questions about hard drive partitions

[Mulreay]

I'm no guru on this but you could have a look here.
http://www.educypedia.be/computer/memorymbr.htm

Have a look on here mate.

[BC_Programmer]

what I did, was delete any partitions, install windows XP to a 32GB drive, and once it started I used Disk management to partition and format the remaining 460GB.

[haus_kat]

I have never made partitions before but a previous poster in this thread said it was easier to make the partitions before installing the OS.

[BC_Programmer]

that was patio. he's crazy 

you'd need software, to create the partitions. I was just relaying you what I did to make it work. 

[haus_kat]

can't i just make the partitions  in DOS?

[BC_Programmer]

what "DOS"?

DOS 6.22 only supports up to 2GB partitions and the FAT filesystem, and probably won't recognize the full size of your drive.

If what you mean is recovery console, then you'd need a windows install first before you could get into it- back to square one.

I'd start XP setup and do another clean install. this time, delete the existing partition and create a new one of the desired size- (say half the drive). then after it's installed create a new partition using Disk management.

[haus_kat]

I got into Windows recovery console from the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom. I don't have any floppy boot disk or anything.

[BC_Programmer]

the only way to create/delete partitions via recovery console is Diskpart. I haven't used it myself, prefer to go the ol' disk management route.

[haus_kat]

would creating the partitions in disk management achieve identical results as if I had used Diskpart?
I just want to be sure that my files stored on the separate partition would be safe from any viruses infecting an operating system on the other partition.

[JJ 3000]

Kat, sorry it took me so long to get back. I just got home.

Anyway, here's what you need to do:

Boot to the windows disk. Press F8 to agree to the license agreemet. Now choose install a fresh copy of windows.

This will take you to a screen that looks something like this:



You see it? Good.
Now the first thing you want to do is delete all of the partitions that are on your hard drive. Highlight the selected partition and press D to delete. windows will complain and ask you if you really want tot delete the partitions and you will have to press L to delete them.

Now the screen will list your hard drive as raw, unpartitioned space. It should already be highlighted. Press C to create a new partition in the raw space. Windows will automatically assume you want to make one big partition out of the whole drive. But you don't want to do that.

So you got about 131GB to work with. I suggest allocating about 30 gigs of that to your windows installation. Type in: 30000MB . Windows will "round" this number to something like 30124. This is normal. The computer does this to make the partition make sense to itself in binary.

Congratulations! you have just created your C partition.
But there is still all of that raw unpartitioned space.
Highlight that and create a new partition (by pressing C). Just go ahead and use the rest of the disk for that other partition. Now you have your two partitions set up. Once you have windows installed you can use disk managemet to format that partition. Just make sure you have created your two partitions before you move on to the next step.

Move back up to your 30 gig partition and choose "to setup windows on the selected item press enter". This will format your new partition. Choose the NTFS file system and make sure that you don't pick the quick method - you want to do a complete format.

Setup will now format your partition and install windows. Make sure you have your product key. Windows will let you get this far but if you don't have that key you will be left with a blank hard drive and no operating system.

Once you get this far, post back and I will walk you through the rest of the procedure.

Good luck!

[Mulreay]

I'm sorry after looking up all this stuff on google and wiki I still don't get it. Not the process just the need to do it? Why do we partition drives? I'm sorry prity basic when it comes to deeper issues. I don't mean to hijack this thread so I can open a new one if thats better.

[JJ 3000]

you'd need software, to create the partitions.

Yeah the windows CD. That is the software that most people use.

I don't mean to hijack this thread so I can open a new one if thats better.

Yes. Start a new one. I'm trying to help Kat.

[haus_kat]

JJ 3000: sorry I did not reply earlier. I was up very late last night and had to go to bed so I could not try your suggestions until this afternoon.

I booted from the Windows 2000 CD-Rom and pressed F8 to accept the license agreement and then pressed D to delete the partition. However, it then went to another screen that asked if I was sure I wanted to delete that partition because it was a "system partition" and might contain diagnostic or hardware configuration programs to start operating systems and that if I deleted that it might prevent the computer from starting from hard disk until I completed an installation of Windows.

I don't know if this partition contains any such programs. I bought the (Hitachi) hard drive brand new from BestBuy store last year and the man who works there installed the drive for me and all I had to do was install Windows OS when I got home (just put the CD-Rom into the drive and go though the prompts like usual to install Windows 2000).

I don't know about installing hard drives so I don't know if he had to put any programs on the drive or anything like that, to set it up after he installed it.

[JJ 3000]

yes delete it.

Highlight the selected partition and press D to delete. windows will complain and ask you if you really want to delete the partitions and you will have to press L to delete them.

[haus_kat]

if there was some special programs on there then I could not re-install them because I don't have them. I only have Windows 2000 CD-Rom