Hard drive partitions?

[walter_J64bit]

Do you need to use partitions on ST's hard drive? (Real hard wear)

[+Tillek]

Yes. Every hard drive has partitions. Even if it's only one partition.

[atarian1]

It's a good idea to have a small boot C: partition to get the maximum speed and for reliability. If something goes wrong with another partition, at least you can still boot from it. You don't have to defragment your boot partition like you do with other partitions to retain maximum speed. This assumes you don't write a lot of files to the boot partition compared to the other partitions.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I need to correct what 2 people posted before me.

Yes, there are usually partitions on hard drives. But in case of 1 partition only it is even not really logical to call it partition. What is actually relevant then is there MBR at start of the disk, or it starts straight with that 1 partition. MBR is master boot record, and it contains autoboot code and layout of max 4 primary partitions. But usual case is that only 2 slots are used when there is lot of partitions - one is primary, other is for extended, and there is chain of links for next extended partition from each, in order.

My drivers support all it, so will detect single partition if there is no MBR, Of course, that can not autoboot, so will work only if system boots from some other disk, or from floppy. Rare case by Atari, but I seen such,

 

Size of partition C has nothing with speed and reliability. And saying that you don't have to defragment it is also wrong. Even more wrong is to say that don't write there lot of files - waste of disk space.

Explanation: it was in old times that C partition should be of smaller size, and the reason was in driver SW. Funny thing is that I getting often mails where people still saying that set C on some very small capacity, even when in usage says that no special limit for C.

Speed does not depend from size of partition. Actually, in case of larger files it is better on larger partition, in case of smaller sizes is better on smaller partition (as result of different logical sector sizes) , But that's really small difference, so I don't think that anyone should care.

If something goes wrong with C, you can boot from floppy - stays rather for other hard disk drivers. Mine loads driver not from C, so if it gets screwed, still can autoboot and access other partitions.

 

Considering today most available Flash card capacities - what is 8 GB for instance, Atari user can do only 1 wise thing: creating 14 x 511-512 MB partitions, That will fill card pretty close to 100% - because real capacity is newer full 8 GB, but usually some 7.2-7.6 GB. Stays for TOS 1.04 and higher. 1.00 and 1.02 have limit of 256 MB max partition size.

[walter_J64bit]

 

Explanation: it was in old times that C partition should be of smaller size, and the reason was in driver SW. Funny thing is that I getting often mails where people still saying that set C on some very small capacity, even when in usage says that no special limit for C.

Speed does not depend from size of partition. Actually, in case of larger files it is better on larger partition, in case of smaller sizes is better on smaller partition (as result of different logical sector sizes) , But that's really small difference, so I don't think that anyone should care.

If something goes wrong with C, you can boot from floppy - stays rather for other hard disk drivers. Mine loads driver not from C, so if it gets screwed, still can autoboot and access other partitions.

 

Considering today most available Flash card capacities - what is 8 GB for instance, Atari user can do only 1 wise thing: creating 14 x 511-512 MB partitions, That will fill card pretty close to 100% - because real capacity is newer full 8 GB, but usually some 7.2-7.6 GB. Stays for TOS 1.04 and higher. 1.00 and 1.02 have limit of 256 MB max partition size.

OK, that is what I was thinking, back when I had just a 1040STf with TOS 1.00 I could only do the max 256MB partition size so with TOS 1.62 I could get a way from having multiple partition, could I setup my 160MB Hard drive without have any partitions.

[+DarkLord]

I have to agree with the view on the C partition/drive.

 

I've got a 512 meg C partition on the Mega ST that runs my BBS. It's where

the BBS software is stored. I've been running it on the same 4 gig SCSI hard

drive since the mid 90's or so.

 

Think about that for a moment. All the read/writes that the BBS software does

to that partition, over that length of time and I've never ran fragmentation

software on it and it still gives no errors.

 

Or maybe I'm just lucky as all get out.

[game_player_s]

I have to agree with the view on the C partition/drive.

 

I've got a 512 meg C partition on the Mega ST that runs my BBS. It's where

the BBS software is stored. I've been running it on the same 4 gig SCSI hard

drive since the mid 90's or so.

 

Think about that for a moment. All the read/writes that the BBS software does

to that partition, over that length of time and I've never ran fragmentation

software on it and it still gives no errors.

 

Or maybe I'm just lucky as all get out.

They sure don't make them like they use to! One is lucky now if their modern HDD lasts five years without incident.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

They sure don't make them like they use to! One is lucky now if their modern HDD lasts five years without incident.

Well, that's not entirely true. I used 200 GB Maxtor PATA drive 9 years, and in average 20 hours per day. Then it's mechanic just gave up - did not spin up every time, sometimes stopped in middle of work. But no data damaged, and I can still access everything on it. So, some are very robust, On the other side, I had in past much more failures with 40-180 MB drives.

Quality of PSU is also very important.