Why partition?

[anonymous]

Hi,

I have the chance now that the daughter is back from school to reformat
her hard drive and cure all the problems there.

The school put XP on her machine but I'm installing 2000 Pro instead,
easier to deal with as I'm a 2000 user.

My curiosity is about formatting the empty drive. Normally I'd make
three partitions, one for the OS, the second for programs installed, and
the third for data. What I'm wondering is breaking the drive up like
this actually doing anything useful? Knowing the drive has a half dozen
or so disks in there, multiplicity of read/write heads, countless
cylinders etc., is it mechanically beneficial to have everything spread
around on these disks, not that I'm in control of that, but I'm guessing
partitioning spreads things out at least a little.

I'd think the more spread out things are the more chance there is that
all the mechanical components of the drive will have some work to do
rather than just a couple of the heads doing most of the work on one or
two of the disks.

Maybe a single partition is actually written on all the disks and things
get along quite well if there's only one big "C" drive. Are all the
heads doing things most of the time, or are some of them not being used
until the drives disks get fuller?

Backup size or time taken to do it isn't a concern here, I clone the
whole drive at least weekly.

Thanks!

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[Chris_1954]

I usually partition into C: & D: for programs & data. Disk thrashing will
definitely occur the more partitions you have. Every read/write will
probably occur in different locations - dependent on the paging file size of
course. Moving the heads takes time! The best solution for speed is two hdus
on separate IDE channels

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I have the chance now that the daughter is back from school to reformat
her hard drive and cure all the problems there.

The school put XP on her machine but I'm installing 2000 Pro instead,
easier to deal with as I'm a 2000 user.

My curiosity is about formatting the empty drive. Normally I'd make
three partitions, one for the OS, the second for programs installed, and
the third for data. What I'm wondering is breaking the drive up like
this actually doing anything useful? Knowing the drive has a half dozen
or so disks in there, multiplicity of read/write heads, countless
cylinders etc., is it mechanically beneficial to have everything spread
around on these disks, not that I'm in control of that, but I'm guessing
partitioning spreads things out at least a little.

I'd think the more spread out things are the more chance there is that
all the mechanical components of the drive will have some work to do
rather than just a couple of the heads doing most of the work on one or
two of the disks.

Maybe a single partition is actually written on all the disks and things
get along quite well if there's only one big "C" drive. Are all the
heads doing things most of the time, or are some of them not being used
until the drives disks get fuller?

Backup size or time taken to do it isn't a concern here, I clone the
whole drive at least weekly.

Thanks!

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

If you ask ten people then you probably get twelve opinions.
Mine agrees with Chris', for these reasons:
- Having all my data on drive D: makes backing it up a
breeze. If it's on D: then it gets backed up, no matter which
folder it is in.
- If I need to re-install the OS then I can wipe drive C:. I don't
need to look for data files, only to find that I've missed some.
- I am a great believer in taking a snapshot of my OS & apps
once every six months. If the system goes south then I
simply restore the latest snapshot. Working with snapshots
has three caveats:
* They require a second drive, e.g. drive D:
* Restoration of a snapshot will obliterate everything on drive C:,
including data files.
* Snapshots get far too large if they include data.
Having a drive D: resolves each of these.

At the same time I see no point in creating a drive for your
applications.

 

[I'm Dan]

... Knowing the drive has a half dozen or so disks in there,
multiplicity of read/write heads, countless cylinders etc., is
it mechanically beneficial to have everything spread around
on these disks, not that I'm in control of that, but I'm guessing
partitioning spreads things out at least a little.

I'd think the more spread out things are the more chance there
is that all the mechanical components of the drive will have
some work to do rather than just a couple of the heads doing
most of the work on one or two of the disks.

... Are all the heads doing things most of the time, or are some
of them not being used until the drives disks get fuller?

Chris and Pegasus have given you the practical advice, which I concur with
totally -- I also keep my programs together with the OS and use a separate
partition for my data.

As for your technical questions, you probably don't have "a half dozen or so
disks" inside the HDD case. It's typical nowadays to have only about 2 or 3
platters inside the unit (IOW, typical max of 6 real heads), but drive
geometry translation on the HDD's controller makes it appear to the
computer's bios as though there are something like 240-255 heads.

Drive geometry translation means you -- and the operating system -- have
zero control over which platters are being used, anyway. But rest assured
that for performance reasons, manufacturers have designed their controllers
to make the best use of the internal parts. Mechanically, the heads do not
all move independently, they all move as a unit. It is far quicker to
electronically switch from one head to another than it is to mechanically
move the head assembly. If you have two tracks worth of data to write, it
is faster to write the same track under two heads, rather than two tracks
under the same head. All your heads are getting used.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Placing data files on a partition separate from the operating
system and applications can greatly simplify system repairs/recoveries
and data back-up.

There's little point, however, in having a separate partition for
just applications and/or games. Should you have to reinstall the OS,
you'll also have to reinstall each and every application and game
anyway, in order to recreate the hundreds (possibly thousands) of
registry entries and to replace the dozens (possibly hundreds) of
essential system files back into the appropriate Windows folders and
sub-folders.


Bruce Chambers

--
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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[anonymous]

I appreciate all your comments.

...........Mechanically, the heads do not all move independently, they
all move as a unit.

This was something I didn't realize, they moved as a unit. The last
drive I disassembled I tore into with a pair of needle nosed pliers and
didn't catch that point.

As for backing up, I weekly just clone the whole drive to a second
removable HD. Just for piece of mind, I've placed this second drives
jumpers to master and booted from it and it's just like the main drive
was still in there doing the work, when in reality I was running on the
backup HD. I've had enough disasters in the past to learn backup
shortcuts are worth the bucks.

Again, thanks for taking the time to inform me of your strategies.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I appreciate all your comments.

..........Mechanically, the heads do not all move independently, they
all move as a unit.

This was something I didn't realize, they moved as a unit. The last
drive I disassembled I tore into with a pair of needle nosed pliers and
didn't catch that point.

As for backing up, I weekly just clone the whole drive to a second
removable HD. Just for piece of mind, I've placed this second drives
jumpers to master and booted from it and it's just like the main drive
was still in there doing the work, when in reality I was running on the
backup HD. I've had enough disasters in the past to learn backup
shortcuts are worth the bucks.

Again, thanks for taking the time to inform me of your strategies.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Your backup method is fairly good but it has one obvious
drawback: You need one disk for each backup. If you used
an imaging product then you could maintain several versions
of your backup, because each of them is just a file. I always
maintain two versions: The current one, plus the one before
it. If the current one turns out to be flawed one week after
I made it then I still have the one before. And, of course,
I always test my image files straight after making them.
I have seen too many image files that could not be restored . . .

 

[anonymous]

Hi Pegasus,

...........Your backup method is fairly good but it has one obvious
drawback: You need one disk for each backup.


You're right about that of course, but I could get another HD and do a
switch between backups, every other week use the other drive. I haven't
tried it yet, I'm also wondering if Ghost will let me clone my master
disk in two different places on the backup HD. Right now I have three
partitions on each HD, if I were to have six partitions on the backup
drive I'm wondering if I could clone my drive twice onto the same
physical HD but in different partition sets. I think I'll try that next
go around and see what happens.

The other major drawback to my backup scheme is I don't store my copies
off site, a house fire or theft and I'm out of luck big time.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi Pegasus,

..........Your backup method is fairly good but it has one obvious
drawback: You need one disk for each backup.


You're right about that of course, but I could get another HD and do a
switch between backups, every other week use the other drive. I haven't
tried it yet, I'm also wondering if Ghost will let me clone my master
disk in two different places on the backup HD. Right now I have three
partitions on each HD, if I were to have six partitions on the backup
drive I'm wondering if I could clone my drive twice onto the same
physical HD but in different partition sets. I think I'll try that next
go around and see what happens.

The other major drawback to my backup scheme is I don't store my copies
off site, a house fire or theft and I'm out of luck big time.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

I use Acronis TrueImage, and it lets me store
my image file on any partition other than the
one that is being processed. It could be a FAT
or NTFS partition. I expect that Ghost would
do much the same. You could then burn the
image onto a CD and store the CD off-site.

 

[nesredep egrob]

Greetings --

Placing data files on a partition separate from the operating
system and applications can greatly simplify system repairs/recoveries
and data back-up.

There's little point, however, in having a separate partition for
just applications and/or games. Should you have to reinstall the OS,
you'll also have to reinstall each and every application and game
anyway, in order to recreate the hundreds (possibly thousands) of
registry entries and to replace the dozens (possibly hundreds) of
essential system files back into the appropriate Windows folders and
sub-folders.

If you backup the system Information folder
and the system state you get everyting up to date.

Format drive C: and install a fresh version of 2000 and use a restore,
with system state and the system Information folder I can get back to
a faultless computer in 2 hours flat, as long as I tell it not to
overwrite.

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00
If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp

 

[anonymous]

Hi again,

......Acronis TrueImage, and it lets me store my image file......

Is that a single file being made? Using Ghost I'm not making an image
file, I'm duplicating the existing hard drive to another which is also
bootable.

Ghost also has an option to make an image of the disk, a single file
that can be written elsewhere. Using the clone function I can be up and
running after a catastrophe as fast as I can swap the two drives.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi again,

.....Acronis TrueImage, and it lets me store my image file......

Is that a single file being made? Using Ghost I'm not making an image
file, I'm duplicating the existing hard drive to another which is also
bootable.

Ghost also has an option to make an image of the disk, a single file
that can be written elsewhere. Using the clone function I can be up and
running after a catastrophe as fast as I can swap the two drives.

Yes, Acronis delivers a single file, similar to Ghost or to DriveImage.

 

[Gary Smith]

If you backup the system Information folder
and the system state you get everyting up to date.

What is the system information folder?

 

[nesredep egrob]

What is the system information folder?

Sorry It was a misprint it is the System Volume Information - have a
look at google for the information - too much to type out
For your information, my stats are:
Win 2000, Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz
1 Gb memory,ADSL
200+200 GB of disc space,Oly C2100,Optio S,Sony 355E
Burners CD and DVD (Sony make)
Borge Pedersen
Perth, Australia
http://members.iinet.net.au/~borge/SMbackups
mailto:[email protected]
remove SPAM and underlines for email

 

[Gary Smith]

Sorry It was a misprint it is the System Volume Information - have a
look at google for the information - too much to type out

Thanks. Backing up that folder is easily doen, but I'm wondering how
important it actually is. On my system it contains a single file named
tracking.log, which hasn't been changed since 2003-11-20. I have no idea
what significance that date has.