Dell Effed up my computer. (1 Viewer)

[Steven K]

Also remember, if you blow away your OS partition, you are also blowing away your Registry. Thus, 99% of your applications will probably not work correctly, as most applications rely on the registry for something or another (I know that every program I write usually uses the registry for something).

Frank, your profile has you listed as a programmer... is this correct? If it is, and you are a computer programmer, surely you must know how to fix your own system!

 

[Rob Gillespie]

You should always install all programs to a separate partition from the OS because that makes it feasible to backup your entire OS partition onto CDs

The only advantage is that you use less CDs, and as Todd said, you will always have parts of the app located in the Windows system folders anyway.

Having apps installed on a separate partition doesn't make any sense to me. If you want to make a 'system' backup you'll need to do it for the OS and apps partition instead of just one. If you ever need to perform an installation of Windows, you need to reinstall the apps anyway. Having the OS and apps on a single parititon means you can dump one partition and have a full 'system' backup (rather than 'data' backup). I just don't see any advantage and if anything, the machine is likely to run a tad slower due to the decrease in data transfer rates as you go further through the HD.

Have your data on a separate partition by all means. I do it myself, including re-mapped Favorites, History folders etc etc.

 

[Steven K]

Having apps installed on a separate partition doesn't make any sense to me.

Rob, we've been around the table on this issue before, and I still have to disagree.

Since you will not be doing much writing to your OS partition, it will not become as fragmented as the data partition. This will result in some speed performance.

Also, if you want to blow away your data partition, you will do no harm to your OS (usually).

 

[Todd Hochard]

If you backup an image of your OS partition

Ah, but making an image is different than what was suggested above.

I read a Knowledge Base article from Microsoft imploring vendors to use one partition on XP/NTFS systems. I can't remember why, though. Also, it mentioned that NTFS can actually be faster than FAT32. I also can't remember why.

I'll look for the link.

 

[Frank_S]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I am in the process of reformatting my hardrive so I can re-install the OS, Windows 2000 professional. I'm pretty much mentally exhausted dealing with Dell on this issue so I finally gave into their notion of starting from scratch. Wish me luck!

 

[Andre F]

Dell did the same thing to me 3 years ago. The tech gave me a command to run in DOS that started a reformat procedure that left my harddrive useless. They sent me a new machine two days later (it was new at the time).

-Andre F

 

[Steven K]

The tech gave me a command to run in DOS that started a reformat procedure that left my harddrive useless.

Did it physically destroy the hard drive? Or, did it just remove the data that was currently there?

I've never heard of a DOS command that could physically destroy a hard drive (not a single command, anyway)

 

[John Thomas]

Did it physically destroy the hard drive? Or, did it just remove the data that was currently there?

They probably formatted him. Then, when it came around to setting everything back up, the next tech he talked to may've told him that it was inoperable and they're going to send 'em a new system. That's the problem with dealing with tech support - you never get the same guy that knows what the problem is. Of course, there's a flip side to it: the techies are under extreme pressure to get you off the phone to answer another call; call queues are a bitch.

 

[Peter Gordon]

The tough lesson that we all have learned is to do a system backup. No matter who or what tinkers with your system you can be operational. I back up my reg, OS and key data by tape and if disaster strikes, slam in a tape, go to sleep and wake up to a restored and functional system. My experience with tech support of major vendors has been very mixed. Sometimes you get an pro, other times a first year computer science kid with minimal experience. Back it up.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Also, if you want to blow away your data partition, you will do no harm to your OS (usually).

That's what I'm talking about Steven. Keep data separate by all means, but I see no advantage in keeping apps separate from the OS.

Fragmentation happens anyway. That said, I've had my 2K installation running for several months. Every time I do a defrag 'analyze' it always comes back saying a defrag isn't needed. Unless the disk is heavily fragmented you wont see that much of a performance hit and anyone who runs a system (rather than just playing on a computer) will defrag on a semi-regular basis anyway.

However, disk performance definitely does diminish the further you go into (or out of) the drive, which is something you will invariably do if you partition.

I partition myself, but not for apps. The parts on my first HD are as follows:

Windows 98

Windows 2000

Files (my own stuff)

MP3

Games

The reason I keep the games stuff at the end of the drive is so that it doesn't take up space at the beginning (i.e. faster) part of the HD.