Big hard drive or externals?

I helped my brother in-law pick out a new computer and it has a 650 gig hard drive. It is partitioned in half. One side is named Acer and the other Data. I dont understand the benefit to having a partition. If the hard drive dies both sides are basically gone. I would prefer having an external (which I do) to hold my data so that when the hard drive dies my data is still protected.

What say you?

 

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I'm pretty sure the partition is to help the computer not have to search through everything to find the data, or the system files- whichever the case may be.

Not completely necessary if your OS can handle the big hard drive (I know pre Win2k Windows had issues with larger hard drives)


My personal tastes are for a external hard drive. Mine has all my old stuff (everything pre-2007) archived, therefore I don't need to have it on my laptop. When I am home, it is just a click away. Mine is a bit bulkier than those you can buy nowadays, so it really isn't convenient to carry around with me, but most of the time it isn't much of an issue.

 

Hmm yeah maybe your right about the partition making it faster. I hadn't thought about that. But I defiantly agree with the external. I think its the only way to preserve your files. mine is a 500 gig with a USB plug in so it's not to bad to carry around but the new ones are pretty cool. They're just like ram with no moving parts. I'm waiting for about a year to get one so the price will go down.

 

I have my HD partitioned out in like 6 different ways. One is the OS files for Windows. I have CD Images (.iso files and such) on another. One is a Puppy Linux partition. Can't remember the others right now, but they have their uses.

Snaf, the computer has to tell the HD to search for X file. Instead of searching (for instance; I know this number is low) 1000 memory blocks for your data (which, if not defraged will slow it down too), it has to search 200. And it knows where to start/end to find said file(s). Also, if I decide I want to wipe Windows for another OS, or an upgrade, I don't have to copy half my crap to an external so I can wipe the drive safely. Just pull what isn't already on another partition to another partition, then do what I need to do.

Mind you, externals are awesome if you need to archive stuff. I had an HD fail on me recently (was able to pull everything off of it that I needed before junking it), so I understand the necessity.

Also, a lot of computers these days have a separate partition that has system restore data on it to restore it back to factory without having to do a wipe/install. So there's that.

 

Most computer manufacturers do this to save cost. Personally, I don't like that method.

The reason for it, is to restore your system back to a factory state should the need ever arise.

Usually you would tap the f10 key or something similar during boot to bring up the recovery partition. From there it will allow you to restore your hard drive using the provided image to what it was set to at the factory. Some PC's are built so that you have to enable the recovery partition in BIOS and THEN tap the appropriate key.

The reason this saves the manufacturer money, is they don't need to package in an OS disc or any additional software. All they do is take up a nice chunk of the main hard drives space and fill that with the needed software instead.

The reason I don't like that method, is it does NOTHING for you, should the hard drive go into complete failure. A smarter thing to do, would take that same recovery partition and copy it onto a usb thumb drive or even an SD card, create a bootable CD/Thumb drive with ghosting software and save it somewhere away from the PC.

Personally, on mine, I run 5 hard drives. 2 in RAID mode for Windows 7/Windows XP, 1 for Ubuntu/MAC OSX (yes, I can QUAD boot on mine), and 1 for data. The other one is an external drive that mirrors the backup data drive.
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Before I had my own servers I used to use external drives all the time. I still do for certain things but now I just save everything down to one of my servers.

Things sure have changed though, I remember my first from scratch build was a DX4 120 AMD with a 40 meg (not gig) hard drive double stepped to 80 meg and 16 megs of RAM (again not gig) lol. I was the envy of all with my system where I crushed the first generation of Pentiums.......now my cellphone has 8 gig memory in it, damn things have come a long way.......

 

size doesn't matter.



at least, that's what they keep telling me...

 

That is only what people without size or those who don't want to hurt your feelings say eddo......

 

lemme guess,

you're that guy that always explains the jokes after someone else tell it, right?


"So you see, it's funny, cause a horse isn't sad, he just naturally has a long face!!!"


...

 

Let me guess, your the guy with the short penis......

I was going along with your joke eddo, is it that time of the month for you again already?

 

Eddo is HUGE!! Freakishly, freakishly huge! In our days with the circus he was promoted as "the elephant man". Let's just say it wasn't because he had a big deformed head...oh wait...

 

That was fucking funny, and I'm still laughing. The sarcastic delivery makes me happy

 

Eddo, from the way Emkay tells it, I might need your services. I have someone I want to kill, but I want to do it humiliatingly. I have a quarter. You game?

 

do I have to poop on him?


cause I'm not really into that anymore...

 

It's up to you, but I'll throw in another quarter if you do

 

It all goes along with Joker's paraphilia problem.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only pervert who thought this post was about something much more interesting....

 

Yeah, I'm kind of a twisted individual when it comes to my sexual endeavors. But at least I can still get it up. Jealous, TJ?