[makai]

The attached tutorial (Word doc.) was actually written for someone else who needed help with partitioning his drive. I sloppily edited it to remove some irrelevant info, so hopefully you can follow along. After you download it, I'm going to remove it from this post so it doesn't waste bandwidth, so let me know when you have it. Read through the whole thing before attempting to follow it and ask any questions if you have any.

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Thanks, I've downloaded the tutorial - will go through it now..
Aida32 works a treat btw.
Nick

[NickH]

Thanks, I've downloaded the tutorial - will go through it now..
Aida32 works a treat btw.
Nick

[makai]

Thanks, I've downloaded the tutorial - will go through it now..
Aida32 works a treat btw.
Nick

Ok, I'll delete the file. Yes, Aida32 has been an excellent utility for many years!

[NickH]

Reading through the tutorial:
1) presumably using a CD (as I will be) rather than floppies, the operations will be run through as described here, but without the need to remove & insert floppies.
2) Do you recommend I partition the disk? It would seem to make sense to have a C: drive for programmes & drivers etc & D: for Data etc. If so, what size for each would you recoomend?
Nick

[makai]

1) presumably using a CD (as I will be) rather than floppies, the operations will be run through as described here, but without the need to remove & insert floppies.

That would be fine, but the Seagate utility I linked creates floppies. If you're planning on using the Acronis Seagate, the tutorial will be nixed as Aconis is another animal.

2) Do you recommend I partition the disk? It would seem to make sense to have a C: drive for programmes & drivers etc & D: for Data etc. If so, what size for each would you recoomend?

I have my own philosophy about formatting drives and how a computer should be managed/used. For one thing, I don't store any "permanent" data on my OS partition, so I never fear about having it too small. I do leave room to "work" files on my desktop, but that's where it basically ends, and again, anything worked is eventually moved off the OS partition. You might read THIS thread as I explain my thoughts about partitioning and why I feel it should be done. And yes, I highly recommend partitioning all drives... although some may disagree! For a 250gb drive, I wouldn't go over 22gbs for C drive, but this depends highly upon how you're going to use your computer.

[NickH]

Do you never sleep?! I'm not sure what our time difference is - I'm in France, tw hors ahead of GMT at present, but I get the impression you are always at your PC!!

Ah, I didn't realise that making a CD rather than floppies would change things. I don't have a floppy drive. So can you point me to a suitable tutorial for CD work?

And now I'll read your stuff on disc partition, (22Gb for C: drive sounds a bit small to me without reading what you have to say, but I'm certainly open to suggestion..
Nick

[makai]

Do you never sleep?!

Yes I do! But on weekends, I'm up quite late... a lot of times, until the sun comes up! Night owl syndrome.

The Acronis Seagate Disk Wizard has it's own user guide. Download the program, launch it, and there's an option to download the guide. By the way, this is a free Imaging software for people with Seagate or Maxtor drives, so it's very good to have.

22gbs is more than enough room if you never store user data on the OS partition. Like I mentioned, it's my own way of doing things. Maintenance of a computer is very important. Its maintenance that helps it to run as fast as it can. Maintenance demands that programs you install are installed using "customized" installations whenever there is an option to do so. It also demands that you set program preferences within the program themselves to redirect "default" save locations to a different location off the OS partition. I don't know if you use Itunes, but as an example, the default music folder is located in the user profile in Documents and Settings. If you have a lot of music, and you allow Itunes to use the default folder, then what happens is your OS drive begins to fill up and cause fragmentation as you add/remove songs. This has a worse effect down the line if you want to create Acronis restoration images. Having a ton of user data on your OS partition will cause the image to be very large to the effect of being pointless in creating the image... you would need another hard drive just to contain the image. Imaging is used by people who are more advanced in computer management. These people understand why imaging is important, and the benefits of it. This is not to say that only these people will use it, but if you don't know how to manage your computer in the first place, then imaging becomes a mute factor given what it'll take just to use it.

[NickH]

Thanks for all you info here, I am certainly interested in what you are writing - I read your posts to the other person with great interest.

Now a problem with the CD I've made, it won't launch. I get a directory labelled Recovery Manager with 7 files in, none of which do anything.. One is called Bootmenu. but it goes nowhere..
Nick

Edited by NickH, 27 September 2009 - 03:32 PM.

[makai]

I'm a little confused. What CD are you referring to, and how did you create it?

[NickH]

I got to here:

http://www.seagate.c...oads/discwizard

following your instructions and downloaded the DiscWizard in English, or so I thought..

[makai]

I currently run the full version of Acronis, so the menus are different than shown on the Seagate Acronis. I do have my "experimental laptop" that I use for experimenting with software, so I'll install Seagate Acronis and see if I can go through with creating the boot CD. It'll probably take a little while, but I'll be back shortly.

[NickH]

Okay that's great - no hurry as I'm off to bed now at midnight local..
Nick

[makai]

Well, come to find out I had already installed the application on my laptop. Must have been when I was helping someone else.

In any case, making the boot disc was pretty much straight forward. I just went to Start>All Programs>Seagate>Seagate DiscWizard>Bootable Media Builder...
When the Welcome screen launched, I clicked on Next
Then put a checkmark in Seagate DiscWizard (Full version), clicked on Next
In the next window, I just clicked on Next
In the next window, I selected my CDROM drive, and clicked on Next
In the next window, I clicked on Proceed and the boot disc was created

Not sure what the problem is with your setup?

When you restarted your computer, did you set it to boot from the CDROM? (tap F8, F10, F12 or some other key to get the boot device menu, or change the boot order in bios to CDROM)

The Seagate CD is bootable, so it should boot into the Seagate welcome screen where you'll have the option of choosing Windows, or Seagate DiscWizard (Full Version). Choosing Seagate DiscWizard will take you into the application. Unfortunately, I don't own any Seagate drives that this utility will work on (no desktop Sata support apparently), so I can't get any further than this. I imagine that once you get into the utility, it should be somewhat easy to follow along. Read the manual too to see if it will help with this.

[NickH]

I've realised you spotted my mistake - tried to run the CD without changing the BIOS boot order settings, so nothing happened. Haven't run it properl yet, but I'm sure I'll bre able to once I sort out my BIOS.
I just need a day or two to sort out what I'm going to do, if that's okay. I'm coming up with a few questions too, like:
What exactly does the Acronis/Seagate CD do for me?
Would it be a good idea for me to get a full copy of Acronis?
I'm unclear how the rebuild is going to occur, can you give me an idea of what will happen?
Will I be using my Philips Recovery Discs to provide me with my Windows software?
Will we be able to retain my drivers to be put back on?
I am confident that I can follow instructions given,m but lack the experience to do complicated stuff without guidance.
After reading your info, I am considering a disk partition structure as follows:
C: 22Gb Programmes + OS stuff
D: 38Gb Data
E: 50Gb Music, photos
F: 140Gb:Video
Does that sound sensible? I still worry that C: may not be big enough - I currently have 13Gb of programmes alone.
Sorry to be appearing to drag my feet a little, but it's been a difficult day - my internet was down for a few hours - crisis, as I rely on it for work.. Anyway all is well now..
Nick

Edited by NickH, 28 September 2009 - 03:31 PM.

[makai]

Yup, you sure have a lot of questions!

What exactly does the Acronis/Seagate CD do for me?
The CD will allow you to format the harddrive. It's also has the capability of imaging... for free!

Would it be a good idea for me to get a full copy of Acronis?
Hmmm... I wouldn't bother with this right now. Try to free version out and if you like it, then consider buying the full one.

I'm unclear how the rebuild is going to occur, can you give me an idea of what will happen?
All you're going to do is reformat the hard drive (partition if you want), then install as you normally would.

Will I be using my Philips Recovery Discs to provide me with my Windows software?
Yes, although, I really don't know how Phillips has set up their disc. I'm hoping it's just an XP disk with drivers Phillips has added for their machines.

Will we be able to retain my drivers to be put back on?
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "retain my drivers".

After reading your info, I am considering a disk partition structure as follows:
C: 22Gb Programmes + OS stuff
D: 38Gb Data
E: 50Gb Music, photos
F: 140Gb:Video
Does that sound sensible? I still worry that C: may not be big enough - I currently have 13Gb of programmes alone.

Partitions sound fine, but 13GBs of Programs doesn't sound right. Are you certain this figure doesn't also include data? What kind of programs are you running, which program is the largest, and where are you getting the 13gb figure from?