How to Partition HDD- the easy way?

Iam getting a new 500GB HDD in which I plan to install Vista 64 to replace my aging 160GB with Vista32.

Now I wish to partion this into 150 and 350 segments. How do I exactly do this? what software do I use?

I googled but the instructions are effing dense.

I suppose I have to partition Before I install Vista, right?

BTW is there a performance benefit to Partitioning?

thanks in advance
scurv.

 

Hi there,
After the initial installation of vista, before it copies files over you will see a screen regarding partitions. you jus need to click on the block of unpartitioned space and choose new partition, then put in 150gb, then create another for all the remaining space.

The performance benefits is neglible to me, it's really down to personal preference.

 

what do u mean 'after the initial installation of Vista'? I thought partitioning was before installing OS Maybe iam wrong.

So I don't need any dedicated partitioning software?

 

initial installation: the part right after you put in the dvd and vista does its own thing.

You will see the partition options after you enter your key. you don't need any dedicated partition software. You won't miss the screen that asks about partition you're bound to see it so no worries.

 

One thing to remember though is that most hard drives come pre formatted these days, so you may need to delete the current partition and create a new one if you wish for varying sizes.

As for your other question, regarding performance increases with a single hard drive and multiple partitions, there is none. The way that the hard drive physically reads data makes having multiple logical sections (i.e. partitions) have no translation to a physical benefit.

A picture i found regarding the part of the OS install that you would begin your partitioning is:



this would be after you select custom install.

when you get to this screen, you would most likely see a single HDD, you would select it and go into drive options, delete the current partition, and create a new one of whatever size. Then format, install the OS, and finish making whatever other partitions you like as mentioned above.

 

looks good.

 

????????????????????

My Seagate 750GB I bought not all that long ago certainly didn't. It came with a copy of SEATOOLS, which I used to do the initial partitioning.

scurvy

Unless you buy the OEM version of the drive, you will get some Disgnostic/Partitioning software with the new drive. If you buy OEM, you can still go to the makers web site and down load it. You can use that to not only partitions the drive, but also copy your existing system to it.

Partitining won't give your any performance benefits. It will give you a bit of data security if you keep your OS partition STRICTLY for the OS, and use the other(s) for all data that you want to keep. That way, IF you have an OS problem that requires that you format and reinstall, you won't lose important data. Actually you would do well to use the 160GB as well, and use it for less important data, and the SWAP FILE for your OS. Putting the SWAP FILE on a different PHYSICAL HDD will give you a bit of a performance increase.

If you are like me and do a lot of re-sizing, combining, deleting, making new partitions, then ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR is a very good bit of software to get. I used to recommend PARTITION MAGIC 8, but it and VISTA don't 'play nice' with each other. I use, and do beta testing for HyperOS, whch allows for multiple OSs on multiple partitions, so I tend to do a lot of partitioning, and changing partition sizes when a new version is in the works.

 

thats great mate.

 

vista's own partitioning and formating tools work the best...

just a fyi

using vista, partition the drives, and then format them in the right order as well before preceeding, this is only necessary in some rare cases if you want to maintain the correct drive letter assosiations. Sometimes if you don't... you'll get windows installed on drive letter D.... and the other partition will be c... or some other letter completely...

 

do I need to format the drive after partitioning them???

 

Once you've set up the partitions everything will be formatted automatically i think

 

No, you will need to format it once it is partitioned.

Second, my 1.5tb seagate came pre formatted, i didnt do anything with it before use. so did a WD i recently got as well /shrug. - perhaps its external ones that mainly are

either way, partitioning and formatting isnt very difficult.

 

what'll happen if I don't format it?
can't i just buy the bloody thing and install Vista and get it over with?

 

That's what I thought too at one time. However, Vista formatted that partition an it was something OTHER than LOGICAL ( I forget just what it was called now), and it wouldn't give me any other option either. It acted like some sort of NETWORK drive, and it kept me from doing a lot of things with that partition. That's when I started using Acronis Disk Director. One of the things that it prevented me from doing was installing an OS on it which was the whole point of the partition.

EDIT:
Did some googling, and it was formatted as a SIMPLE VOLUME. Thust me, a SIMPLE VOLUME partion is a royal PITA.

 

Yeah simple volumes suck.

And if you get it and it needs to format and you do not create custom partitions itll format it, if you partition, there is a format button. Its simple.

 

this is about as clear as mud.

 

create your partition using vista..

then format them in the same order..

then pick the partition you want to install vista to and click next.

DONE


Vista setups up primary partitions, up to a maximum of 4 on a singel drive... from there you have to create EXTENDED partitions to go beyond 4....

There has been zero problems here

I usually use 2 partitions.. maybe 3... for some machines.

All external hardrives i've used are preformated for NTFS, otherwise internal desktops are all UNFORMATED and UNPARTITIONED. If they are anything but, they where used then.

 

ok thanks bud.

 

Just to note something: if you ever get an internal hard drive (retail or OEM), and it's formated already, congrats, you just bought a used or tested drive. No retail hard drive should ever come pre-formated, however, some dealers will test OEM drives to make sure that there are no issues with them, but the smart ones will/should delete the partition afterwards. Only the lazy/dumbass ones won't.

The only time you should ever get a pre-formated drive is if it's an external drive, in which case it might come formated as FAT32 (to be the most compatible with the various OS out there) to be usable right out of the box.

 

AH HA! That's probably where my problems came from. I had 8 partitions on my HDD when I did that. I trying to resize two, and then use the unallocated space for a 9th partition. When it formatted that 9th partition as a SIMPLE Drive, it buggered up the whole works.

I ended up having to re-format the entire drive, and then re-installing all of my Operating Systems. No small task when you use XP, XP x64, Vista, and Vista x64