what are the chances of losing all data on all partitions as opposed to losing all data on that single partition that actually caused the crash (when trying to access a certain program, for instance)?
Please elaborate.
2007-03-04 03:47:49 · 4 answers · asked by rohan 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
It depends what you mean by a "crash". People use the term "hard drive crash" to mean several different things. There are basically four kinds of hard drive crashes:
* Physical damage to the magnetic disk of the drive. This includes when the drive arm cuts into the disk and destroys it, or anything that damages the disk. Such damage is irreparable and the data is permanently lost.
* Physical damage to the mechanism in the drive that receives data, such as electrical or mechanical components, but that leaves the drive intact. In this case you can pay money (usually a lot, several hundred dollars) for a data-recovery service, and get all the data back. However, it is costly and time-consuming.
In these first two cases, partitions won't help you.
* Bad sectors on a disk in a critical location that causes the computer to stop working. In this case, some or most of the data may be retrievable by booting the computer by CD or other hard drive and then backing it up somewhere. It can usually be done by a knowledgeable home-user or computer expert, without too much effort. Sometimes you can even partially recover files with bad sectors. I've done this once and it's not easy but can be done. In this case, partitions can help you--you might be able to copy data to a new partition or even boot off a new partition. However, when bad sectors come up it's a sign your drive is failing and you should get a new one ASAP.
* Basic software problems. Here, none of the data is lost, just some key operating system files are damaged somehow. Like in the previous case you can boot the computer off a CD or by some other means and back it up. Having extra partitions greatly helps this recovery process since you can copy the necessary data to the new partition, and then wipe the original partition clean, and reinstall the operating system on it.
In short, the partitions help in the second two cases (most in the last case I describe) but wouldn't help in the first two.
For this reason I always recommend people to have at least one spare partition, as long as they have enough space for it (and most modern hard drives have more than enough space). Make sure you have enough room to back up all your critical data. Another final reason to have partitions is that they can be useful if you ever decide you want to install another OS alongside windows (such as Linux).
I hope this helps!
2007-03-04 04:45:44 · answer #1 · answered by cazort 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
a puzzling stress could have one partition (protecting each and all of the gap on the stress), or distinctive partitions. the excellent thing approximately a disk with 2 or extra partitions is principally organisational motives, that's handy to maintain a backup reproduction of your significant stress on a seperate partition, or perhaps just to maintain your video, place of work records, courses, etc. aside from one yet another. It was plenty extra substantial to partition drives, as a results of way they was formatted. cutting-edge formatting strategies (utilising the NTFS report gadget) enable a plenty extra advantageous volume of area to be saved as a single stress. With until now FAT32 and FAT16 report systems on drives final century, the extra advantageous a stress replaced into, the extra advantageous extensive variety the filesystem mandatory to reference distinctive factors of the stress, which made it function extra slowly, so which you should no longer fairly have a stress extra advantageous than some gigabytes back then.
2016-10-02 09:02:28 · answer #2 · answered by tomas 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have data on a drive, regardless of partitions, and it crashes, then it's done. Partitions won't save you if you're drive doesn't work. I suggest have windows on a C: drive and then having all the rest of your files on another drive since the C: drive is the most likely to die on you.
2007-03-04 03:56:17 · answer #3 · answered by Big Q 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it depends on if by 'crash' you mean the hard drive has gone bad....then chances are slim and costly for good recovery, but if your os is just being a pain, you could reinstall your os to the damaged partition and the other partitions should be fine
2007-03-04 04:07:19 · answer #4 · answered by joshcornelison 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋