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Partitioning The Hard Disk Increases Performance And Organization, Even For Today's Casual PC User

Part 2: Partitioning With FDISK

There used to be two variants for the user to modify a partition on Windows-based systems: either to completely strip the hard disk of all data and partitions and to start all over again, or to use a complex, multi-step program that was difficult to understand, cryptic in its explanations, and slow. This was particularly challenging to non-technical users, for whom only one option were often left — to take the computer in to a depot and stump up a lot of money to have their drive repartitioned

Using the Microsoft FDISK utility is the slowest and most complex method — you need to strip down the disk drive to its base state and start all over again. To accomplish this task, first copy all of your data off to a back-up medium. Then use FDISK to eliminate all partitions, redefine the size and type of each new partition, format all of the new partitions, and finally reinstall the operating system, all of your programs and all of your data. If you have a lot of programs and data, this process could take many hours — or days.

But before you reinstall your software, make sure to collect all of your original program disks, patches, upgrades and the like. Each program needs to be reconfigured with your preferences and settings and the data returned to the drive.

Using one of the traditional repartitioning applications isn't much better. While many of the tasks are automated, products such as Symantec's Partition Magic and V Communications, Inc. Partition Commander tend to be slower and still offer only a single user interface. If you have considerable technical skill, you might be able to figure out the interface, but for users who simply want to increase free space, create a new partition, or copy a partition using a wizard-based, Windows XP-like interface, they can turn to Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. Of course, this product also provides a fully manual mode that offers all partitioning functions at the user's fingertips, again with the Windows XP-like interface.

Experienced users understand that a misstep in defining a partition as the Primary, Logical or Extended partition, or accidentally changing a file system or sector size, can result in lost data or creating a non-bootable drive. Inexperienced users or those without technical training won't have that knowledge base and will opt for the automated mode that insulates them from putting their data at risk.

Currently, only Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 is building that wall between full automation of the partitioning process and full control. Today there are well in excess of 200 partition types supported by popular partitioning applications. Windows supports three file systems — FAT (File Allocation Table) 16, FAT 32 and NTFS (NT File System) — and Linux support four: Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS and Linux SWAP. For the inexperienced user, repartitioning a disk drive can a daunting task. Changing a partition type could prevent some operating systems from working with it, even if it is a compatible file system.

Sophisticated users can change a disk drive's cluster size manually in FAT 16 to FAT 32 environments, although it is not possible to change the cluster size for any other of the Windows or Linux file systems. ("Cluster is a term used in the Windows environment; other operating systems use the term "block." The words are functionally interchangeable).

The larger the cluster/block sizes with these file systems, the more minimum capacity the drive will have. However, this comes at a cost — a drive with a 4 kb cluster size, which is the Windows default, might have a capacity size of from 1.8 Gb to 2.9 Gb, but with 92.1 Mb of overhead waste. Increase that cluster size to 64 Kb and the minimum size might increase to 2.5 Gb, but potential waste grows to 875 Mb. It is important to remember that any file, no matter how small, occupies at least one cluster/block. Files that fill less than one cluster/block still use the entire cluster/block, so the file will use more disk space than if the drive were configured for a smaller cluster/block size. Finding that right mix for your applications will get you the most storage with the least overhead.