What's the use of having a hard drive partitioned?

Question

I had my PC built about a year ago and I was recommended to have the HD partitioned in three. But the C drive is now full and I had to move bulky folders I had in "my Documents"like pics, music etc. to another partition which is a bit of a pain. So what's the use? And can I "un-partition" the HD now?

Answer 1

If I were you, I would have created the MyDocuments folder on the partition you normally use to save your data (not on the Operating system partition). Well, it is helpful to partion a hard drive into two partitions, one for the Operating System and another for personal data and possibly programs. Some people recommend a third partition for backup purposes but I recommend using another physical hard disk for backups, especially, in case your HD goes bust.

To avoid the headache of getting low HD space on the Operating System, I would recommend to install progams on the partition you normally save your data.

If you want to unpartition all your Hard Drive, you need to format the drive first (provided you back up your data) and assign partitions once you have formatted. Otherwise, you can reduce three partitions to two by backing up important data on the 2nd and 3rd partition on the 1st partition or use an external HD. Format the 2nd and 3rd partition. Then use the Disk Management under Computer Management in Control Panel to de-assign drive letters. At this stage you should have unpartitioned space equivalent to the size of the drives you formatted. Then you assign a drive letter to the unpartitioned space.

Anyway, if you are not so technical, I recommend you appoint someone competent to do the job for you.

Answer 2

The main advantage of having a hard drive partitioned is so that if you need to reinstall Windows, which you will have to do sooner or later, you can keep all your files in a different partition so you don't lose them or need to back them all up to disc when you do the reinstall. This is an absolute life saver if your OS ever does on you randomly one day, which does happen to a lot of people. That's only a good argument for having *two* partitions though, God knows why someone would recommend having three as standard, I can't really think of a reason for that.

As for changing the partitions, yes, you can resize or even delete entirely the partitions you've got without losing any files, although obviously it's worth being a bit careful about what you're doing. I don't know of any freeware that'll do this, although I'm sure some must exists, but Partition Magic is pretty much the standard tool for playing around with disc partitions.

http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80

Actually, when searching for that link I found this freeware that might be of use:

http://partitionlogic.org.uk/

Answer 3

A hard drive containing multiple partitions allows you to *lower* your drive's effective access time, providing you with a more responsive system.

Second, the main reason people prefer a drive with multiple partitions over one with only a single large partition is because having a separate system partition, containing only your operating system (Windows) and programs, allows you to reformat your system partition (should something go horribly wrong with Windows) and reinstall Windows without losing all the data on the drive.

If you still want to remove the partitions you can go through the windows process or use a third party software.
To partition and format using a XP cd go here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

To use a third party software go here: http://www.ptdd.com/createpartition.htm

Answer 4

Mostly for organization's sake. If you have a huge house, would you keep everything in one room or would it be easier to find if some stuff was in the bedroom, some stuff was in the living room, some stuff was in the kitchen, etc.

Not only does this make it easier for you to find things, but it also makes it faster for your CPU to find things.

Also, keep all your junk on one partition, and keep Windows on it's own partition (C works for me). That way, if you ever have to reinstall windows, you can do it on your C drive and not lose all of your saved music, documents, videos, and all the other stuff that you have saved on your E or F drive.

Oh, and yes, you can un-partition it. Easiest way would be to use a software like partition magic

Answer 5

Its just easier on a big drive if its partitioned, that way,
if when reformat time comes, and you have been keeping movies,and music on a partition by themselves, you dont have to mess with any partition except the OS one.

Yes you can merge, expand, shrink, or delete partitions.

Answer 6

Yes, you can. Tip: always partition and format with the OS you are going to install on the disk/partition. This can be done during the installation.

Answer 7

The main purpose is to be able to reformat and re-install Windows without losing your data since Windows is on one partition and your data is on another partition.

Answer 8

Yes.