usb hard drive

I purchased a hard drive & hard drive enclosure, to use for backing up my
system. Do I need to partition the hard drive? If I do have to, how much
space to I have to allocate for the partition (what's the purpose of the
partition?)?

Thanks for your help
--
sandy j

[Why would you buy a hard drive and a hard drive enclosure instead of an
external hard drive?]

Your hard drive comes with software and instructions. You need to format
the hard drive with a file system. This will give the drive a partition,
which is used to organize the data on a drive.

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

sandy j wrote:
> I purchased a hard drive & hard drive enclosure, to use for backing up my
> system. Do I need to partition the hard drive? If I do have to, how much
> space to I have to allocate for the partition (what's the purpose of the
> partition?)?
>
> Thanks for your help

Why wouldn't you? Some people prefer to assemble their own rather than by a
package.

--

----
Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375



"Leonard Grey" <l.grey@not.valid.net> wrote in message
news:%23qStE%23j0IHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Why would you buy a hard drive and a hard drive enclosure instead of an
> external hard drive?

sandy j wrote:
> I purchased a hard drive & hard drive enclosure, to use for backing up my
> system. Do I need to partition the hard drive? If I do have to, how much
> space to I have to allocate for the partition (what's the purpose of the
> partition?)?
>
> Thanks for your help

Yes you have to partition and format it.

A hard drive can contain multiple partitions. Each partition then
becomes a drive letter when formatted.
Its up to you why you need multiple partitions. You can make one or
many. You can also make folders and put things in different folders.

One example:
I know this is a backup drive, but if you did this on you main drive, C:
could be lets say 30 gig for the OS. And then the rest for data.
This way if you were downloading and got a bit zealous and downloaded
too much the data partition would just fill and then stop. But since
its a different "drive" it would not encroach on the OS partition C:.
Thus your OS would not run out of room and possibly corrupt.

But there are gobs of other reasons why. Every user has his pet reasons.

Hope this helps.

"David B." <mail@nomail.net> wrote in message
news:ehMbTMk0IHA.2384@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Why wouldn't you? Some people prefer to assemble their own rather than by
> a package.
>
> --
>
> ----
> Crosspost, do not multipost http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
> How to ask a question http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
>
>
>
> "Leonard Grey" <l.grey@not.valid.net> wrote in message
> news:%23qStE%23j0IHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Why would you buy a hard drive and a hard drive enclosure instead of an
>> external hard drive?
>
If I already owned a drive, I would only need to buy the enclosure.
If I already owned an enclosure, I would only need to buy the drive.
If I owned neither, I would choose the cheaper of buying a drive and an
enclosure or of buying an assembled unit.
In all likelihood, it would cost less to by an assembled unit.

Leonard,
Thanks for your response....fyi, I got the enclosure free after rebate, and
got the hard drive for less than it cost for a comparable already assembled
portable (ie: "my passport").
--
sandy j


"Leonard Grey" wrote:

> [Why would you buy a hard drive and a hard drive enclosure instead of an
> external hard drive?]
>
> Your hard drive comes with software and instructions. You need to format
> the hard drive with a file system. This will give the drive a partition,
> which is used to organize the data on a drive.
>
> ---
> Leonard Grey
> Errare humanum est
>
> sandy j wrote:
> > I purchased a hard drive & hard drive enclosure, to use for backing up my
> > system. Do I need to partition the hard drive? If I do have to, how much
> > space to I have to allocate for the partition (what's the purpose of the
> > partition?)?
> >
> > Thanks for your help
>

"Big Al"

Thanks, I now have a better understanding of the reason for partitions.
Thanks again
--
sandy j


"Big_Al" wrote:

> sandy j wrote:
> > I purchased a hard drive & hard drive enclosure, to use for backing up my
> > system. Do I need to partition the hard drive? If I do have to, how much
> > space to I have to allocate for the partition (what's the purpose of the
> > partition?)?
> >
> > Thanks for your help
>
> Yes you have to partition and format it.
>
> A hard drive can contain multiple partitions. Each partition then
> becomes a drive letter when formatted.
> Its up to you why you need multiple partitions. You can make one or
> many. You can also make folders and put things in different folders.
>
> One example:
> I know this is a backup drive, but if you did this on you main drive, C:
> could be lets say 30 gig for the OS. And then the rest for data.
> This way if you were downloading and got a bit zealous and downloaded
> too much the data partition would just fill and then stop. But since
> its a different "drive" it would not encroach on the OS partition C:.
> Thus your OS would not run out of room and possibly corrupt.
>
> But there are gobs of other reasons why. Every user has his pet reasons.
>
> Hope this helps.
>

Sometimes a bargain is not really such a bargain.

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

sandy j wrote:
> Leonard,
> Thanks for your response....fyi, I got the enclosure free after rebate, and
> got the hard drive for less than it cost for a comparable already assembled
> portable (ie: "my passport").