OK to have 500GB hard drive as one partition?

In article , Jad wrote:
DVD/CD 50 years, estimated - hard drives any given time they
are plugged in

And yet one hears of DVD media (in particular) that can't retain data for
more than a few weeks.

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not computer-written
ones) that have developed errors and become effectively useless over time
without any particularly poor handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD
Audio, so I have some disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary
thought) and I agree that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a
few are not. Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We have
more experience with hard drives.

Cheers,
Daniel.

"Daniel James" wrote in message
...
In article , Jad wrote:
DVD/CD 50 years, estimated - hard drives any given time they
are plugged in

And yet one hears of DVD media (in particular) that can't retain data for
more than a few weeks.

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not computer-written
ones) that have developed errors and become effectively useless over time
without any particularly poor handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD
Audio, so I have some disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary
thought) and I agree that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a
few are not. Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We have
more experience with hard drives.

yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable

"JAD" john wrote:


"Daniel James" wrote in message

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not
computer-written ones) that have developed errors and become
effectively useless over time without any particularly poor
handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD Audio, so I have
some disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary thought) and I
agree that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a few
are not. Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We
have more experience with hard drives.

yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable

That's vague.

"John Doe" wrote in message
...
"JAD" john wrote:


"Daniel James" wrote in message

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not
computer-written ones) that have developed errors and become
effectively useless over time without any particularly poor
handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD Audio, so I have
some disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary thought) and I
agree that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a few
are not. Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We
have more experience with hard drives.

yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable

That's vague.\

so are you

On 09 Mar 2007, JAD john wrote:


"Daniel James" wrote in message
...
In article , Jad wrote:
DVD/CD 50 years, estimated - hard drives any given time they
are plugged in

And yet one hears of DVD media (in particular) that can't retain
data for more than a few weeks.

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not
computer-written ones) that have developed errors and become
effectively useless over time without any particularly poor
handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD Audio, so I have some
disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary thought) and I agree
that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a few are not.
Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We have more
experience with hard drives.

yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable



Everything is unreliable. Everything is not perfect. What is it
about the reliability figures for hard drives which makes you pick
them out for comment?

"Jon D" wrote in message ...
On 09 Mar 2007, JAD john wrote:


"Daniel James" wrote in message
...
In article , Jad wrote:
DVD/CD 50 years, estimated - hard drives any given time they
are plugged in

And yet one hears of DVD media (in particular) that can't retain
data for more than a few weeks.

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not
computer-written ones) that have developed errors and become
effectively useless over time without any particularly poor
handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD Audio, so I have some
disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary thought) and I agree
that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a few are not.
Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We have more
experience with hard drives.

yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable



Everything is unreliable. Everything is not perfect. What is it
about the reliability figures for hard drives which makes you pick
them out for comment?


your kidding right? Hard drives are electro/mechanical for one thing

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:49:40 GMT, Jon D
wrote:

On 09 Mar 2007, JAD john wrote:


"Daniel James" wrote in message
...
In article , Jad wrote:
DVD/CD 50 years, estimated - hard drives any given time they
are plugged in

And yet one hears of DVD media (in particular) that can't retain
data for more than a few weeks.

I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not
computer-written ones) that have developed errors and become
effectively useless over time without any particularly poor
handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD Audio, so I have some
disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary thought) and I agree
that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a few are not.
Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We have more
experience with hard drives.

yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable



Everything is unreliable. Everything is not perfect. What is it
about the reliability figures for hard drives which makes you pick
them out for comment?

Because it's more significant to the average user?
Combine the cost of the drive (replacement or at least time
for RMA and recepit of replacement) with potential loss of
data. Many people would rather have some other part fail,
yet many other parts will have a longer lifespan if treated
well.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message

just the puerile **** thats all it can ever manage.

I'd never seen this user before. Is there some sort of keyword generator
that creates this, so that all is needed is a cut and paste? Better still
can you get this as an add-in for Outlook Express, so you just press a
button, it spews out the predictable response, and posts it ?

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 03:14:25 -0400, kony wrote:

:On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:49:40 GMT, Jon D
:wrote:
:
:On 09 Mar 2007, JAD john wrote:
:
:
: "Daniel James" wrote in message
: ...
: In article , Jad wrote:
: DVD/CD 50 years, estimated - hard drives any given time they
: are plugged in
:
: And yet one hears of DVD media (in particular) that can't retain
: data for more than a few weeks.
:
: I certainly have CDs (factory pressed audio CDs, not
: computer-written ones) that have developed errors and become
: effectively useless over time without any particularly poor
: handling. I was a fairly early adopter of CD Audio, so I have some
: disks that are 20 years old (there's a scary thought) and I agree
: that most of them are still perfectly playable, but a few are not.
: Who can really know how long a DVD+/-R will last? We have more
: experience with hard drives.
:
: yes and that experience shows that they are unreliable
:
:
:
:Everything is unreliable. Everything is not perfect. What is it
:about the reliability figures for hard drives which makes you pick
:them out for comment?
:
:Because it's more significant to the average user?
:Combine the cost of the drive (replacement or at least time
:for RMA and recepit of replacement) with potential loss of
:data. Many people would rather have some other part fail,
:yet many other parts will have a longer lifespan if treated
:well.

It's a known fact that ALL hard drives fail. The only questions a
When and can you afford not to back up?

Some hard disks will start giving you little warning signs like
whinning, clicking, or trouble with data retrieval. If you see one of
those signs, be afraid, be VERY afraid. RUN. Run out to your nearest
hardware guru and purchase a NEW hard disk and upon installaton, do a
data clone. Now I'm very old school, so I may not sound very up to
date with today's lingo. I come from the age of CP/M which a lot of
computer users today don't know what it even stands for. Anyone
remember the old 12" hard drives encased in huge plastic containers?
How about 8" floppy disks you could purchase Zork on? Zork? Anyone
remember Zork? I never did get past the cave.

To answer the topic question:

For the most part, YES, you can create a 500Gig partition. Buy why in
the hell would you want to? It will slow down the drive and if one
teeny weeny bit of corruption happens, you lose the whole drive. I
strongly recommend you partition it in two or three partitions. Now
with 1 Terrabyte drives out and larger behind them, I can see people
now with a 1TB partition. I just can't see a home user with one of
those drives. Gamers? Yeah, maybe, but you can be sure they are
smart enough to partition it into as many partitions as possible to
enhance data retrieval.

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:00:59 -0500, Terrabitte
wrote:


:Everything is unreliable. Everything is not perfect. What is it
:about the reliability figures for hard drives which makes you pick
:them out for comment?
:
:Because it's more significant to the average user?
:Combine the cost of the drive (replacement or at least time
:for RMA and recepit of replacement) with potential loss of
:data. Many people would rather have some other part fail,
:yet many other parts will have a longer lifespan if treated
:well.

It's a known fact that ALL hard drives fail. The only questions a
When and can you afford not to back up?


In theory yes, but most of mine never fail - because I
routinely replace them before their age becomes a
significant factor in demise. The way I see it, by that
point they're worth under $15 already, it's a small price to
pay for the time saved to do it at your leisure, and by
doing so when you see good prices on a desirable replacement
drive, the cost can be completely offset instead of having
it be an emergency buy-at-any-price, scenario. Plus having
old but still functional drives around comes in handy for
PSU loading or temporary testbed uses.



Some hard disks will start giving you little warning signs like
whinning, clicking, or trouble with data retrieval. If you see one of
those signs, be afraid, be VERY afraid. RUN. Run out to your nearest
hardware guru and purchase a NEW hard disk and upon installaton, do a
data clone. Now I'm very old school, so I may not sound very up to
date with today's lingo. I come from the age of CP/M which a lot of
computer users today don't know what it even stands for. Anyone
remember the old 12" hard drives encased in huge plastic containers?
How about 8" floppy disks you could purchase Zork on? Zork? Anyone
remember Zork? I never did get past the cave.

Yep I played Zork, got stuck at some point and ended up
cheating by looking at the code. Hadn't thought about it in
years. I don't miss tape drives one bit.


To answer the topic question:

For the most part, YES, you can create a 500Gig partition. Buy why in
the hell would you want to? It will slow down the drive and if one
teeny weeny bit of corruption happens, you lose the whole drive. I
strongly recommend you partition it in two or three partitions. Now
with 1 Terrabyte drives out and larger behind them, I can see people
now with a 1TB partition. I just can't see a home user with one of
those drives. Gamers? Yeah, maybe, but you can be sure they are
smart enough to partition it into as many partitions as possible to
enhance data retrieval.

The most obvious use for such a large partition would be as
a secondary, video storage. A few GB per file and it
doesn't take long to fill up a 500GB drive. I also use
large partitions like this to store other HDD partition
images for backup purposes, or at least one copy of it.