Chapter 34: Formatting and Partitioning Disks | Windows Vista: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series)

Hard disks can be partitioned -divided into one or more logical sections-using Disk Management or a compatible program. (Most disks have only one partition.) Both hard disks and removable disks must be formatted with a file system , the information that keeps track of which files are stored where on the disk. Windows Vista supports three file systems: FAT (File Allocation Table, the file system used in DOS and Windows 95), FAT32 (the file system introduced with Windows 95 OSR2 and used in Windows 98,98SE, and Me), and NTFS 5.0 (New Technology File System, the latest version of the file system designed for Windows NT/2000).

On computers with Windows preinstalled , the hard disk has already been partitioned (usually into a single large partition) and formatted. However, if you install an additional hard disk or replace the original hard disk, you have to format and perhaps partition the new disk. Some disks (both hard disks and removable disks) come preformatted and some don't. Whether or not a disk is preformatted, you can reformat it to remove any existing files and make it a "clean" empty disk.

Each disk drive, including CD drives, DVD drives, and other removable media like USB thumb drives or external hard drives , has a drive letter assigned to it by Windows, but you can change these letters, or assign drive letters to folders, if you must. You can also check how much free space is on any disk and look at the properties of a disk.

This chapter describes how to partition and format hard disks; how to decide whether to use FAT, FAT32, or NTFS (and how to convert partitions to NTFS); how to assign drive letters to disk drives; how to check for free space; and how to control the way in which Windows uses DVDs and CD-ROMs. It also covers how to format and copy floppy disks.

Partitions, File Systems, and Drive Letters

Partitions and file systems determine how and where Windows stores information on your hard disk. Drive letters refers to the various disks on your computer. Before you can decide which file system to use on your partitions, you need to know the differences among FAT, FAT32, and NTFS.

Hard Disk Partitions

A partition is a section of a hard disk. Normally, a disk is set up as a single large partition spanning the entire disk, but sometimes using more than one partition makes sense. When you partition a disk, you allocate a fixed amount of space to each partition.

Tip	If your disks contain only one partition each, you can use the terms "disk drive" and "partition" interchangeably. Neither CDs nor DVDs can contain multiple partitions.

Types of Partitions

The partitions used by Windows have historically been called primary partitions and extended partitions. One disk drive can store either four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition. An extended partition can contain many logical drives , which are also partitions-extended partitions provide a way to have more than four partitions on a disk. An extended partition can also contain free space, which isn't allocated to a logical drive. Disks can also contain unallocated space, which doesn't belong to any partition. Other operating systems, such as Linux and Apple Macintosh OS X, have their own types of partitions.

When you are running Windows Vista, it also designates partitions as system, boot, and active:

System partition Has the files needed to start up the computer, stored in the root (main) folder. May be FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. For a multiboot system with Windows Me/9x, the system partition must be FAT or FAT32. The system partition can be small because only a few files are needed. The files needed to start the computer are Ntldr (the NT boot loader, the most important startup file), Boot.ini (which contains the operating system menu for multiboot systems), and http://www.Ntdetect.com.
Boot partition Has the files that contain the Windows Vista operating system. Windows Vista uses the NTFS (recommended) file system. The boot partition must be large enough for the Windows Vista program files and lots of extra space, since other programs usually install in the same partition and Microsoft encourages users to store data there, too-your boot partition should be at least 2GB. If you have other operating systems installed on your computer, each one has a separate boot partition containing its system files.
Active partition The current boot partition. If you have several operating systems installed on your computer, each one has a boot partition. You can mark a partition as active so that the next time you restart your computer, this partition will be used as the boot partition (see "Selecting the Active Partition" later in this chapter). The active partition must be on disk 0 (the first hard disk attached to the computer).

Note	We find it confusing that your computer boots off the system partition, while the operating system is stored in the boot partition. Just remember that the names are backward.

The system and boot partitions can be the same partition, or they can be different. If you have one hard disk with one partition, it's both the boot and system partition. If they are different, the computer reads the files from the system partition first when it starts up, then switches to the boot partition to load Windows Vista.

You can see what partitions your hard disks contain, what types of partitions they are, and which are your system, active, and boot partitions, by using the Disk Management program (see "Displaying Information about Drives and Partitions" later in this chapter).

Note	Windows also refers to partitions as volumes. Volumes can be disk partitions or they can be on storage media other than hard disks, such as tape drives.

The Master Boot Record(MBR)

When your computer starts up, the computer's BIOS (Basic Input/Output System, which is stored on ROM chips on the system board) performs various self-tests. Then it searches for the very first sector on your hard disk(s)-cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1 of the first hard disk-which contains the master boot record (MBR).

The MBR tells the computer where your active partition is stored. The computer reads the first sector of the active partition (the boot sector) to look for a boot loader , a program that begins loading an operating system (like Windows or UNIX). For Windows Vista, the boot loader is stored in the Ntldr file. When your computer runs Ntldr, it begins to load the Windows Vista program from the boot partition.

Partitions for Multiple Operating Systems

If you run more than one operating system on your computer, you can create a partition for each operating system and then start the computer from the partition that contains the operating system you want to use (see "Creating Dual-boot Installations" in Appendix A). With Windows Me/9x, using multiple partitions to switch between different Windows versions was hard, because they all started from the same primary partition. (Norton PartitionMagic, a program you can purchase separately, enables you to install more than one version of Windows.) Windows NT and 2000 included the NT boot manager, which made dual-boot systems easier to set up (see the sidebar "Managing Partitions with Norton PartitionMagic").

Managing Partitions with Norton PartitionMagic

Norton PartitionMagic is a program from Symantec (http://www. symantec .com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80) that enables you to create, resize, move, and delete all types of partitions. The Windows Vista setup program can set up a separate partition for Windows Vista, and the Windows Disk Management window can create and delete partitions, but it still can't do everything that we use PartitionMagic for, such as expanding, shrinking, copying, and moving partitions. Also, PartitionMagic can move and resize partitions without losing the data stored in the partitions: Windows Vista loses your files when you make changes to partitions.

Because all of our data is stored separately on drive D:, backups can be smaller and faster, including only data and not programs. Backing up is easy when all you have to do is specify all files on D:.

However, because application compatibility problems arose during Vista beta testing, you should confirm application compatibility with Symantec prior to purchasing PartitionMagic.

Windows Vista has partitioning built in, and its setup program can create a separate partition for it, leaving other versions of Windows alone. It can display a list of the installed operating systems (each in its own boot partition). However, PartitionMagic is still useful for moving and resizing partitions.

The NTFS File System

A file system is the information that keeps track of which files and folders are stored where in a partition, and what disk space is free. The Windows file system includes a FAT (File Allocation Table) or Master File Table , which stores information about each sector , or physical block of storage space, on the disk.

NTFS is a more mature version of FAT32 that was originally designed for use with Windows NT and Windows 2000 for server applications. Partition size can be from 520 MB to 2 terabytes (larger sizes are possible, but not recommended). Files are limited only to the size of the partition. Windows Vista uses NTFS 5.0 (it was called 5.1 during product testing), a very slight upgrade from the version used in Windows 2000. Recommended for systems with security needs, large hard disks, and LAN connections.

Each partition on a hard disk and each removable disk must be formatted with FAT, FAT32, or NTFS, but it's possible (and often desirable) to have some disks with one format and some with the other format on the same system. Both FAT32 and NTFS are designed for large partitions and disks and offer no significant benefits when used on smaller disks. However, with Windows Vista's rather significant system requirements, it will be unlikely to see a system available with less than 10GB of hard drive space, making FAT largely useless.

NTFS 5.0 offers all of the advantages of FAT32 as well as the following:

More efficient use of space NTFS can allocate as little as 2KB of disk space to a file, reducing wasted disk space.
On-the-fly compression Individual files can be compressed and decompressed as needed. Entire drives can be reduced in size without affecting overall performance.
Encryption In Windows Vista, files and folders can be encrypted with a user 's password (see "File and Folder Attributes" in Chapter 8). However, Windows Vista Home Edition doesn't support file and folder encryption.

Why Divide Your Hard Disk into Partitions?

Most often, you allocate all the space on a hard disk to one partition, which Windows treats as a single logical disk drive using a single drive letter (drive C: for the first hard disk). You can also allocate some of the space to the primary partition and some to an extended partition, which can, in turn , be subdivided into multiple logical disks.

As a general rule, a single partition is all you ever need. However, here are circumstances where more than one partition will be useful:

Scratch areas In some cases, it's useful to have a separate partition to use as a scratch area that you can quickly reformat to wipe out its contents and start fresh.
Multiboot systems The boot manager built into Windows (or PartitionMagic) can dynamically reassign active partitions so that you can effectively have more than one operating system on a large drive (see the sidebar "Managing Partitions with Norton PartitionMagic").
Data partitions We recommend creating a separate partition for your data-all your documents, spreadsheets, databases, and other files. You should back up your data partition regularly. You needn't back up your programs as often because you can restore them from your program CDs.
Quotas You can set quotas for each user, limiting the amount of space that each user can use on a partition (see "Setting Quotas for Disk Usage" in Chapter 6).

We recommend that you set up two partitions: one primary NTFS partition (which appears as drive C:) for Windows Vista and one primary or extended partition (drive D:) for data. Use drive C: for Windows and programs, and use drive D: for data-all documents, spreadsheets, e-mail, and other files that you create or edit. You can configure Windows to store your Documents And Settings folder on D: . You can also configure your programs (where possible) to store their program configuration files on D:-for example, Microsoft Word's template files and or Mozilla's bookmark files.

Keeping all your data and personal configuration settings in a separate partition has several advantages:

Backups Making backups is easier when all your files are stored together. Whether you use Windows Explorer, the Backup Utility, or another backup program, it's easy to specify that you want to back up all the files on D: (see Chapter 10).
Reinstalling Windows If Windows starts acting oddly or you decide to start fresh when you upgrade to a new version of Windows, you can reinstall Windows without disturbing your data files. (Make a backup of all your data before reinstalling or upgrading Windows, though, just in case!) You can wipe out the files on C: without deleting the files on D:.
Multiboot systems If you need to switch between two operating systems (for example, Windows Vista and Linux), you can access your data files from either one. You might want to store Windows Vista on C:, Linux on D:, and your data on E:.

Tip	Don't slice your disk into too many partitions-we rarely use more than three. Unlike folders, when you create a partition, you must decide in advance how much disk space to devote to that partition. You are bound to run out of space in one partition while you still have plenty of space in another.

Partition and Drive Letters

Every partition, logical drive, and removable disk available to Windows has a drive letter. Whether your computer has floppy drives or not, drives A: and B: are reserved for floppy disk drives. Hard disk partitions and drives for removable disks (such as CD-ROMs, CD-R/W drives, and USB thumbdrives) and external hard drives are assigned letters starting with C:. Any remaining letters can be used for network drives.

Note

Windows Vista has an annoying habit of assigning drive letters in the order in which drives and partitions are added to the system, so that the drive containing Windows Vista itself may not be C:, and hard disk drive letters may follow CD-ROM drive letters. You can reassign drive letters if necessary (see "Choosing Your Own Drive Letters" later in this chapter).

Displaying Information about Drives and Partitions

Windows Vista stores a set of properties for each installed disk drive and partition, and allows you to manage those properties from the Computer window. This windows includes drop-down menus and icons for each of your drives and partitions. You can also look at the properties of individual drives and partitions by right-clicking the drive and choosing Properties.

The Computer Window

Click Start Computer. In the Computer window that appears (see Figure 34-1), you have the following options just below the menu bar to get a better view of your drives and partitions:

Organize Click Organize to open the Organize drop-down menu, where you can find options for better viewing your drives via the Computer window, including window layout and folder options.
Views Click Views to alter how you view the drives appearing in the Computer window.
Properties Click Properties to view basic information about your PC, including system information, computer name , domain, and workgroup settings.
Change Or Remove A Program Click Change Or Remove A Program to remove software from one of your PC's drives.
Change A Setting Click Change A Setting to change drive settings.

Figure 34-1: Viewing information about drives and partitions.

The Computer window lists all disks, drives, and partitions that are loaded, mounted, and recognized by Windows Vista. You have the following options for working with your drive information:

Name Sort your drives alphabetically or by group
Type Sort your drives by (drive) type including CD drive and local disk and stack
Free Space Sort your drives by their free space in increments of 10% free, 50% free, and 90% free

Properties of Drives and Partitions

Each item on your system with a drive letter-each hard disk partition, floppy disk, and removable disk-also has properties. You can display these properties from the Computer window (choose Start Computer); right-click the drive and choose Properties from the menu that appears. Figure 34-2 shows the Properties dialog box for a partition (the dialog boxes for other kinds of disk drives look similar, but may have different tabs).

Figure 34-2: Properties of a partition.

The tabs that appear on the Properties dialog box for a disk drive or partition include the following:

General Appears for all drives and partitions, showing used and free disk space, type, and file system.
Tools Contains buttons for error checking, defragmenting, and backing up the drive. This tab doesn't appear for disks you can't write on, such as CD-ROM drives.
Hardware Lists disk drives and displays the manufacturer, location, and status for the selected drive. You can click the Troubleshoot button on the Hardware tab for device-specific troubleshooting, and the Properties button for the drive's properties.
Sharing Enables you to share the drive or partition with other computers on a LAN.
Previous Versions Enables you to view a previous version of a folder.
Quota Provides settings for disk quotas for user accounts.
AutoPlay For CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW drives, controls what happens when you put a CD into the drive, depending on the type of files it contains.
Recording For CD-R and CD-RW drives, displays the write speed and location of the temporary files used during CD burning (see "Configuring CD-R and CD-RW Drives" later in this chapter).

If you have installed a hard-disk housekeeping program like Norton Utilities, additional tabs may appear.