hd, partitions, fat, HPFS?

[blades]

i have a 21 gig hd (it reports as
IBM-DJNA-352030 on controlpanel) and i wanted to do a clean install and also rearrange my hd partitions(w/ partition magic v3)..everything went well w/ the 1st 2 partitions..(3.5gig,4.3gig approx.) but when i tried the same process w/ the 3rd it would only let me choose HPFS(i think) and NTFS..i dont get the menu for Fat or Fat32..then afater playing around for a while i was able to format it to Fat32 but it had a extended(it was extended something, or something extended..forgot where ext. came) now my question

does that extended something slows my HD?
before i was able to format everything as FAT32 w/o the extended thing..how do i do that again? ..how do you guys manage huge hardisk effectively?
..anything HD related pls feel free to expand

[Jammrock]

I suggest using a hammer and wedge. If that doesn't work, the following may help:

1) You can only have 4 primary partitions on a hard drive. Therefore, Partition Magic will only create 4 Primary partitions. Version 3 is kind of buggy as is, so I suggest picking up v. 5. It's much better.

2) Therefore, I would suggest that any and all partitions that will not have an OS on it, get put into an extended partition.

3) You can put logical partitions inside an extended partition. I do not think there is a limit to how many, but I wouldn't put more than 4 inside.

4) If you get PM 5 you will be able to create 4 primary partitions of FAT32 in any size over 500 MB.

5) Just rambling now.

6) That should cover it.

Jammrock

[DentyCracker]

Jammrock is more or less correct. Windows sometimes does not like more than one primary fat32 partition on a HD though so keep this in mind

[This message has been edited by DentyCracker (edited 18 October 2000).]

[Paddy]

If you only have one OS there really isn't a need to partition anymore (if you use FAT32 or NTFS)

Hold on i'll email ya

[blades]

thx guys

Paddy [MU]
but if i dont it takes me years to defrag the drive

and if anyone knows..does a extended partition slows down the hd?

[paul]

I partition for organization. Opening explorer and having to scroll 4 screens to see all folders is not my cup of tea.

HDtach reports all areas of my 13gb as more or less same access speed

c - windows
d games
e utilities
f internet
g>j copies of cdroms

(NOW, all I need is a burner) :-)

[arbymo]

blades : i don't think the extended partition slow anything.
There was talking about the swap partition and linux root directory being faster on primary partitions with older versions of linux and old HD's. not sure though.
In fact you can install some OS's other than DOS and win9x in logical drives in extended partition.
Dos and win9x can only see 1 primary partition(unless some special drivers or programs are used ), which is where the windows dirctory will be any way and the boot files.
So if u gonna use win9x, u have to make an extended partion with as many logical drives (partitions) as u want.
If ur using win NT,2000,OS/2.. they can see more than one primary partitions at the same time. but only 4 primary partitions can co-exist on a HD, so if u need more, u have to make also a secondry partitions.
Jammrock : why 4 logical only ? there's no limit for that except the 24 letters from C to Z.
Paddy : partitioning is good to keep ur programs alone from the windows folder and games and mp3 and videos and even swap file.
I usually do like this :
c: windows ( faster when it's alone)
d: swap file (shared 98/NT server/2000pro)
e: programs and d/l's
f: NT 4 server
g: win2k pro
h: music (mp3's .. )
i: installs and drivers.
j: games
plus 2 primaries for linux root and swap and 2 other linux logical at the end.

blades : just a note; is ur HD new ? coz if it is, why r u using PM ? why not use the fdisk or disk admin from a boot disk or a current OS ?

[blades]

my hd isnt new..i tried using fdisk but it can only make 1 primary fat32 partition
whats disk admin? is it on the startup disk?
in winme is there a built in tool that can deal w/ partitions?

*hmm when i benched marked w/ sandra2k i found out that the extended is slower than the primary ones ..right now the setup is

1 3.5gig(winme)
2 5.5gig(free, extended logical drive)
3 5.5gig(free, extended logical drive)
4 4.5gig( UnrealT. )

and 1 and 4 (same scores)benched faster than 2&3 (same scores)

[DosFreak]

Trust me you WANT to partition. It:

1. Save space.
2. Saves time.
a. Defrag Time
b. File Search time.
c. organization
3. Good for multi-boot configurations

9x doesn't come with any windows GUI HD tools. You need to use Fdisk/Format or buy 3rd party tools like Partition Magic.

Windows NT4/NT5 comes with Disk Aministrator which does alot of neat stuff within windows.

[DentyCracker]

Norton Utilities Speed Disk. It defrags win9x much faster and if you specify a nice 192MB fixed size swap file (or any fixed size swap file) it will put the swapfile at the front of the drive which is almost always the fastest part of the drive. I only install speed disk, disk doctor and system information of all of the utilities, the others are not of much use to me, i'll screw up the registry myself thank you very much.

[blades]

yes i use speed disk and diskdocktor too

is there a way to specify a certain program to go to the outer part of the disk?