Partitioning and ghosting advice

[nbarb99]

I'm about to purchase a new hard drive (if you want to read about it, clicky) and I have two questions:

1. Is it absolutely nessicary to partition it? It'll probably be an 80GB drive. I'll be ghosting my current 30GB drive (see question 3) onto it and then using the 30 gigger for backup/archive use.
For some reason I've always liked to keep a 1 drive letter-to-drive ratio.. but that's just me. It just seems to get more confusing when you split it up.

If partitioning is nessicary, would 40/40 be a good choice (splitting drive in half)?

2. What is the best partitioning software? I know there are a few (competiting) choices, and I'd like to get some opinions.

3. What is the best drive ghosting/imaging software? The ones I know of are Norton Ghost and PowerQuest DriveImage. I've never researched them however, so I have no clue which one is better.


Thanks a bunch!
nbarb99

 

[asb002]

My answers to your questions...

1. No, if you're going to image your 30GB drive over to the 80GB, you can simply have it increase the size to 80GB for the new partition. (At least on Norton Ghost)

2. Fdisk

3. Ghost (Never failed me yet)

Now you *may* want to partition, simply because its easier to keep track of files that way, but its not absolutley necessary.

 

[Sheriff]

What asb002 stated and as long as the Computer reads the new drive your in Buisness plus the Partitions will automatically increase because of the larger new Drive.

 

[Blain]

I love Partition Magic. I've used version 7 before, but just installed version 8. I'm sure it will be just as easy.
I think there are some free partitioning programs out there.

 

[nbarb99]

Ok, thanks!! (wow, fast replies!)

One last question

My current (30GB) drive is FAT32, and I'd like to format my new (80GB) drive to NTFS. Will Norton Ghost be able to copy the FAT32 data onto an NTFS drive/partition?

Thanks again,
nbarb99

 

[Sheriff]

Ghost will copy exactly what you have (the partition size will differ if drives sizes are different) but you can switch to NTFS in the OS or using Partition Magic

 

[nbarb99]

Ok, thanks again everyone!

 

[Crackbaby]

One important thing to realize, however, is that you won't be able to dump the image of the old drive on to the new drive if the new drive is an NTFS formated drive, as Ghost can not see NTFS partitions.

At least it couldn't the last time I checked. You might want to research the latest versions capabilities before you format the new drive as NTFS.

Cya

 

[billyjak]

I use Copy Commander found Here
Don't need a startup disk, self booting will format and partition drive if needed. Copys all data great little program.
Bought it at office max for 27.00 Cheaper than Ghost

 

[Crackbaby]

Not meaning to make it too confusing, but Sheriff is still correct. Ghost can restore an NTFS partition to a drive as NTFS, it just can't dump the image it created of an NTFS partition to an NTFS formatted drive.

 

[Crackbaby]

billyjak, sounds great. I'll have to check that one out.

Thanks