Partition Tragic

During the last few days, I have seen two 'sick' Windows lap-tops whose poor performance was substantially due to lack of free space on the C: drive. 

In the first case, there was about 32 Gigabytes of free space on a separate, though unused, disk partition while the second machine had about 50 Gigabytes of information created by backup software whose presence was completely unknown to the user.

The rather 'nerdish' thinking behind partitioning a single disk into separate 'logical' drives is that keeping the data separate enables you to perform a clean Windows re-installation without losing your live data.

That's all very well in theory except that both software and data are likely to be lost in the event of a hard disk failure.

The other problem is that most software is set up to save data on the C: drive, often in particular Windows folders (such as 'Documents' or 'Pictures') intended for the purpose.

Several hardware manufacturers seem to deliver new computers partitioned in this way though rarely with any clear information on why this has been done or how to go about setting-up your software to redirect the data.  

Some people also seem convinced that separate partitions speed-up the computer operation though the logic of this is difficult to follow if those partitions are on the same physical disk.

Backups

Backing-up files to the same physical disk will be useless if you suffer a disk failure and somewhat difficult to retrieve if the computer won't boot-up due to the corruption of Windows.

In my opinion, you should always backup the entire system (not just the data) to a separate physical disk or other backup device. 

Re-Partitioning

Until the release of Windows Vista, repartitioning a Windows system involved the use of specialist software such as 'Partition Magic'.

In Vista, just find your way via the Control Panel to Administrative Tools, Computer Management and, finally, Disk Management. 

At this point, you can see a clear depiction of both the physical and logical disks (partitions).

Each partition may be deleted, expanded or shrunk so you can easily delete any surplus partitions and expand the C: partition to take-up the unoccupied space.

Do ensure that a partition is empty before deleting as any data will be lost.

Recovery Partitions

It is now fairly common for new computers to be delivered with a (relatively) small 'recovery' partition which can be used to reset the computer to it's 'delivery' state.

This is not a substitute for proper backups as all data will be lost in the recovery and it won't work at all if the hard disk has failed.

However, it's useful if you want to make a clean start or if you wish to sell the computer with all personal information removed—though some 'deeper' cleaning might be required for high-security situations.

Comments

[Morgan]

Good post. Thanks a lot.