Hard drive partition problem

Darth Mall · Post by **Darth Mall** » 2004-01-11 06:26pm

My friend just boought a new sony vaio, and he is starting to run into a few problems with his harddrive. Right now it is partitioned in to two drives C: and D:. The C: drive has about 1 gig of space and the D: 99-ish. But since all modern software comes formatted to install to C: is there anyway that he can switch the drive names with out wiping his HD? Or setting it so software automatically goes to D: not C:? I'm a n00b at this stuff and my friend is hopeless

.

Thanx

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-01-11 06:36pm

Win2k/XP can move letters around, but can't do anything about the C: drive

Anyways, when installing software, most allow you to specify install directory.

Or delete C:, move D: to the front, and resize.

Oh, and 2k/XP supports dynamic disks, so you can make it treat both as a single partition (don't know if the second has to be cleaned of stuff beforehand though).

(hehe, linux is better- the concept of drive letters is inherently stupid).

Jawawithagun · Post by **Jawawithagun** » 2004-01-11 07:53pm

As far as I know only a minority of software is formatted to install on C:
Rather most prefers to install on the Windows drive. Install it on the bigger Partition and that's it!

... last time my OS was installed on C: was about six years ago

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2004-01-11 07:56pm

As Pu-239 said, virtually all software allows you to designate a target drive and directory for installation, so that should not pose a problem.
HOWEVER, since a lot of Windows software (especially Mcrosoftware) includes OS updates/modifications, 1 GB for the C drive is a tad small unless your friend is running Win9x.
I would therefore recommend enlarging the C partition, either via a repartition/reformat (which, unfortunately, will require a backup/reinstallation of the OS and all SW) or a third-party product, if available (I'm personally very fond of PartitionMagic, Version 5 or 6 of which should be available at a very reasonable price).

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2004-01-11 08:26pm

Batman wrote:As Pu-239 said, virtually all software allows you to designate a target drive and directory for installation, so that should not pose a problem.
HOWEVER, since a lot of Windows software (especially Mcrosoftware) includes OS updates/modifications, 1 GB for the C drive is a tad small unless your friend is running Win9x.
I would therefore recommend enlarging the C partition, either via a repartition/reformat (which, unfortunately, will require a backup/reinstallation of the OS and all SW) or a third-party product, if available (I'm personally very fond of PartitionMagic, Version 5 or 6 of which should be available at a very reasonable price).

Yeah, atleast 3GB is adequate. As for third-party software installation, all you really have to do is change C to D and click on Next. A word of caution: Backup any important data before doing anything to that drive! On occasion, Partition Magic has b0rked data that it shouldn't have. I would advise you to either store that data on a seperate drive in the system or just take a hard drive that isn't being used much and dump his data on that, and totally disconnect it from the system until you're finished.

Darth Mall · Post by **Darth Mall** » 2004-01-11 08:28pm

yeah, well my friends vaio came with windows installed on C:, so theres no way to switch it without a reboot? oh well that sux for him

thanx

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-01-11 09:36pm

Pu-239 wrote:Oh, and 2k/XP supports dynamic disks, so you can make it treat both as a single partition (don't know if the second has to be cleaned of stuff beforehand though).

Dynamic disks cannot be easily recovered, however, and IIRC your boot drive cannot be one due to the limitations of BIOS.

(hehe, linux is better- the concept of drive letters is inherently stupid).

Windows 2K/XP doesn't have to use drive letters, either. They're there due to legacy reasons.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-01-12 12:04am

phongn wrote:
Pu-239 wrote:Oh, and 2k/XP supports dynamic disks, so you can make it treat both as a single partition (don't know if the second has to be cleaned of stuff beforehand though).
Dynamic disks cannot be easily recovered, however, and IIRC your boot drive cannot be one due to the limitations of BIOS.

(hehe, linux is better- the concept of drive letters is inherently stupid).
Windows 2K/XP doesn't have to use drive letters, either. They're there due to legacy reasons.

I think I managed to set up DD with the C: on a DD on a Vectra some time ago, with half of each drive set to utilize RAID0 (ok, that was stupid, whoever is using that comp is going to kill me when it breaks down, esp w/ a pretty old HDD)), and the C: expanded to fill the other half of the second drive. Also, why can't it be recovered easily? Linux supports it (not labeled experimental/unsafe/blah either), and I'm assuming the WinXP recovery console can be used under it, right?

He's only using it on 1 HDD though.

I believe Knoppix has ntfsresize/parted w/ ntfs support on it. Of course he will have to get someone competent in Linux to do this, but it can't be that hard to find one in RL, is it?

Windows 2K/XP doesn't have to use drive letters, either. They're there due to legacy reasons.

But aren't there new programs (games dependent on CDROM access?) dependent on them? And you can't do this if you don't use NTFS (why the fuck did MS decide to do this? On Linux, I can use a directory on a FAT filesystem as a mount point) (I've only used NTFS once on my own computers, and abandoned it since Win9x couldn't write (or read w/o 3rd party drivers) to it(shared partitions are bothersome(not that it matters anymore, I'm single booting)) And you can't symlink stuff (hard links don't work on directories, right?), in this case which would allow him to move program files and other large directories to D: and symlink them to C:

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-01-12 12:24am

Pu-239 wrote: I think I managed to set up DD with the C: on a DD on a Vectra some time ago, with half of each drive set to utilize RAID0 (ok, that was stupid, whoever is using that comp is going to kill me when it breaks down, esp w/ a pretty old HDD))

Wait, you set up a single-drive RAID0? You do realise you've badly degraded performance, nevermind the whole "I don't care about my data" aspect of RAID0?

and the C: expanded to fill the other half of the second drive. Also, why can't it be recovered easily? Linux supports it (not labeled experimental/unsafe/blah either), and I'm assuming the WinXP recovery console can be used under it, right?

I don't think you can use the recovery console with DDs, and simply because Linux "supports" it doesn't mean much. You may still need the Windows partition storing the relevant details defining the DD. I've been burned by this before.

I believe Knoppix has ntfsresize/parted w/ ntfs support on it. Of course he will have to get someone competent in Linux to do this, but it can't be that hard to find one in RL, is it?

And what does NTFSresize have to do with dynamic disks? And it is generally difficult to find someone well-versed in Linux.

But aren't there new programs (games dependent on CDROM access?) dependent on them?

Yes, there are. That doesn't change the fact that there are alternate means of accessing devices besides drive letters.

And you can't do this if you don't use NTFS (why the fuck did MS decide to do this? On Linux, I can use a directory on a FAT filesystem as a mount point)

I'm not referring to mounting a partition as a drive letter. Secondly, Microsoft is desperately trying to phase out FAT/FAT32 on the hard drive.

(I've only used NTFS once on my own computers, and abandoned it since Win9x couldn't write (or read w/o 3rd party drivers) to it(shared partitions are bothersome(not that it matters anymore, I'm single booting)) And you can't symlink stuff (hard links don't work on directories, right?), in this case which would allow him to move program files and other large directories to D: and symlink them to C:

You can make directory junctions and file hard links.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-01-12 01:19am

phongn wrote:
Pu-239 wrote: I think I managed to set up DD with the C: on a DD on a Vectra some time ago, with half of each drive set to utilize RAID0 (ok, that was stupid, whoever is using that comp is going to kill me when it breaks down, esp w/ a pretty old HDD))
Wait, you set up a single-drive RAID0? You do realise you've badly degraded performance, nevermind the whole "I don't care about my data" aspect of RAID0?

No, two drives, w/ half of each "real" partition going into the RAID array, and the rest going into the C: drive as a spanned volume.

and the C: expanded to fill the other half of the second drive. Also, why can't it be recovered easily? Linux supports it (not labeled experimental/unsafe/blah either), and I'm assuming the WinXP recovery console can be used under it, right?
I don't think you can use the recovery console with DDs, and simply because Linux "supports" it doesn't mean much. You may still need the Windows partition storing the relevant details defining the DD. I've been burned by this before. However, spanning volumes may be different than resizing when it comes to ability to do so on C:

According to reverse engineered data, that info is stored at the beginning and end of the drive, not on the windows partition. Then again, reverse-engineered data may be suspect,
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ldm/o ... layoutdisk
Then again, it also says C: cannot be resized: http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ldm/o ... imits.html, so I guess my memory is kind of hazy and I probably set up 3 partitions on that drive... it was after all 2-3 years ago when was utterly incompetent and was nuking windows partitions every 3 weeks (and I still am- just nuked my sister's MP3 collection, by forgetting to tarball it before nuking reiserFS partition).

I believe Knoppix has ntfsresize/parted w/ ntfs support on it. Of course he will have to get someone competent in Linux to do this, but it can't be that hard to find one in RL, is it?
And what does NTFSresize have to do with dynamic disks? And it is generally difficult to find someone well-versed in Linux.

In case if he didn't decide to go with DD or installing programs manually on D:, and simply decided to resize (w/ a risk of course) his "basic" hard drive. Sorry if my incoherent thoughts are difficult to understand(note the masses of parenthesis).

But aren't there new programs (games dependent on CDROM access?) dependent on them?
Yes, there are. That doesn't change the fact that there are alternate means of accessing devices besides drive letters.

And you can't do this if you don't use NTFS (why the fAnd you can't do this if you don't use NTFS (why the fuck did MS decide to do this? On Linux, I can use a directory on a FAT filesystem as a mount point)

I'm not referring to mounting a partition as a drive letter. Secondly, Microsoft is desperately trying to phase out FAT/FAT32 on the hard drive.
uck did MS decide to do this? On Linux, I can use a directory on a FAT filesystem as a mount point)
I'm not referring to mounting a partition as a drive letter. Secondly, Microsoft is desperately trying to phase out FAT/FAT32 on the hard drive.

Oh yeah, I remember a registry setting somewhere (can also be accessed in the same dialog where you edit your PATH where you can specify default install directories (might be in TweakUI).

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-01-12 11:55am

Pu-239 wrote:No, two drives, w/ half of each "real" partition going into the RAID array, and the rest going into the C: drive as a spanned volume.

...

That's even worse.

Sorry if my incoherent thoughts are difficult to understand(note the masses of parenthesis).

You would do well to learn how to organize your thoughts before writing them down. It is nearly impossible to figure out what the hell you're trying to say. I can barely make heads or tails of what you're responding to with your garbled quoting.