By Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
Copyrighted December 2011
I’m sure that most of you have heard of partitions on your hard drive, but may not be totally aware of what they are or why you would want to use partitions on your hard drive. A partition is simply a portion of your hard drive that has been specially prepared with a File System so that it can store your program and data files on the drive. Each partition you create on your hard drive is given a drive letter to make it easier to find and retrieve the files later. You can have a single partition on a hard drive or there can be many partitions on the drive. Most users have a single c: partition on their hard drive and perhaps one or two other hidden partitions put there by the computer manufacturer.
Adding additional partitions to your hard drive is very easy to do with the right tools. The purpose of this article is to suggest several reasons why you may want to add additional partitions to your hard drive and introducing you to a software tool that will make doing this very easy for anyone to do.
Protecting your Important Data Files
The number one reason that your hard drive crashes is because the Windows operating system becomes corrupt and brings down your entire c: partition. Viruses also attack your c: drive. When this happens, other files in your c: partition may be lost. However, files in other partitions on your hard drive will probably be untouched by the crash.
For this reason alone, the c: partition is the most risky partition on your hard drive and the one most likely to crash. If you set up other partitions on your hard drive and keep your important data and photo files in these other partitions and not in the c: partition, these files will probably be safe when your c: drive crashes.
Organize your Hard Drive with Partitions
Computers today come with very large terabyte main hard drives. To leave such a large hard drive with only one c: partition does not make much sense. If your hard drive is very large, you should divide it up into 3 or 4 smaller partitions and then store different types of files in different partitions.
I suggest you use your c: partition just for the Windows operating system and all of your application programs installed on your computer. Then you should have another partition just for your important data files, for example your spreadsheets, your written documents, your financial records, your genealogy database, and other important data files. Finally, I would suggest a separate Photo partition to contain all of your digital photographs, your video clips, and your scanned pictures. By organizing your large hard drive this way, your computer will be much easier to use.
Gain Flexibility in Doing Backups
Finally, having more than one partition on your hard drive can give you added flexibility in doing your backups of your main hard drive. Today, doing full partition backups is vastly superior to the old file backup approach. Partition backups handle entire partitions including Windows and your application programs as well as your important data files. So, running a good partition backup utility like Acronis True Image Home 2012 is the best way to do backups today.
If you carefully separate your files into different partitions, then you could backup the different partitions on a different schedule. For example, I would backup my Program Partition (c:) only once or twice a month. However, my important Data Partition, I would back up daily or at least every 2-3 days. My Photo Partition, I would only back it up when I have actively saved new photos to it. So, having separate partitions for these types of files lets you back them up on a schedule that is important to each type of file.
Partitioning Made Easy with Acronis Disk Director
Acronis offers an excellent utility, Acronis Disk Director 11 Home, that makes partitioning your hard drive easy for anyone to do. We offer this excellent product for just $25, which is half the normal retail price. In addition, I provide my customers with a step by step Starter Guide that makes setting up extra partitions on your computer a simple task. If you do run into questions or problems while using this product, you can send me an email and I will help you with answers and problem resolution to get you going again quickly.
To order Acronis Disk Director 11 Home from me, go to www.ugr7.com and click on the appropriate Buy Now button. You can order a download copy or we can mail you a CD with the software on it. (There is a $5 shipping fee if you order the CD.) When checking out of the shopping cart, enter in the special order code of UGNL1211. In a short timeframe, you will have your hard drive partitioned and ready to better use your computer.
If you have questions about this article or the Disk Director product, send an email to support@ugr7.com and I will try to help you with your questions.
User Group Relations
Copyrighted December 2011
I’m sure that most of you have heard of partitions on your hard drive, but may not be totally aware of what they are or why you would want to use partitions on your hard drive. A partition is simply a portion of your hard drive that has been specially prepared with a File System so that it can store your program and data files on the drive. Each partition you create on your hard drive is given a drive letter to make it easier to find and retrieve the files later. You can have a single partition on a hard drive or there can be many partitions on the drive. Most users have a single c: partition on their hard drive and perhaps one or two other hidden partitions put there by the computer manufacturer.
Adding additional partitions to your hard drive is very easy to do with the right tools. The purpose of this article is to suggest several reasons why you may want to add additional partitions to your hard drive and introducing you to a software tool that will make doing this very easy for anyone to do.
Protecting your Important Data Files
The number one reason that your hard drive crashes is because the Windows operating system becomes corrupt and brings down your entire c: partition. Viruses also attack your c: drive. When this happens, other files in your c: partition may be lost. However, files in other partitions on your hard drive will probably be untouched by the crash.
For this reason alone, the c: partition is the most risky partition on your hard drive and the one most likely to crash. If you set up other partitions on your hard drive and keep your important data and photo files in these other partitions and not in the c: partition, these files will probably be safe when your c: drive crashes.
Organize your Hard Drive with Partitions
Computers today come with very large terabyte main hard drives. To leave such a large hard drive with only one c: partition does not make much sense. If your hard drive is very large, you should divide it up into 3 or 4 smaller partitions and then store different types of files in different partitions.
I suggest you use your c: partition just for the Windows operating system and all of your application programs installed on your computer. Then you should have another partition just for your important data files, for example your spreadsheets, your written documents, your financial records, your genealogy database, and other important data files. Finally, I would suggest a separate Photo partition to contain all of your digital photographs, your video clips, and your scanned pictures. By organizing your large hard drive this way, your computer will be much easier to use.
Gain Flexibility in Doing Backups
Finally, having more than one partition on your hard drive can give you added flexibility in doing your backups of your main hard drive. Today, doing full partition backups is vastly superior to the old file backup approach. Partition backups handle entire partitions including Windows and your application programs as well as your important data files. So, running a good partition backup utility like Acronis True Image Home 2012 is the best way to do backups today.
If you carefully separate your files into different partitions, then you could backup the different partitions on a different schedule. For example, I would backup my Program Partition (c:) only once or twice a month. However, my important Data Partition, I would back up daily or at least every 2-3 days. My Photo Partition, I would only back it up when I have actively saved new photos to it. So, having separate partitions for these types of files lets you back them up on a schedule that is important to each type of file.
Partitioning Made Easy with Acronis Disk Director
Acronis offers an excellent utility, Acronis Disk Director 11 Home, that makes partitioning your hard drive easy for anyone to do. We offer this excellent product for just $25, which is half the normal retail price. In addition, I provide my customers with a step by step Starter Guide that makes setting up extra partitions on your computer a simple task. If you do run into questions or problems while using this product, you can send me an email and I will help you with answers and problem resolution to get you going again quickly.
To order Acronis Disk Director 11 Home from me, go to www.ugr7.com and click on the appropriate Buy Now button. You can order a download copy or we can mail you a CD with the software on it. (There is a $5 shipping fee if you order the CD.) When checking out of the shopping cart, enter in the special order code of UGNL1211. In a short timeframe, you will have your hard drive partitioned and ready to better use your computer.
If you have questions about this article or the Disk Director product, send an email to support@ugr7.com and I will try to help you with your questions.