quick HDD ?????

[liquidmonkey]

i have a 1TB WD HDD black.

i have partitioned it into 2 partitions, 250 gig and a 750 gig and then installed VISTA ULTIMATE 64 on the 250 gig partition.

if windows screws up in a big way is it possible to only reformat the 250 partition and do a re-install or will i need to reformat the ENTIRE 1TB HDD?

thanks experts

 

[berry120]

Nope, if Vista screws up you can easily just install vista on the 250GB partition and that won't affect the 750GB partition - just select the 250GB partition to use during the install. I used a similar setup for a number of years whilst using windows, had all my documents on one partition and windows on another. That way I could reinstall windows every so often to keep it running nice and fast while not needing to transfer all my files back and forth all the time!

 

[liquidmonkey]

this is FANTASTIC news, thanks!!!

 

[wol-va-rine]

Nope, if Vista screws up you can easily just install vista on the 250GB partition and that won't affect the 750GB partition - just select the 250GB partition to use during the install. I used a similar setup for a number of years whilst using windows, had all my documents on one partition and windows on another. That way I could reinstall windows every so often to keep it running nice and fast while not needing to transfer all my files back and forth all the time!

^ this...

I have a 160GB Raptor partitioned into 2 drives split equally, the OS on one drive and my setup files on the other drive, cuts down on time when I reinstall an OS...

 

[Russel1]

If I use a computer with mission critical data, then I use two hard drives. One for the operating system and one for Data, same as using two partitions, just with two drives. If you need to reinstall the OS you install on the first drive and your data and installation software can remain ready on the second drive. The added benefit of having two drives is that you can back up your data from the second drive on the first drive (OS drive.) So if one drive fails, you still have a backup on the other drive.

If I use a computer and there is no mission critical data on the computer, I usually use one drive with two partitions as berry120 and wol-va-rine describe above. It is especially handy if you want to try out several different operating systems before you settle down on one. Or if you want to experiment with dual or triple boot operating systems. Having you application installation software and drivers on the second drive/partion makes OS and application installation a snap.

 

[alienJJ]

Partitioning a hard drive is a good safe practice for when your operating system starts slowing down and behaving wrong or you have a virus.

It is always recommended to run an antivirus in the 2nd partition (D Drive) before reformatting the OS partition (C Drive) and reinstalling windows. The D drive will not be affected since you are only reformatting and reinstalling windows on the C drive.

However, if your hard drive crashes, it will most likely affect both partitions C and D.

 

[berry120]

However, if your hard drive crashes, it will most likely affect both partitions C and D.

I'd replace most likely with almost definitely there

Drifting a bit off topic now, but if it's a critical installation I'd use RAID 5 with 3 or so drives (or RAID 1 with 2 drives) and then put two partitions across that stripe if you need to. Then as always with those RAID configurations, if you lose a drive you just need to pop another one in its place and you're done

 

[liquidmonkey]

your right, if its a mechanical HDD problem then your FOBAR'd which sucks and have lost data AS WELL as the OS.
i really hate losing data, such a pain to get it all back, if you can. but then there are backups as well

just curious, how many out there have had a HDD fail due to mechanical issues....would it be around 2% or is it much higher???

 

[berry120]

just curious, how many out there have had a HDD fail due to mechanical issues....would it be around 2% or is it much higher???

Difficult to say exactly, it depends on how much you're using the drive, the age, the quality of manufacture etc. If you want some interesting reading, Google posted a paper on the subject a while back (if you don't want to read it all it's the graph on page 4 that's the one you want to look at.)

However you look at it though - it's worth keeping regular backups!!

 

[liquidmonkey]

briefly read that, interesting!! THANKS!!

for myself, i run my rig 24/7 and currently have 3 brand new 1TB WD Black drives, 2 older (3years plus) WD 320gig drives and 4 externals (which i'm in the midst of selling).

the only backups (synchs) that i make are of my music, pictures and personal files. backing up 2TB of movies and tv shows seems a bit of a pain to be honest.

what do other people do???