Using your personal computer

 

Hilton Head Island Computer Club

Partitions

 

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The partitions talked about here are the sub-dividing of hard drives into separate partitions/sections for various reasons.  I generally have 2 or 3 partitions on each of my hard drives.  When drives were smaller, partitions made then use the memory storage more efficient.  They also permitted subdivision of different types of data.

 

To understand the use of hard drives, we need to know about how files are stored.  The smallest storage element on a drive is 500 bytes (2⁹ or 512).  The original number of clusters (storage locations) was based on the FAT (file allocation table) used in DOS and later Windows 9x.  The FAT was set up for about 65,000 locations (2¹⁶ or 65,536).  The largest cluster was 32,000 bytes (2¹⁵ or 32,768).  Then the drive was restricted to the size of 2¹⁵ clusters with 2¹⁶ locations or a little over 2 gigabytes.   Cluster sizes were changed based on the size of the drive and if a file had 100 bytes it would have required a cluster which could be as large as 32,000.  Very inefficient so the increased the number of storage locations in FAT32 whish as you guessed is 2³² which is approximately 4.3 billion.  Now multiplying 4.3 billion times 32 thousand gives you a feel of the maximum size of a FAT32 drive.  A drive in NTFS (new technology file system) can have even a large drive.

 

If you have purchased a new computer lately you will find that your only windows option is Windows XP and either Home or Professional as the operating system.  And all of those systems come with the NTFS as the installed file system.  It turns out that the NTFS is a much more robust and efficient file system.  It also permits file encryption and much more security.  The major problem with a NTFS files system is that you can not see that file system when in the DOS or FAT/FAT32 file system.  So if you can not start your windows program you can not get to your data.  There are many utilities for trying to fix or get to your data using the DOS approach.  Even when Windows is running in NTFS file system it allows use of DOS type programs (using the Command Prompt in Accessories or running CMD) which neither will not be available if you can not start windows.   You can find a utility that will run on DOS and show you the NTFS drive but in a read only mode.

 

So the dilemma is do I stay with the more efficient NTFS or the easier to recovery with FAT file system.  Also if my computer comes with NTFS, I can not convert to FAT32 but you can convert from FAT to NTFS.  Because of the size of today’s hard drives cluster size is not as important but an additional partition in FAT 32 would be a great place to put some important data.  It would also protect me if I need to format and start over or perhaps use the recovery disk to bring the computer back to it original status when you received the computer.  Putting your data in a partition would also help if you get a virus that destroys data.

 

Having two drives helps even more to use partitions and drives for the best options to prepare your self for problems.  A hard drive is a mechanical rotating device is subject to mechanical failure.  I believe that you should backup up your data everyday and it would be wise to have an image or two of you operation system drive/partition.  I say one or two because you should create one when all programs are loaded and everything is working well.  Then you always have the opportunity to go back to that state.  But I would also keep updating an image about one a week for other type of problems and failures.