Welcome to TSF:
You have done a fine job of researching and asking all the right questions.
To answer you question about the back-up copy of your windows OS your colleague advised you properly. I strongly advise you use xxclone.com (it lets you try the prog for free) its called hard drive cloning >>> the beautiful thing about cloning is you can back-up your whole boot hard drive in case you ever have a melt down (happens frequently >> watch how many posters come in here in terror because they lost their boot drive and ALL data !!! not fun >> been there done that I didnt really like it either !!) This prog is super easy to use ~~ only two screens for you to interact with ~~ its all done within windows too !!!! pay close attention to the advanced tab within the main console / you must enter the advanced tab and place a check mark in the write.ini boot something ????? and MBR (three check boxes ) thats just about it ~~~ other then the primary console asking what drive the source (boot drive) what drive is the target (where do you want the copy to go )
now on to partitioning:
I cant remember the exact limit on partitions but I think its four ?????
read this link well and then please come back with more questions
http://fdisk.radified.com/
please be patient with this endeavor / its not that hard to do / but its a lot of info to digest for your first time !!!
I strongly suggest you opt for FAT32 file system / only because you can use a WIN ME boot disk (allows f-disking large drives) and it has several options where you can keep checking what you have done / windows XP can be used for partition work and making logical drives but I will warn you right up front / its much harder to follow what is being done as you are doing it / and undoing or deleting partitions is not as easy to follow as fdisk by any means / win xp does however format with NTFS which is favored by experienced computer users although I dont think you will ever see the benefits yourself until the near future and master the partition & formatting world.
the guide above is very easy to follow / I think for the benefits you will achieve by using fdisk far outweigh the benefits of NTFS
as for your cd-rom and dvd drives / they will automatically get assigned new & proper drive letters once you have finished partitioning and formation of logical drives
dont hesitate to ask more questions / and I hope you enjoy this endeavor ~~ its overwhelming at first but very rewarding after you have accomplished your goals
PS when in fdisk or any other partitioning software I use percentage numbers to assign drive space rather than get all balled up in math of drive space assignment
example = 20% of a 200 gig drive = 40 gigs rather than insert an answer like 1024 x 40 = 40,960 bytes
you can get a WIN ME bootdisk for free at bootdisk.com that has the fdisk in it / pay close attention while reading the fdisk guide / all partiion work and logical drive assignment is done in the step 1 step 2 step 3 process thats how fdisk is made you will need to use the options in a 1,2,3 order
becareful you dont fdisk you boot drive
regards
joe
You have done a fine job of researching and asking all the right questions.
To answer you question about the back-up copy of your windows OS your colleague advised you properly. I strongly advise you use xxclone.com (it lets you try the prog for free) its called hard drive cloning >>> the beautiful thing about cloning is you can back-up your whole boot hard drive in case you ever have a melt down (happens frequently >> watch how many posters come in here in terror because they lost their boot drive and ALL data !!! not fun >> been there done that I didnt really like it either !!) This prog is super easy to use ~~ only two screens for you to interact with ~~ its all done within windows too !!!! pay close attention to the advanced tab within the main console / you must enter the advanced tab and place a check mark in the write.ini boot something ????? and MBR (three check boxes ) thats just about it ~~~ other then the primary console asking what drive the source (boot drive) what drive is the target (where do you want the copy to go )
now on to partitioning:
I cant remember the exact limit on partitions but I think its four ?????
read this link well and then please come back with more questions
http://fdisk.radified.com/
please be patient with this endeavor / its not that hard to do / but its a lot of info to digest for your first time !!!
I strongly suggest you opt for FAT32 file system / only because you can use a WIN ME boot disk (allows f-disking large drives) and it has several options where you can keep checking what you have done / windows XP can be used for partition work and making logical drives but I will warn you right up front / its much harder to follow what is being done as you are doing it / and undoing or deleting partitions is not as easy to follow as fdisk by any means / win xp does however format with NTFS which is favored by experienced computer users although I dont think you will ever see the benefits yourself until the near future and master the partition & formatting world.
the guide above is very easy to follow / I think for the benefits you will achieve by using fdisk far outweigh the benefits of NTFS
as for your cd-rom and dvd drives / they will automatically get assigned new & proper drive letters once you have finished partitioning and formation of logical drives
dont hesitate to ask more questions / and I hope you enjoy this endeavor ~~ its overwhelming at first but very rewarding after you have accomplished your goals
PS when in fdisk or any other partitioning software I use percentage numbers to assign drive space rather than get all balled up in math of drive space assignment
example = 20% of a 200 gig drive = 40 gigs rather than insert an answer like 1024 x 40 = 40,960 bytes
you can get a WIN ME bootdisk for free at bootdisk.com that has the fdisk in it / pay close attention while reading the fdisk guide / all partiion work and logical drive assignment is done in the step 1 step 2 step 3 process thats how fdisk is made you will need to use the options in a 1,2,3 order
becareful you dont fdisk you boot drive
regards
joe
