I received a good question recently which I really don’t have a good answer for since things were a little backwards on this one.
Ben told me that his desktop computer’s hard drive is divided into two separate drives – C and D. His C drive’s capacity was about 14 GB and the D drive’s was at 129 GB. He went on to ask, “Why is the hard drive divided that way and is there a way that I can shift some or all of the D drive’s 129 GB to the C drive?”
First off, that sounds normal but backwards.
Most modern computers today (sold as inexpensively as possible) do away with all the CD/DVDs that you got with a new computer in the past. In the old days you would get a DVD with the operating system on it and possibly a DVD with an emergency program on it that could be used to rebuild your computer if the hard drive went bad. Even if a severe virus hit it you could rebuild it the way it was the day it was purchased using one of those DVDs. This doesn’t even touch the many other programs that came with your new computer, such as the extras like games, Office programs, photo programs, etc.
Several years ago they started something new that saved the manufacturers money. They divided the hard drive (since they became larger for a smaller price) into two “partitions”. One is titled the C drive for your operating system and day-to-day use. Then the D drive was used to store all of those CD/DVDs. The D drive becomes a backup of your computer as it was the day you got it out of the box.
This makes it very convenient if your computer has to be rebuilt. You don’t have to search for the disks to restore all of your programs since they are already on your computer. Your manufacturer can tell you how to use it if needed.
Now, yes if your hard drive is totally destroyed you will have problems but that would most likely happen after your warranty period was up. By that time the manufacturers want you to buy a new computer anyway so they don’t worry about that situation.
Ben’s setup seemed wrong since the C drive should be the larger partition and the D drive is the smaller emergency/backup drive. For instance mine are set with the C = 222 GB and the D = 10 GB.
He did indicate that someone had done work on it for him and that could have caused the reversal. They are ways to fix it but you need to be a pretty advanced user. Ben can continue to use his computer without fear; it is just more “customized” than most.
Related Link: Partition Magic
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
