Note that you have the terminology wrong, because the terminology is a
little strange. Some people think that the term "partition" means to
divide the drive into two or more partitions. That's not correct: when
you partition a drive you create one or more partitions on it.
You have to have at least one partition on it to use a drive. Those
people who think they have an unpartitioned drive actually have a
drive with only a single partition on it, which is normally called C:.
The real choice is whether to have more than one partition, not
whether to partition at all, since every drive has to have one
partition.
It should almost *never* happen that you have to reinstall, and if
does, you are doing something very much wrong.
In my view, it's usually a mistake. With a modicum of care, it should
never be necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or any other version).
I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
2000, Windows XP, and now Windows Vista, each for the period of time
before the next version came out, and each on two or more machines
here. I never reinstalled any of them, and I have never had anything
more than an occasional minor problem.
It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to almost
any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is "reformat and
reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them. It gets you off the
phone quickly, it almost always works, and it doesn't require them to
do any real troubleshooting (a skill that most of them obviously don't
possess in any great degree).
But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You have to
restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all your
programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and application
updates, you have to locate and install all the needed drivers for
your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all your apps to work
the way you're comfortable with.
Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may
have trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?
Can you find all the needed installation codes? Do you have data
backups to restore? Do you even remember all the customizations and
tweaks you may have installed to make everything work the way you
like? Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and far
between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only after all
other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person have failed.
And perhaps most important: if you reformat and reinstall without
finding out what caused your problem, you will very likely repeat the
behavior that caused it, and quickly find yourself back in exactly the
same situation.
If you have problems, post the details of them here; it's likely that
someone can help you and a reinstallation won't be required.
Personally, I think that's a very poor reason for having a second
partition. It suggests that you have no external backup of your data,
and that means you are *still* vulnerable to losing the entire drive
and everything to it to many of the most common dangers: severe power
glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the
computer.
Is there an ownership problem? See "How to take ownership of a file or
folder in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us
