question about partitioning drives

[Tim]

I have a single Samsung drive, 160Gb. I've partitioned it - using the XP
Recovery Console fdisk and diskpart commands - into 7 partitions: primary
(10Gb, XP needs space!), and one extended logical drive. I'm still not
entirely confident in partitioning drives, but it seems to work ok. I've
read though that drives can be unstable or prone to error if more than 6
partitions is used. Is this correct? If so, should I delete and merge a few
of the partitions (the drive is new, hardly anything on it)?

Also, which is the more reliable, safe, file system: NTFS, or FAT32?
Currently all my partitions are NTFS, but I'm getting constant "Event ID
51 - An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging
operation" warnings which I'm absolutely convinced could be resolved by
switching to FAT32. I've had other error issues in the past which seemed to
have been fixed by going back to FAT32 (for the system partition, anyway).
Incidentally, is it wise to mix file systems on a drive?

Cheers
Tim

 

[Ted Zieglar]

A hard disk cannot have more than 4 primary partitions, of which not more
than one can be the active partition at any one time. The number of logical
drives within an extended partition is limited only by the availability of
letters to label the drives. Within these limitations, the number of
partitions you create does not cause your computer to be "unstable or prone
to error ". That is assuming, of course, you don't do something silly, like
putting a page file on each partition.

Partitioning is something that you really need to understand well before
commencing any repartitioning operation. Otherwise you can lose data or make
your computer unbootable. There is no 'undo' function in a repartitioning,
and System Restore will not help you if you get into trouble. Looks like you
may already be in trouble:

"Information about Event ID 51"
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=244780

NTFS is a much more robust file system than is FAT32, and it offers features
(like encryption) that are not available in FAT32. NTFS is the recommended
file system for Windows XP. To learn more about the differences, see here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=NTFS+vs.+FAT32

 

[Ron Martell]

I have a single Samsung drive, 160Gb. I've partitioned it - using the XP
Recovery Console fdisk and diskpart commands - into 7 partitions: primary
(10Gb, XP needs space!), and one extended logical drive. I'm still not
entirely confident in partitioning drives, but it seems to work ok. I've
read though that drives can be unstable or prone to error if more than 6
partitions is used. Is this correct? If so, should I delete and merge a few
of the partitions (the drive is new, hardly anything on it)?

Also, which is the more reliable, safe, file system: NTFS, or FAT32?
Currently all my partitions are NTFS, but I'm getting constant "Event ID
51 - An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging
operation" warnings which I'm absolutely convinced could be resolved by
switching to FAT32. I've had other error issues in the past which seemed to
have been fixed by going back to FAT32 (for the system partition, anyway).
Incidentally, is it wise to mix file systems on a drive?

Cheers
Tim

Having large numbers of primary partitions can be problematic on some
drives, although there are third party products such as BootItNG
(www.bootitng.com) which allow you to manage such a partition
structure.

But having a single extended partition split into multiple logical
drives (such as you have done) is not going to cause any difficulties
because of the number of logical drives. It still only counts as a
single "partition" in the drive's partition table.

Your 10 gb partition for Windows is by no means large. I consider it
miniscule. My preference is to have at least 20 gb for the operating
system partition.


NTFS is a more robust file system than FAT32, and is far less
susceptible to errors. That said, it is also more difficult to
recover from a major data structure failure on an NTFS drive because
there are fewer third party repair and data recovery tools than there
are for FAT32. This is due at least in part because of the lesser
need for them.

I do not think that your error problems have anything to do with the
use of NTFS versus FAT32. It is far more likely to be a problem with
the drive itself.

There is absolutely no problem in have a mixture of NTFS and FAT32
partitions on the same drive. I do it myself, because I multiboot
Windows 98 and Windows Me as well as XP.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[anno_triangle]

Hello,

There is still some kind of "undo" ways in the partitions. Some utils
such as Partition Recovery allows restoring lost or deleted partitions.
That tool helped me before, it is reliable indeed. I found it onto a
data tools set CD image, Boot Disk, that also included tools for data
backup, erase and recovery.
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm