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| Nother Computer Question | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 22 2004, 02:26 PM (117 Views) | |
| Stacy | Nov 22 2004, 02:26 PM Post #1 |
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Unregistered
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What does a partition do? Should I have one, what will happen when/if I undo the partition. |
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| PIAN0buff | Nov 22 2004, 02:33 PM Post #2 |
Wandering Minstrel
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Basically a partition allows you to take a disk drive and segment it off into distinct sections. For instance, if you wanted to be able to run Windows 98 and Windows XP (seperately) on one computer, you could partition your hard drive and install 98 on one partition and XP on the other. There is a lot of subtle complexities and things to go along with this, but that's the gist. |
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| PIAN0buff | Nov 22 2004, 02:35 PM Post #3 |
Wandering Minstrel
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I guess I should have asked first - what type of partition you are talking about. What I described above is a physical partition. There are also logical partitions which are slightly different. |
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| Stacy | Nov 22 2004, 02:36 PM Post #4 |
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Unregistered
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Why did my laptop require it when I upgraded to XP? I hadn't messed with it much becuase of it. I had ME on it, upgraded to XP and when I loaded it, it partitioned it off. Over half of hte drive was useless to me. The computer ran as slow as molasses,and I had decided to give it to my daughter to play with. Hubby took it to a friend and he erased everything, started over, and now I have no partition. Th thing runs like a dream. So I should not have any problems from them doing this right? I have been afraid to do anything important on it, but have some research to do for my mom that I will do on it. Just want to make sure I won't loose anything. |
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| PIAN0buff | Nov 22 2004, 02:39 PM Post #5 |
Wandering Minstrel
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As long as they backed up all your data files (word processing documents, spreadsheets, pictures etc) and then restored them afterwards, then you shouldn't have any problems going forward. If they didn't back them up - then you're pretty much out of luck anyway. |
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| kiwi_too | Nov 22 2004, 02:46 PM Post #6 |
Sir Perceval, Ruler of the Realm
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:yeahthat Most of the time a parition is only created when there is a desire or need to have two separate drives. One physical disk that you may know as the C: drive can be partitioned into two or more drives. That is how the computer sees partitions, as two separate entities. This is how you may see D:, E:, etc when there is only one physical drive. The partition does not need to be a DOS partition. It may be used to create a dual boot system where Linux is the second available OS. Some folks use it for access and security. Some use it to establish size of drives for backups. Some programmers use non-dos partitions to store data that is hidden from the normal OS and only retrievable with special programs. Most folks do not need partitions but use them when they feel it is a better organization. |
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| Stacy | Nov 22 2004, 02:49 PM Post #7 |
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Unregistered
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I had dumped all my programs prior to this. All of it was for school those classes were long over so I didn't need them. As for the partition, I didn't want it. I had the option upon booting up to go with ME or XP. Of course I always went with XP, but that left all that other stuff unused. I had no reason to seperate it all. But now there is no partition, so I should be good to go! Daughter will be upset though! |
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| PIAN0buff | Nov 22 2004, 02:51 PM Post #8 |
Wandering Minstrel
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ME was basically a useless OS anyway - another wonderful invention by MS to make an extra buck. |
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| Stacy | Nov 22 2004, 02:54 PM Post #9 |
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Unregistered
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Yes it is worthless. But that is what was on the computer when we bought it. We talked the guy down because of it,and went straight out and bought the XP upgrade. We had never ran into a computer partitioning the way this did. Had we known we may not have bought this one. Is this an issue with ME? We deleted the XP several times and tried to reload thinking we did something wrong, but it did the same thing every time! |
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| kiwi_too | Nov 22 2004, 02:57 PM Post #10 |
Sir Perceval, Ruler of the Realm
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Yes! You will be good to go. One partition is all you needed. The partition was likely because you had two opererating systems. Did your husband do an fdisk or use Partition magic to regain all of your physical hard drive? One to tell is to watch your computer boot up. Notice the hard drive space recognized by the BIOS at start up. Is it the same amount as total hard drive space in windows explorer. Get the hard drive space in windows explorer by right clicking on the drive and selecting properties. If the BIOS hard drive recognized size is greater than the windows explorer space than you still have a partition that you just can't see or access. Partition Magic can solve this without the need to rebuild, by merging the partitions. Do not do another DOS FDISK to recover space. You will likely lose data and be reloading the drive, again. |
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| Admin | Nov 22 2004, 03:30 PM Post #11 |
Keeper of the Castle
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Sounds like when you were loading XP you may have ask it to make a partition for it to run in so it made a separate partition. |
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| abradf2519 | Nov 22 2004, 03:33 PM Post #12 |
Duke of Dilbert
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Having just loaded XP the other day, it does ask you in the begining if you want to make another partition if it detects an operating system (other than XP or an older version of XP) already on the machine. |
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| Stacy | Nov 22 2004, 03:38 PM Post #13 |
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Unregistered
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Not sure hwo they did it. Hubby took it to a friend who has everything you can imagine. Not sure I want to know either as most of what he does is from pirated disks. I can assure you though I bought the XP upgrade and it is registered to me! |
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| beddows | Nov 22 2004, 04:00 PM Post #14 |
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Unregistered
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I fyou have way more space than you need, it can sometimes make sense to use a second partition to back up the main one using a program like Drive Image, which will allow you to restore your PC back to its original configuration in a hour or 2. Apart from that hard drives are so cheap, you're better off just installing a second one. I di dthat to protect myself against losing everything in case of a virus or hard drive failure. |
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| Admin | Nov 22 2004, 04:02 PM Post #15 |
Keeper of the Castle
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Me too. :cheers |
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| Stacy | Nov 22 2004, 04:17 PM Post #16 |
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Unregistered
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This isn't our main computer. I got it because a lot of my homework is done in spreadsheets, and I try to do most of my homework on my lunch break. So it wasn't even on the internet until a few months ago. As for backing up, my homework is put on a disk anyway, cause I send it from the desktop. I don't think I need a partition from what you all have said. If I want to by a new hard drive, I would probably just spend the money for a new laptop. |
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