partitioning a hard drive

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by cindysnoopy, Apr 28, 2004.

  1. cindysnoopy

    cindysnoopy Shotgun!

    Hi everyone, we just got our computer back with a second Hard Drive. We're going to partition the hard drive and load Windows XP onto the partition and then format the other hard drive (starting fresh!). Can anyone walk me through how to do this (partitioning)?

    Eric thinks he might know how to do it, but he's going to be busy the next couple of days, so it looks like this is going to be my project, and I'll probably be asking a lot of questions in the next couple of days.

    Thanks in advance!

    Cindy
     
  2. Kodo

    Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

    let me see if I hear you right.
    You got a new hard drive. You want to take the NEW drive and install windows XP on it and then you want to format the OLD drive. right?
     
  3. cindysnoopy

    cindysnoopy Shotgun!

    Yeah, is that a good idea or not?
     
  4. cindysnoopy

    cindysnoopy Shotgun!

    I want to partition the new drive, so that Windows is the only thing on that particular section (of the new HD)
     
  5. cindysnoopy

    cindysnoopy Shotgun!

    OK, now I'm wondering if I should just upgrade to XP rather than doing a fresh install, so I don't have to change all my settings and stuff. We cleaned most of the info off the C: drive before we sent it in, so there's not tons of junk on there. Then we could just use the D: drive (the new one) for backing up.

    I know that I'd still like to have Window's partitioned off though and I'd like the partition to have a different name besides C: so that when I save things, I don't have to change where it goes to all the time. (we had all our "stuff" on D: on Eric's work computer)

    Does that make sense? Sorry I don't know what I'm talking about more... :(
     
  6. Kodo

    Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

    I think maybe you are mis-understanding the meaning of partitioning the drive.
    When the term is used, it typically means that you want to create two or more drives on the same hard drive. Sometimes it is used when you want to start from scratch and want to use the entirety of the drive in which case it too is called creating a partition but it is more or less inferred because it is only one partition; in this case the partition is the entire drive.

    So, knowing this, do you want to take your new hard drive and make a C: and D: drive on it?

    You can't change the represention of the drive letter, but you can change the name of what we call the volume name.
     
  7. cindysnoopy

    cindysnoopy Shotgun!

    Sorry Kodo, I wasn't really very clear. My original plan was to take the new hard drive and make a C: and D: on it, but since we had mostly cleaned out our old hard drive, I'd like to just partition that one. I'd like to have Windows be the only thing on the D: section.

    Here is where I'm confused, will all the other drives be renamed once I partition? For example, right now, my D: drive is my DVD Rom, E: is the burner and F: is the new HD. How does the naming work?

    And of course, I don't know where to begin to make a partition...
     
  8. G.T.

    G.T. R.I.P February 4, 2007. You will be missed.

    If you're going to do a fresh install of Windows XP (and if you want only Windows on that partition, you're probably going to have to do that anyway), You get a prompt early in the install allowing you to partition/format the drive as part of the install process. Just pay attention to how much space you want to assign to the primary (C: ) partition, and Windows will partition and format that partition for you and install Windows to it. Give some thought to how much space to allot to the C drive, as even with "only Windows" on it, it will grow. If you've got lots of drive space, I'd allocate at least 10 gigabytes to it, since once you create it, you can't go back & change it easily. You can create the secondary partitions at that time as well, or simply do the Windows install and then partition the rest of the drive(s) later from within Windows itself. Leave the old drive unconnected while doing the initial install, so there is no confusion about drive letters, or whether this is a secondary windows installation. Once Windows is installed, I'd assign your optical drives (CD/DVD) high drive letters, like X, Y, and Z if you've got a 3rd one. That way, whatever you do in the future as far as number of drives or partitions, nothing will interfere with them. NOW you can finish partitioning/formatting the rest of your drives, and have them be D, E, F, etc. In XP, you can assign any drive letters you want to those partitions.

    Go to Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/Administrative Tools/Computer Management, and select Disk Management. You'll get a visual display showing all your drives, with some basic info about how they're set up, or not. Right Click on a drive, or empty partition, and you can further partition (if necessary) and format right from there.

    If there's stuff on your old drive you want to save, finish formatting your new drive, and you can drag/drop stuff onto the new drive, then you can partition (if you want) and reformat your old drive.
     
  9. cindysnoopy

    cindysnoopy Shotgun!

    Well, I jumped into this a little too fast. I upgraded our Windows 2000Pro to XP on the old Hard Drive, and I don't think I can partition now without formatting and starting from scratch - which is what I should have done from the start :rolleyes:

    I was feeling rushed because Eric's work wants the computer back ASAP, but Eric said they're just going to have to wait and we'll start over when we get back.

    Thanks GT. I'll give it a try on Tuesday or Wednesday when we get back.
     
  10. G.T.

    G.T. R.I.P February 4, 2007. You will be missed.

    Or hold off a bit and see how the new upgrade behaves. A Windows upgrade MAY cause some problems & instability, but usually does not. If all is well and works fine, and your new drive isn't substantially faster than the old drive, I'd leave it alone and just add the new drive as a slave for the added space. If you're not happy with that, you can always jump into a full reinstall later.
     

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