Whats a partition?

[Duke{CLR}]

Hey guys I have just noticed that there is a partition on the HDD of my new laptop and I have a few noobish questions.

What is the use of this?

Should I install the OS on one part then the games on the other?

If so How do I get things like steam to unload in the other partition?

[Apache Warrior]

My laptop came with a partition that it used to back up the computer upon start up. What is the size of your hard drive supposed to be? Is it a partition or two hard drives?
Apache

[Trooper110]

I don't know why you'd partition a single hard drive like that. The case I've seen with a lot of laptops is that they come with a recovery partition, but I don't think I've ever seen that larger than 10GB. I'm assuming that you only have 1 hard drive in there from your post, but I gotta ask...1 or 2 hard drives? I'd probably keep programs on the same partition as the OS if you're going to use both partitions, and it's a single hard drive. Throw your files and back ups and stuff on the Data partition. Honestly though, if it were me, I'd reformat it with only the single drive it you only have one hard drive, I can't think of one really good reason for partitioning a single hard drive in a laptop like that, especially with those sizes.

[Duke{CLR}]

Its supposed to be one 200GB HD. It looks like its split inot two 88's

[Duke{CLR}]

I don't know why you'd partition a single hard drive like that. The case I've seen with a lot of laptops is that they come with a recovery partition, but I don't think I've ever seen that larger than 10GB. I'm assuming that you only have 1 hard drive in there from your post, but I gotta ask...1 or 2 hard drives? I'd probably keep programs on the same partition as the OS if you're going to use both partitions, and it's a single hard drive. Throw your files and back ups and stuff on the Data partition. Honestly though, if it were me, I'd reformat it with only the single drive it you only have one hard drive, I can't think of one really good reason for partitioning a single hard drive in a laptop like that, especially with those sizes.

I would like to start over from scratch but I think the disk that come with it sets it up this way. I wonder if there was a way to use the Vista DVD I have and unlock it with a code from this machine.

[Savage_Hobo]

hmm... that is a pretty weird partition setup. I have successfully changed the size of my partitions on my windows xp laptop. I used partedmagic to change the ntfs partition size... keep in mind that if you muck with your partitions it usually prevents you from using the dvd "factory restore feature" or whatever it's called...

[BenKenobi]

Strange

[Duke{CLR}]

You k now what else is weird is that there is some RAID software on this thing. Maybe there are two of them

[Savage_Hobo]

Well, at least on my laptop the hdd is pretty easy to access... maybe take a look? Or at least look in the device manager for multiple hdds.

[Apache Warrior]

Look in the bios and see what it displays too.
Apache

[Trooper110]

Laptops are typically pretty easy to access the hard drives in. Power off and start opening up panels on the back! And yeah, if you want to try to change the partitions without a reformat, give Parted Magic a try. Here's some good info on Parted Magic: How To: Repartition Your Hard Drive For Free Without Formatting or Losing Data | Maximum PC

[Sirex]

If it is just one drive I would not worry about it too much, you can 'merge' them together later.

Every so often one computer maker gets a 'bright idea' thats really not that bright, and the rest think its cool and follow.

PC makers are just like school kids really, whats cool is usually bad for those who they effect.

[Hammy]

The industry standard for partitioning has been 5-10% of the drive, where 10GB is about the average partition size for large drives.

I confirmed this after chatting with Duke and Sirex last night. The guy here at my company in IT who used to be over at a drive maker her in Silicon Valley said that it depends on the bloat of the OS you are using.

He said that 10GB is probably all you need for Vista. 88 is some laziness in the OEM dept.

The fact that it has some Raid technology on it that you have to activate, suggests that they partitioned the drives evenly to prevent the tech line from heating up in the event that you activated it blindly. Thats the conclusion we came to over here.

Our theory without having your laptop on hand is based on the fact that 88 + 88 = 179, with the remainder being perfect for either a backup partition for OS boot or something else like the actual OS to run in. (Im not familiar with how Raid works other than its two mirrored images that work togeather for faster response and higher data retention.

Once again, we are making assumptions from over a thousand miles away.
Perhaps you could drop in the make, model of the laptop and I could show it to someone? I'd assume the basic software load out would be the same via the computer website.

~Hammy

~Hammy

[Duke{CLR}]

Its a Gateway i linked below. I will look around for an answer after Thursday because I have a check ride to study for. I will probably just drop the size of the data partition and leave it that way because I keep most of my data backed up at my home.

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668123.php

[K PhaNTOM]

Its supposed to be one 200GB HD. It looks like its split inot two 88's

I got a 80GB a while back from Acer. The same thing appeared and i was confused as hell! I left it like that until I formated and it disappeared... They should say something on the box