Partitioning an 80GB hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ellen Fountain
  • Start date Start date
E

Ellen Fountain

My hard drive was replaced July 3 after failure of the
old one. The installation technician formatted the drive
(NTSF), and installed the XP-professional O/S. I have
reinstalled most of my software (PhotoShop, Dreamweaver,
Illustrator, PageMaker, InDesign, MSOffice, Acrobat).

PhotoShop recommends having its scratchdisk on a separate
partition.

Can I now go back and partition my 80GB disk into two
parts? One for XP and applications and one for data
including the PhotoShop scratch disk? Do I do this with
FDISK or how?

On searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base, I found this
article:
SUMMARY
This article describes the behavior of an installation to
a partition which is unformatted and is not the first
partition on the hard disk.
MORE INFORMATION
When you install Windows XP on a computer with an
unformatted hard disk, if the hard disk is partitioned
into more than one hard-linked partition (either by using
FDISK or text-mode Setup), you can choose to install to a
partition other than the first partition. However, before
Setup starts, the initial (system) partition(s) are
automatically formatted with the file system that was
chosen for the boot partition. By design, the formatting
of a subsequent partition before the formatting of the
initial partition is not allowed. This is because Setup
must format the first (system) partition of the primary
drive to store the required Windows XP start up files,
such as Boot.ini and Ntldr.

Does this mean that if I now partition my hard drive, it
will reformat the C drive too?

Thanks,
Ellen
 
XP's DiskPart utility is only capable of partitioning a hard drive that is "empty".
For example, if you were to install a new second drive, DiskPart can be
used to partition and format it. DiskPart cannot segregate current files from
free space, therefore, only a sophisticated third-party partitioning program
can accomplish this task.

The only way you can delete, create, resize or merge existing partitions,
and not harm your existing Programs installation, is to use
a third-party partitioning program such as Partition Magic 8
(www.powerquest.com).

Partition Magic Instructional Videos
http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id2752.cfm


--
Nicholas

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


| My hard drive was replaced July 3 after failure of the
| old one. The installation technician formatted the drive
| (NTSF), and installed the XP-professional O/S. I have
| reinstalled most of my software (PhotoShop, Dreamweaver,
| Illustrator, PageMaker, InDesign, MSOffice, Acrobat).
|
| PhotoShop recommends having its scratchdisk on a separate
| partition.
|
| Can I now go back and partition my 80GB disk into two
| parts? One for XP and applications and one for data
| including the PhotoShop scratch disk? Do I do this with
| FDISK or how?
|
| On searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base, I found this
| article:
| SUMMARY
| This article describes the behavior of an installation to
| a partition which is unformatted and is not the first
| partition on the hard disk.
| MORE INFORMATION
| When you install Windows XP on a computer with an
| unformatted hard disk, if the hard disk is partitioned
| into more than one hard-linked partition (either by using
| FDISK or text-mode Setup), you can choose to install to a
| partition other than the first partition. However, before
| Setup starts, the initial (system) partition(s) are
| automatically formatted with the file system that was
| chosen for the boot partition. By design, the formatting
| of a subsequent partition before the formatting of the
| initial partition is not allowed. This is because Setup
| must format the first (system) partition of the primary
| drive to store the required Windows XP start up files,
| such as Boot.ini and Ntldr.
|
| Does this mean that if I now partition my hard drive, it
| will reformat the C drive too?
|
| Thanks,
| Ellen
|
|
 
Ellen,

In this case you could have a dozen or a single partition. Regarding a
Photoshop scratchdisk, they mean that your scratch disk should be on a
physical drive other than the one that your software is installed. Photoshop
would like for there to be two physical drive (i.e. - two separate hard
drives). Partitioning a single physical drive to multiple partions will not
help this matter in the least as well as can make Win XP run pretty poorly
and in many cases, cause major headaches when running applications on any
partition other than C:. Microsoft has several patches out for this and a
variey of related problems. However, Microsoft would like for you to pay
through the nose to get this patch that "may not fix the problem".

One partition is fine for Photoshop and far more stable under XP.
 
Thanks for the info. I wasn't thinking of putting the
PhotoShop program on anything other than C: drive, but
put the scratch disk on the new partition (if I made
one). However, with your reply and the other one (that
said I'd have to reformat the drive and "start all over",
I think I'll pass on the partitioning idea, and just do
whatever else I can to maximize PhotoShop's performance.

Ellen
 
hi, unless you have a partition management suite(norton
and suchlikes)your hard drive exists as a whole.
to create an additional partition would require you to
delete the existing and recreate a primary using the
amount required and then creating a secondary utilising
the rest.
summary.!! you will lose all the information currently
installed (windows and programmes.... the lot)
i'm not sure why photoshop is recommending you store a
scratchdisk on a seperate partition!
my advice is to forget it ever mentioned it ok.
 
After reading this thread, "Joe User" should
go by "Joe Loser". What a despicable individiual!
His foul language indicates he is quite morally
bankrupt! Perhaps he needs to increase his dosage
of Prozac!
 
"Joe User" stated:

"Partitioning a single physical drive to multiple
partions will not
help this matter in the least as well as can make Win XP
run pretty poorly
and in many cases, cause major headaches when running
applications on any
partition other than C:. Microsoft has several patches
out for this and a
variey of related problems. However, Microsoft would like
for you to pay
through the nose to get this patch that "may not fix the
problem".


You have any documentation or references to support your
statement? Any webpage links?

You are definitely off-base and your personal attack
of Nicholas is wholly unwarranted. You owe him/her a
great big apology for your stupid remarks!


Raymond
 
Bite me. If you are capable of communicating ideas in a polite manner, then
the result should be in kind. However, when a person like Nicholas makes
stupid comments about things he or she does not understand, resorting to
vulgarity seems appropriate when such a person is not in reach for a good
dope smack on the noggin. As far as morals are concerned, one's use of the
language can hardly express an individual's moralistic solvency. Were I to
base an opinion on your morals based on your use of the vernacular, I might
conclude that aside from having no values, you also might be the kind of
person who is self important while adding nothing of any particular value.
However I do not make that judgement.

Regards.
 
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