What does it mean to say you "partioned" some program(s) or files on your computer?

Question

Is it hard to do? Is it worth doing? Why would you do this anyway?

Answer 1

you mean partition your hard drive? well its like this.. basically splitting your hard drive into two sections. one part will have your windows and installed programs on it, and the other half will have everything you care about on it (pictures, mp3s, ect).

now, you would have a partition for safety purposes. for example if you suddenly find yourself having to reformat your computer.. like if your windows got corrupted or something. you would reinstall windows on the first partition and just leave the second half alone. after you get windows running you reactivate the second half and boom all your stuff that you care about is still there.

its very handy trust me, and is simple and well worth doing.

Answer 2

Partitioning means dividing the hard drive into different segments.
This is usually done for a few reasons. Security so you can protect data on each partition, ease of use when saving data, and ease of use when re-installing the operating system.
Very few major computer manufacturers partition hard drives which is very bad practice.
In my opinion all hard drives should be partitioned if they are 100 Gb or over. The partition sizes will differ depending of on what you use your PC for and the number of applications (programs) you have on your system.
E.g. if you use your PC for doing word documents and spreadsheets but not much else then if you have a 80 to 100 Gb hard drive partition sizes can be 40Gb for the first partition and the rest on the second.
If you have a lot of application then you need to make the first partition larger.
If you have very large drives then you can make more partitions.
One big advantage of partitioning drives and keeping data off the C drive is that if you have been attacked by Trojans and or viruses and need to format your drive and re-install software you don't have to go through the problem of finding important data and backing it up. (ALWAYS back up important data and photographs to a CD or DVD in any case).
If you have had your computer for a long time and you have all your data backed up you should consider formatting the hard drive and partitioning it now. If installing Win XP you will be given the option to use ALL the disc space choose no and type in the size of the partition you need e.g 40000 and this will give yoou your first partition.
There is another way to partition your drives and that is by using a software such as Partiton Magic found at http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat4/ec_Main.Entry17C?SID=27685&SP=10023&CID=0&PID=627117&PN=1&V1=627117&CUR=826&DSP=&PGRP=0&API1=65&API2=GOOGLE_UK&API3=partition_magic_exa&API4=Search&API5=www.google.co.uk&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=0
it's easy to use

Answer 3

No it is no so hard
Means that you logically "cut" your hard disk in Manny slices
the advantage - a system it is easy to manipulate a small logical disk at first
in the case of errors there are not propagated to the all disk
you are more organized - for example a partition for a SO, a partition for applications, a partition for document , or a partition for another SO.
for doing this you can use a program like partition magic or paragon partition manager
These programs are more flexible and permit you to create, realocate or redistribute space on the fly without damaged your data
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80
http://www.partition-manager.com/
if you use the default tool in windows -this erase the all date
If you refer to a partitioned file in a database and you need to construct a relational DB: the main advantage it is that
You can easily add a new partition (for example, to accommodate a new set of properties)
In brief it is the advantage of modularity against a rigid block
if you mean "break a kind ofilre in parts" you can use hacha
- allows you to break any kind of file in parts. You can then transfer the parts to standard 3.5" diskettes, or any other media, thus making big files easy to carry around, share with other people, or send over the Internet.
I use this program for sending a great email attachements
the link is:
http://www.doctorsoftware.org/hacha.zip
other utility for doing this is hjsplit
http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/

Answer 4

To "partition" a hard drive please follow the steps below:
Start the computer in DOS. The screen will show the C:/ prompt.
Type "FDISK." The partition window will appear with menu options.
Enter 5 if you're partitioning a second drive, and select the drive; otherwise, skip to the next step.
Enter 1 (Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive).
Enter 2 (Create Extended DOS) to create a partition.
Enter N when the program asks if you want to use the maximum available size.
Designate the amount of disk space to allocate to the second partition (the partition will be assigned the next drive letter).
Type a name for the new partition and press Enter. The partition menu will appear.
Repeat steps 5 through 8 to create additional partitions.
Press Esc to exit the partition command.
Format the newly created partitions (see "How to Format a Hard Drive").

Answer 5

.
You can Partition/divide your hard drive if you have the need.
You might want to have two OSes like W98 and WXP.
Many W98 programs will not run on WXP, and for those die-hards that can not give them up,
(especially older games, hee hee)
this is a good idea to have both oses.
Some SERVERS partition so that users on a network have access to all files on one partition, but not the other.

You can set your computer to boot into the OS you want to use.

You you don't have any older programs you must keep, or have security issues, I can't think of any other reasons to want to partition.

stw
.

Answer 6

when you set up your computer or you can use other programs but to partition a hard drive is to make it into smaller portions of space so if one part becomes corrupt then most of the time the other partitioned space is still good

Answer 7

its hard but not that hard. It allowes u 2 use more of ur hard drive. U can use it 2 basiclly compress it and use more of ur hard drive but only if u have a big hard drive. not a small 1.

Answer 8

All settings can be done to do what you need in your control panel.