Pros and cons of using Vista to partition hd

[Chang10is]

I'm thinking about using the disk management utility in Vista to partition my hard drive. In the past, I've always partitioned my hard drives from a boot disk (e.g. Win XP installation disk). I heard years ago that this is a more reliable method than using programs like Partition Magic. The downside to this method, of course, is that you have to format your hard drive.

So I'd rather not have to reinstall all my programs/files and instead use the Vista disk management utility to save me time. But are there any potential risks or downsides to this method? I'm not sure if there is an increased risk in losing data at some point down the road, whether I'd still be able to move the hard drive to another computer and have it recognize the partitions (or otherwise read all my data), etc.

 

[Nothinman]

No BIOS that I know of have partitioning software.

Partition tables are standard, while some layouts may confuse crappy partitioning tools it's pretty rare.

Vista's ability to resize a filesystem (assuming that's what you're thinking about) is going to be just as reliable and probably moreso than a 3rd party tool.

 

[Chang10is]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
No BIOS that I know of have partitioning software.

Partition tables are standard, while some layouts may confuse crappy partitioning tools it's pretty rare.

Vista's ability to resize a filesystem (assuming that's what you're thinking about) is going to be just as reliable and probably moreso than a 3rd party tool.

Sorry, I should have said boot disk utility, not BIOS. Either way, the underlying question is, do different programs and utilities all do the exact same thing to the disk when you partition it? Somebody told me a long time ago that the answer is no. My experience says the same thing.

I bought a 5 GB hard drive sometime back in the 90's, and my computer couldn't recognize anything larger than 2 GB at the time. So I used the Maxtor partitioning software that came with the drive to partition it into smaller pieces, and then my computer could recognize all 5 GB in total when it was broken down into 2 GB + 2 GB + 1 GB. But then when I moved the hard drive to a newer computer that could recognize 20 GB partitions, it could only see the first partition and not the 2nd or 3rd. It was a huge hassle to move all the files I needed on my old computer before I could move the drive back to the newer computer and create "real" partitions using a boot disk utility to replace the "pseudo" partitions. This latter method was more reliable because it created partitions that both my new and old computer could recognize. The thing is, I don't really know how these partition utilities and programs work, and I don't know why they produce different results.

So what is the difference between using a boot disk utility, Windows Vista, Partition Magic, etc.? If I create partitions using Windows Vista, will any other computer be able to recognize those partitions, or is it possible that I run into problems when I move the disk to another computer?

 

[Nothinman]

Either way, the underlying question is, do different programs and utilities all do the exact same thing to the disk when you partition it? Somebody told me a long time ago that the answer is no. My experience says the same thing.

Depends about which operations you're talking. For just creating a partition there's not many options, if it's a primary partition you put an entry in the partition table with the start/end of the partition and if it's logical you put it in the extended partition and you're done. The structure for PC BIOS partitions are extremely simple and there's very little wiggle room to do your own thing.

If you're talking about resizing of an existing filesystem inside of a partition, yes there's different methods for accomplishing the same thing. But most of them are similar enough because they're working with the same data structures (i.e. FAT, NTFS, XFS, etc) so there's only so much room for interpretation.

I bought a 5 GB hard drive sometime back in the 90's, and my computer couldn't recognize anything larger than 2 GB at the time.

Actually that's just a limitation of FAT16, the computer was fine but the FAT filesystem sucks. If you had used virtually any other filesystem you could've had 1 5G partition.

But then when I moved the hard drive to a newer computer that could recognize 20 GB partitions, it could only see the first partition and not the 2nd or 3rd.

I'd have to actually see the partition table to say what happened, but most likely you just ran into a bug in whatever version of Windows you were running. The Win9X line had some pretty stupid requirements for partitioning that I've never run into with NT or Linux.

So what is the difference between using a boot disk utility, Windows Vista, Partition Magic, etc.? If I create partitions using Windows Vista, will any other computer be able to recognize those partitions, or is it possible that I run into problems when I move the disk to another computer?

If you create a standard PC BIOS partition table with all of them there should be no difference.

 

[corkyg]

So what is the difference between using a boot disk utility, Windows Vista, Partition Magic, etc.? If I create partitions using Windows Vista, will any other computer be able to recognize those partitions, or is it possible that I run into problems when I move the disk to another computer?

Should not be a problem. I have done it several times and moved such partitioned data drives to other machines.

 

[VinDSL]

OMG! There's a flash from the past! Partition Magic?!?!? 😀

Not tread crapping here, but...

If I'm remembering Partition Magic correctly, it was sort like a virus that tricked the file tables and boot sector into doing things they weren't supposed to do. One sneeze, and the whole thing would come crashing down like a house of cards.

I've used the built-in Vista partition manager many times and it works great! The only 'problem' is it doesn't recognize Linux partitions. That is, it recognizes the Linux partition(s) but the Vista partition manager is clueless as to do with it.

So, given a choice of using Partition Magic, or the Vista partition manager - Vista is the hands-down winner, IMHO.

Having said that, if you're looking for an excellent (*FREE*) boot disk utility, I would suggest downloading System Rescue CD:

http://www.sysresccd.org/Screenshots (System Rescue CD Screenies)

As you can see, it contains GParted, which is the Swiss Army Knife of partitioners.

GParted works equally well on both Linux and Windows partitions - rack servers, desktop boxes, lappys, netbooks - you name it!

BTW, those screenies haven't been updated in over a year. SRCD is updated frequently and is less kludgey (now) than the pics would indicate... 🙂

You can also get GParted on any number of other distros, including most Linux Live CDs (Puppy Linux is my favorite alternative) so choose your poison.

Anyway, that's my recommendation(s) - the Vista partitioner for Windows only, and GParted if you want to expand your horizons! 😉

 

[Nothinman]

If I'm remembering Partition Magic correctly, it was sort like a virus that tricked the file tables and boot sector into doing things they weren't supposed to do. One sneeze, and the whole thing would come crashing down like a house of cards.

Uh, no. It was just the first tool to let you resize filesystems.

 

[Chang10is]

Thanks for everyone's help! I'll use the Vista partitioner for convenience.

Actually that's just a limitation of FAT16, the computer was fine but the FAT filesystem sucks. If you had used virtually any other filesystem you could've had 1 5G partition.

Ah... FAT16--that's right! It's been a while since I converted to NTFS. Thanks for the insight.