hard drive partition, how does it work and how do you do it?

Question

im planning to reformat my spyware-virus infected PC. urgh. help!?

Answer 1

this is how it is done

Answer 2

You typically create paritions when you reformat your C drive but Windows can partition 'on-the-fly'. You can also use software like "partition magic" that will partition.

Partitioning is taking a hard drive and tricking it into thinking it's more than one hard drive. You actually split the hard drive electronically (like cutting a piece of pie). and each piece is separate, (D, E, F - whatever).

People who do this usually put their operating system and software on C and then data, backups, musci, etc on different drivers. That way, if they get a corrputed "C" drive, they can reinstall their operating system but their DATA is not affected if it's kept on the 'other drives'. Keep in mind that you need to allott enough space on your C partition to hold the operating system and programs.... and it needs room to 'move around' . ... A lot depends on your hard drive size.

This is from Help and Support on Windows XP:

Using the Windows interface

Open Computer Management (Local).
In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?

Computer Management (Local)
Storage
Disk Management

Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk, and then click New Partition, or right-click free space in an extended partition, and then click New Logical Drive.
In the New Partition Wizard, click Next, click Primary partition, Extended partition, or Logical drive, and then follow the instructions on your screen.
Notes

To open Computer Management, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.
You can create primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives only on basic disks. You should create basic volumes instead of dynamic volumes if this computer also runs MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows XP Home Edition.
On a master boot record (MBR) disk, you can create up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition.
On a GUID partition table (GPT) disk, you can create up to 128 primary partitions.

Answer 3

okay, the two guys who gave you answers before me (the first two who answered) are both correct.

however, i dont think what you want to do is partition your hard drive. i think you just want to reinstall windows.

here are the steps id follow:

burn all the files you want to a cd (pictures, music, whatever) ....be careful not to burn the files that you suspect contain spyware (like things downloaded from limewire.

step2 put in your windows installation disc and windows will do the rest. ...itll tell you something like it already detects a version of windows.... just erase it and have it reinstall. ...this will completely format your hard drive erasing all of the spyware from it.

Answer 4

Get your good old Windows install disk out. Boot from it. When it gets to the screen that asks you about your partitions, drop all of them. Now, re-create them whatever size you like. The next step will ask you to format them. Do it. Finish installing.

Answer 5

HDD partitioning splits the drive into two or more sections.

You can do it by (in dos or with a boot disk) run FDisk, and follow the prompts.


**WARNING** you can stuff your HDD if you do it wrong