Articles tagged: disk partitions

Disk manager highlighting unallocated space.

How Do I Use an “Unallocated Space” Partition?

Unallocated space in a hard disk partition won’t be used. I’ll look at the two common ways to make unallocated space usable.

Disk Management utility

Why Is My External Hard Drive Not Showing in Windows?

Occasionally, attaching a drive to a computer will appear to work, but the drive’s nowhere to be found. I’ll walk through one common solution.

Partitions

Tip of the Day: Leave Small Partitions Be

Hard disk being replaced.

How Do I Transfer My System to a Replacement Drive?

Transferring data to a replacement drive needn’t be difficult. In fact, being prepared for a transfer is a side effect of backing up regularly.

Disk Partitions

Can I Delete a Partition Without Losing Data?

Deleting a partition is a destructive operation, but that doesn’t mean you have to lose the data it contains.

Playing With Partitions

Playing With Partitions — Ask Leo! Live

Partitions have long confused many, and with recent operating system installs creating several by default, it’s time to explore what can be done with them, and how to manipulate them.

Hard Disk

Can I Back Up Files to a Separate Partition on the Same Hard Disk?

It’s tempting to back up to a separate partition, because it’s somewhat like another disk. The problem is, it’s not. You could be risking your data.

Should I partition my hard disk?

Should I Partition My Hard Disk?

Partitioning, or splitting a single physical hard drive into multiple drives, has pros and cons. I’ll look at those and make a recommendation.

Disk Management interface

How Do I View the Contents of My Hidden D: Drive?

Partitions may be hidden for good reasons. Here’s how to peek inside.

Shrink Volume

How do I create a new partition on my hard drive?

Multiple partitions can be useful at times. I’ll show you how to create a new partition by “splitting” an existing C: partition.

Partitions A, B and free space

What’s a Dynamic Disk?

Chances are that you have a basic disk, and don’t need the functionality offered by dynamic disk support. Even if that functionality actually is kind of cool.

Copying Data

Can I Combine Two Drives into One?

You can put whatever you want on your new computer; it’s just a matter of transferring the data and organizing it!

Does Having Multiple Partitions Shorten My Hard Disk’s Life?

Hard drives get laid out in fairly complex ways. Second-guessing how your disk heads move as part of a decision whether to use multiple partitions is not really a practical way to save a hard drive from failure.

How Do I Back Up Multiple Partitions?

How you backup partitions depends on your backup software. Most allow you to backup multiple partitions into a single backup image file, but more than likely, you get to choose.