[tbjatw]

I'm just about to start formatting my hardrive and reinstalling Win98SE, and I was wondering if I should partition my hardrive (5 gigs). What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing this. Can you recommend any good free software that will do this for me? Also, would it be possible to create a partition before I format the hardrive? This way I could create a partition with just my MP3's, and would save me having to backup over 2 gigs of stuff. Thanks!

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

well

the advantages are pretty much that you will have a drive that will live through a reinstall.

the disadvantages are that it will slow your drives down.

the best way to add a storage space is to get another hard disk.

as far as partitioning without destroying your data, i know they make something like that, i just dont know where to get it.
i know other people here do though.

~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

There are pros and cons to partitioning, but you have a pretty small hard disk, I'd think what you really need is a larger disk. In any case, there is a free non-destructive partitioning utility, The Partition Resizer, though I haven't tried it yet. I've used Partition Magic a number of times, but it's not free.

 

[johnwill]

Re: well

the disadvantages are that it will slow your drives down.

Care to explain that? I've never heard or experienced any slowdown using partitioning on a drive.

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

well

it has been a little while since i was told that, and itr might be a bunch of hooey, but this is what i heard.

if you split a drive into two, it will split the drive access speed, but i think it is only while transferring from one partition to another.

like from c to d it has to read and then write, and if it was two drives, it could do it simultaneously.

this is what i think i remember.

i have noticed from personal experience that it takes longer to move stuff from a partition to another partition on the same drive.
but when i got from hard disk 0 to hard disk 1 it is alot faster.

so i take what i have heard, and what i have seen, and i suggest that it isnt the best way to do it.

this info i refer to came from a "know-it-all" type guy, so it might be bull.

~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

The partitioning does nothing to change the speed of the drive or access to the data. However, what you observed is correct, if you're moving data between partitions, by definition, you have to seek between them, and it will take longer than copying it to a separate physical disk. It's also why putting the page file on a separate physical disk is recommended for heavily loaded systems.

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

aww

and to think ive been avoiding partitions all this time.....

well, i guess i will go ahead and put my documents folder back on a partition.......

it works better that way, then when i do my reinstall, my songs and junk are still there.....

i just dont want to spend the time to dig out 50 songs that i like more often than i have to....

~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

Just imagine if you were like me and had 120gigs of MP3 files, that would really make you unhappy to lose them all!

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

well,

i have nearly that many.....

i play them from the cd's

i hate it, but i dont want them all on my machine if i only listen to maybe 5 or 10 a day...


~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

I have several hundred CD's that I've "cooked" from the collection, I normally use them in the car in my changer.

 

[Laffctx]

I have Partition Magic, but I like Fdisk only because I have used it more.............and I always partition my drives ................ lets you actually mess with the OS partition less...............but, if i wanted to partition a drive without having to format it or before i format it then Partition Magic would be the program I would use............but like it was stated earlier.........it isn't FREE..........I think I paid $60 for mine.

Good luck,

Laffctx

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

well

my cooked discs are still in mp3 format, and i play them from the discs.
i get an average of 190 songs per disc.
they now sell car cd players and discmans that will read mp3's.
the difference in fidelity and range is very small.
to me, it is worth it to be able to fit 10x as much music on a disc.

and it saves batteries for a discman to be playing mp3's, because it doesnt spin the whole time.

does anyone know a site that goes into detail about the difference in quality between cda, wav, and mp3 formats?



~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

The changer I have came with my Audi, and it doesn't recognize MP3 format, so I have to cook them as standard audio disks.

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

ouch!

but couldnt you keep all the mp3 source files on cd's?
you never know when a hard disk will fail.
in fact i lost another one of mine yesterday....


~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

I have those MP3's archived on DVD-R, and two extra copies on other hard disks. It helps to have about 1.5TB of disk storage on the various computers here. I'm not losing them anytime soon...

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

aww

1.5 tb's?



now i am so jealous.....


i wish i had even a tenth of that......

although i am finally up to a 4.3 gig drive.......

since i lost my 2.6 (remember me asking about noises on my hard disk.....well, keep yer eyes open, i will be adding to that post soon.)

and i have to give my girlfriend's 2.1 back to her to get her machine up again.

so i had 4.7 on two disks, now i have 4.3 on one disk.

soon, i am buying a 20 gig i think....

or those stupid 40's are almost always the same price....

but back to the subject of tb's...
how many drives is that?
and how many different machines?

and does anyone know a way to get 6 or more hard disks to run in one machine?
someone i know needs to know this.

6x200=1200 or 1.2 tb's right?

more than 1 tb is needed, if 6 drives will run, that is the goal.

~BoB~

 

[johnwill]

Let's see, there are 5 machines in this room, and another in the office next door. My main machine has 200g, 160g, and 60g internally, and there are three 120g USB drives stacked alongside for backup. The XP machine has 40g, 80g, and 120g. The first workbench has 60g, 10g, 20g, the video machine has 20g, 120b, 80g, and the other workbench has 100g. The office machine has 40g I believe. Wait, that only comes to 1.47TB! OK, I have a laptop with a 20g drive, and a 30g 2.5" USB drive that I carry around in my briefcase, so that makes it 1.52TB, I made it!