'm getting a new state of the art machine for around $2k and
I wonder, with a 1TB HD, should I do away with partitions? And also
just use Acronis Windows to backup onto an external USB drive?

RL

I use a few T+ drives via USB, especially if the MB doesn't support
the size, but I'd rather FAT32 than NTFS. The latest partitioning
software, say with a 1T into 2 500G or 3 300G partitions. I've gotten
back the big ones in NTFS when they turned to Jello, but it was far
from easy or quick. I've only one drive left in NTFS to transfer via
USB and format format FAT32, then I'll be largely NTFS free (except
for a few instances, a work and temp drive, to keep files greater than
4G that need to be broken down).

 

[LSMFT]

For Windows Vista, on another machine, I have used Acronis for Windows
to backup the entire HD image from inside of Windows, then restored
the HD image using Acronis, and did not notice any problems. But, I
like your solution too, and if I can remember I'll try and download
the Linux bootable CD from Acronis if and when I build my new system
and install Acronis.

Followup question: for a 1 TB HD, how big should your logical "D:"
drive be, where you keep personal data? On my present machine, my
personal data, which includes photos, business data, chess data files,
and compiled C# files, is about 3 GB total. Multiply that by 10 just
to be safe, and 30 GB is about right. Round off to 100, just to give a
factor of safety, and 900 MB for C: and 100 MB for D:, does that sound
right?

RL

Why not just use a 250 gig hard drive for the OS and associated
programs. Use a second 1TB drive for storage, graphics, videos, mp3s etc.
Another thing would be to mirror the 1TB drive in case of failure you
won't loose ALL your storage.