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Message |
    
Just The Aunt
Supporter
Username: Auntof13
Post Number: 4534
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - 1:08 pm: | 
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How does a hard drive end up partitioned? I finally got past the password problem with my sister's computer. Everything was fine, for a couple hours. Then all of a sudden my sister couldn't get on the internet. Of course she can't figure out the problem herself. I'm the one who gets stuck, and I have just as much a clue as she does. 'But you have MOL,' she complains.
Anyway, when I turned the Windows firewall off I could get online. But when I try to remove it to put Norton on I get a message it can't be done because the hard drive is partitioned. How does that happen? How hard would it be to have her computer link to my wireless router? Is something I can easily do? (I doubt it but told her I'd ask).
Also, I keep telling her she needs to have someone come and clean up her computer. Monster, Case, either of you interested? Thanks |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1336
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - 1:58 pm: |
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If she's right next door, there's an excellent chance we can have her use your wireless router. If you could post the exact error message that Norton is giving you I'd appreciate it.
Regarding a computer clean up, I'd be happy to... but I'm sure you'll get a few offers from other folks on the board! You can probably do a lot of the work yourself with off-the-shelf tools like Ad-aware and Spybot, too. |
Just The Aunt
Supporter
Username: Auntof13
Post Number: 4541
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - 6:27 pm: |
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Case
She's better then right next door. She's in the same house. I'm going to PL you when I get home. Thanks. |
Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 1038
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 12:26 pm: |
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"But when I try to remove it to put Norton on I get a message it can't be done because the hard drive is partitioned."
Partitioning your hard drive is typically done when your computer is built, or a new hard drive is installed. It is the act of divying up the space on your drive.
For instance, I buy a new 300GB hard drive. However, instead of just having one C drive that is 300GB, I partition it into 3 drives of 100GB each. Then I have a C drive, D drive, adn an E drive.
Not sure why the partitioning would have anything to do with Norton, or for that matter, much of anything. As you suggest, it probably points to another problem somewhere else.
If she is in the same house, she should be able to use your router assuming she has a wireless card, or can plug into it directly. |
Just The Aunt
Supporter
Username: Auntof13
Post Number: 4553
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 3:48 pm: |
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Rick-
So in otherwords, it can't 'just happen?' Hmmm, got to look at the exact message again.
Case, How can I tell if she has a wireless card? Even though I some how got her back online with her computer, she's been dragging my laptop around the house because she thinks it 'kewl.'. |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1338
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 - 5:34 pm: |
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If its a desktop, chances are she does not have a wireless card. On a desktop, look in the back for a card that has an antenna sticking out of it (or a USB connected antenna).
You can also hit Start, Control Panel, Network Connections and look at the list of installed adapters.
(You may have to hit Start, Control Panel, "use classic view" and then select 'Network Connections'... I don't remember what the 'default' windows control panel looks like!)
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Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 1041
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 30, 2006 - 8:10 am: |
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JTA...it can happen, but it is not typical for that to happen. what I mean is, you can go and partition a hard drive, but typically its not something that the average user would get involved with. Post the message, I think that might clear up some confusion. |
Case
Citizen
Username: Case
Post Number: 1340
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 30, 2006 - 8:22 am: |
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Or better yet, reply to my email and we'll have this thing fixed!  |
argon_smythe
Citizen
Username: Argon_smythe
Post Number: 803
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 6:12 pm: |
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All hard drives are partitioned. Most contain a single partition roughly the size of the physical drive.
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Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 523
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 9:02 am: |
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I've noticed that when formatting, windows gives you the option to partition multiple drives? What is the benefit to having more than one drive? |
Rick B
Citizen
Username: Ruck1977
Post Number: 1063
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 9:26 am: |
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I would say data segregation and performance are your two top reasons. Data is stored in chunks on your hard drive. The size of your partition can have an impact on how big the chunks are. Your hard drive is indexed by these chunks, so the bigger the chunk, the longer the seek time to find the appropriate data.
Now, HD are getting bigger quicker than they are getting faster, but the proportion is still very good.
I just found this article about partitioning and why you might consider it:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_02.htm |
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 71
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, April 14, 2006 - 9:04 am: |
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Actually, it's not that simple because there is overhead in walking the tree / linked list in most filesystems. You really want to do some thinking about what the drive is going to be used for. For example - let's say your planning on storing lots of MP3's or Movies on the drive.
If I choose a cluster size of 4K then for a 4meg movie I need 1000 clusters. Many of the clusters composing the file can be on different parts of the drive if it becomes fragmented, so the head is moving lots to read your 4 meg file. If OTOH you set the clustersize to 64K then you've reduced the potential number of clusters to read by a factor of 16.
In reality it's not so cut and dry. Modern filesystems will make a best effort to try and maximize the number of contiguous blocks/clusters in your file - as sequential reading and writing are fastest (disk just spins, head stays in same place).
Assuming your running something like NTFS or a modern *nix filesystem you should be good with default settings.
It used to be that people avoided large cluster sizes because there was a 1 to 1 relationship between a file and a cluster, so if you had a 2K file, it was very wasteful to put it in a 64K cluster and waste 62K. Nowadays lots of filesystems will actually put lots of smaller files in one cluster, so you don't see the pain.
I used to do what Rick does - partition drives many ways. I've stopped doing that so much lately because your applying an artificial constraint on yourself.
You inevitably end up wanting to write one more big file, and it won't fit in a partition because it's nearly full, and resizing them is time consuming / painful.
If your running any form of windows it probably does makes sense to at least create a couple of partitions: Like this:
Disk 100GB
C:\ System 20 GB + a nice fixed swap file - contiguous and made early in the install process (Reads are fastest at the disks edge due to higher linear velocity ).
D:\ Apps and everything else. I even try and put my Program Files here. That way you can back up C: early on - relatively easily - it's not too big and it just contains the OS.
Don't make C: too small though. Then your in for real grief... (As above). Also the above is probably a bit slower than having one big partition because the head has to move between the two partitions, and unless your swap file is right up against the highest edge of the partition the head has to move more.
(That means it is also further away from the furthest edge of the disk so your losing velocity (i.e. raw linear read / write performance ) which sucks).
There are some really cool new filesystems that do stuff like just read and write the file right where the head is. It's funky stuff but potentially cool. If your curious about the stuff in general a table is at wikipedia - here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems
--Tarp |
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