{"id":11635,"date":"2012-09-10T00:25:04","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T04:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-11639\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"hdd-image\" width=\"150\" heig"},"modified":"2016-02-03T04:57:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T09:57:56","slug":"hard-drive-partitions-a-few-ideas-about-setting-them-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/hard-drive-partitions-a-few-ideas-about-setting-them-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Drive Partitions &#8211; A Few Ideas About Setting Them Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"daves-2463450660\" class=\"daves-single-post-before-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div><h2><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-11639\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"hdd-image\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/hdd-image.jpg 204w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/h2>\n<h2>Why Hard Drive Partitions?<\/h2>\n<p>Hard drive partitions have many\u00a0 advantages. They give you control. Control over your data, programs, and backups.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s why &#8211; if you have all your eggs in one basket you will not only have one very big basket but you won&#8217;t be able to tell which eggs are which.<\/p>\n<h3>Let&#8217;s talk about size first<\/h3>\n<p>Let us presume you have a 350 GB Hard drive. Granted, that&#8217;s not very big these days,but it will do for academic purposes.<\/p>\n<p>So, you have Windows (the Operating System), all your programs, games, data, and cute kitty photos, music, and various miscellaneous not-to-mentions on there. That makes for one whole bunch of stuff.<\/p><div id=\"daves-3694178169\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you&#8217;re half my age you&#8217;ll remember George Carlin&#8217;s skit about our &#8220;stuff&#8221;. It&#8217;s worth a listen if for no other reason than to get a handle on how much we tend to accumulate over time &#8211; and how important we seem to think it is.<\/p>\n<p>The whole point of dividing, or partitioning your hard drive in the first place is to take control of the blooming disaster.<\/p>\n<h3>Let&#8217;s Get Organized<\/h3>\n<p>How about putting all your data in one place.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take music as an example. I have tons of music, many gigabytes. And pictures, about 100,000 of them. I certainly don&#8217;t want to back up all that music along with Windows, spreadsheets, databases, videos, programs, and so on and so forth. You get the idea. They have no business together.<\/p><div id=\"daves-1986988940\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-2 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I also want to know exactly where my music is. I don&#8217;t want to hunt around for a particular tune at a particular time when I particularly need it. Perhaps the word &#8216;need&#8217; is too strong?<\/p>\n<p>The same goes for anything else you deem important. Whether it be your wedding pictures or your divorce pictures. It doesn&#8217;t matter to anyone but you and you can&#8217;t replace them once they are lost. I can&#8217;t stress enough the importance of making backups of your precious data.<\/p>\n<p>I have very intelligent friends who never make backups of anything. As if it&#8217;s going to miraculously re-appear when their computer fails. Unfortunately, they&#8217;ll probably come to my house with this questioning, hopeful look on their face.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/partition-image.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11644\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/partition-image.jpg\" alt=\"partition-image\" width=\"266\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/partition-image.jpg 266w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/partition-image-150x106.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Back to business: The above image should give you a few ideas about how partitioning your hard drive works. Basically, what you are doing is taking a huge amount of information and dividing into a few controllable chunks.<\/p><div id=\"daves-2494587403\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-3 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Consider Backups<\/h3>\n<p>DVD&#8217;s have a limited capacity. I certainly wouldn&#8217;t want to have to back up an entire 350GB hard drive, baby-sitting the system over a multiple backup session that may take hours or days.. I would much rather back up just my music, or pictures, for example.<\/p>\n<p>It reminds me of the old days when I had to sit there for hours with floppies. Bummer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">(Back then, I didn&#8217;t know it was a bummer. I happened to think things were pretty slick .<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">It once took me 4 hours to sort a 100-item list on a C-128. I thought that was a normal thing to do. Or how about 40 minutes to format a 750K floppy disk. I thought, maybe, it was a tad slow, but not intolerable.)<\/p><div id=\"daves-2173581710\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-4 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Doesn&#8217;t it make sense to keep your Operating System separate from the rest of your stuff? Why make a backup that includes all your music, pictures and things right along with Windows.<\/p>\n<p>Windows may change but it really isn&#8217;t important when you think about it. That can be replaced. Your family or wedding photos cannot. Keep them separate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your Ability to keep things manageable<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>DVD&#8217;s are limited to 4.8 Gigabytes (unless, of course, you have the dough to spend on those dual-layer fancy doo-dads). For that reason I like to keep partitions in multiples of that size. It&#8217;s really easy to backup a 4GB partition onto a 4GB DVD.<\/p><div id=\"daves-4202411611\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-5 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Just for your information, I use Acronis to schedule my backups. It has an option to break the backups into DVD-sized chunks. If I keep my partitions in the same multiples then it gets very easy. I know that a partition will fit on a DVD or two.<\/p>\n<h3>Here&#8217;s What I Do<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>I keep my Operating System on a partition all by itself &#8211; I don&#8217;t put any programs or allow any data on that partition<\/li>\n<li>I keep all my Programs\/Applications on another partition<\/li>\n<li>I keep all my Music, Photos, Games, and anything else that I deem a category unto itself on their own separate partitions (this is primarily determined by how much data you are talking about; if it&#8217;s going to be a small amount then a dedicated partition may not be warranted )<\/li>\n<li>I make sure when a program offers me a Custom installation option I always choose it so I can select where it will be installed &#8211; certainly not on my dedicated Windows Drive<\/li>\n<li>Once a program is running, I always check the options for directories. Programs typically store their information in the Windows Users directory.. This is not acceptable if you are going to be a partition geek such as I<\/li>\n<li>Just FYI, I used to have 16 logical drives divided over 3 physical HDD&#8217;s on my computer. I know that&#8217;s nuts. I have backed off since then. Please forgive me. I have only 10 now. That&#8217;s an improvement, is it not?<\/li>\n<li>The longest backup I have to make takes up 3 DVD&#8217;s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Here&#8217;s What You Need<\/h3>\n<p>Get yourself a good partitioning program. Yes, Windows 7\u00a0 has some partitioning capabilities but they are inferior to even the most basic of free software available today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are a couple suggestions in no particular order:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Easus Partition Master: <a title=\"Easus Parition Master\" href=\"http:\/\/www.partition-tool.com\/?gclid=CLDU0oGEprICFcbrKgodKSAAN\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.partition-tool.com\/?gclid=CLDU0oGEprICFcbrKgodKSAANQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">MiniTool&#8217;s Partition Wizard:<a title=\"Partition Wizard\" href=\"http:\/\/www.partitionwizard.com\/partition-manager-server.html?gclid=CJrKkouEprICFaUWMgodqD0Akg\" target=\"_blank\"> http:\/\/partitionwizard.com\/partition-manager-server.html?gclid=CJrKkouEprICFaUWMgodqD0Akg<\/a><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Caveat: Be certain that before you use any of these partitioning tools, whether it be Windows-based or not, you make a backup of every single important thing that you care about. You have been warned.<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>I offer the above warning because, well, you can guess&#8230; the voice of experience and all that. It was awful&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Anytime you manipulate your hard drives it involves a certain amount of risk. Believe me when I say, &#8220;Make backups!&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>The Power<\/h3>\n<p>This was not meant to be a tutorial about how to partition your hard disk drives. More so, it was meant to give you ideas about how you might do so.<\/p>\n<p>Partitioning your drives will allow you to take great control of your computer and make things work the way <strong>you<\/strong> want &#8211; not how the guys in the white hats think it should.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m all about.<\/p>\n<div id=\"daves-1303286309\" class=\"daves-after-content daves-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"3225321574\" \ndata-ad-format=\"autorelaxed\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Hard Drive Partitions? Hard drive partitions have many\u00a0 advantages. They give you control. Control over your data, programs, and backups. Here&#8217;s why &#8211; if you have all your eggs in one basket you will not only have one very big basket but you won&#8217;t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1373,"featured_media":11639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[38,991,156,155],"class_list":["post-11635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-win7","tag-hard-drive","tag-partitions","tag-tips","tag-windows-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}