Wtf is this BS?

[Liquid validity]

I don't see any advantage in splitting a single physical drive into two virtual drives. Under the old FAT16 system there were partition limits and an advantage because you ended up with smaller cluster sizes, but since FAT32 and NTFS there is no real advantage. If your hard drive fails you lose everything.

True, its not about guarding against hardware failure.
You can only do that with RAID really.

Its simply so that the OS image clone you create isn't too big.
It also means with data separation that your data remains untouched
when you restore an HDD image clone.

Say you did a clone 2 months ago, any data newer than 2 months
gets erased when you restore the clone.
With data separation that can't happen.

Having said that, if you have more than one physical drive there isn't really any need.
Although it does still keep image clone size down.

 

[new_trader]

True, its not about guarding against hardware failure.
You can only do that with RAID really.

Its simply so that the OS image clone you create isn't too big.
It also means with data separation that your data remains untouched.

Say you did a clone 2 months ago, any data newer than 2 months
gets erased when you restore the clone.
With data separation that can't happen.

For me and most people, I would say the data is more important than the OS. If you get a virus, more often than not, the whole drive can become infected. I have a clone of the OS with installed apps and back up the data regularly but I still have just one drive. I don't experience any advantage with having two virtual drives because having Folders achieve the same thing. The drive heads have to do just as much work because they still have to move to the appropriate sector to access the data, whether it is in a folder or partition. Most cloning software allow you to backup folders.

 

[Liquid validity]

For me and most people, I would say the data is more important than the OS. If you get a virus, more often than not, the whole drive can become infected. I have a clone of the OS with installed apps and back up the data regularly but I still have just one drive. I don't experience any advantage with having two virtual drives because having Folders achieve the same thing. The drive heads have to do just as much work because they still have to move to the appropriate sector to access the data, whether it is in a folder or partition. Most cloning software allow you to backup folders.

Yes all true, as long as you backup each day.
Maybe a hangover from the win98 days with me,
it works and does the job.

The biggest reason for me is image file size.
You can't fit an entire drive image onto a DVD or USB.
Its a fair point that SSD or external drive solves that problem.
Even if you do use external, hard drives aren't great at archival.
So I personally prefer critical images like OS to be able to fit on USB / DVD (spanned or not).
Your way works as well, although I'd prefer to use SSD in that instance.

 

[new_trader]

Just to add: The other problem you face with virtual drives is how much space do you devote to each drive? The OS and applications take up the most drive space so unless you are doing Video editing, downloading MP3's and DVD's, what usually happens is you end up with a C drive running out of space and a D drive that is only 10% used. Then you want to install a new app and...no more space on drive C !

 

[Liquid validity]

Just to add: The other problem you face with virtual drives is how much space do you devote to each drive? The OS and applications take up the most drive space so unless you are doing Video editing, downloading MP3's and DVD's, what usually happens is you end up with a C drive running out of space and a D drive that is only 10% used. Then you want to install a new app and...no more space on drive C !

Again true.
In practice, with modern drive sizes, just allow each partition plenty of room.
I use software that can adjust virtual partition size on the fly.
Most other partition creation and resizing methods are destructive - data erased.

You are correct in saying it is, or at least was a common technique in video / music
production to use the fastest part of the drive.
RAID and removable caddy's will do the same thing, although that is overkill for most.
I use RAID, caddy's and partitions, for me its just easier to manage, that's all.

Its a fair point that it is not the only way of doing it.
Personally I wouldn't be keen on cloning the whole drive each day,
or manually backing up data folders though, unless you use
a backup utility to external.

 

[numbertea]

I have been victim of fire years ago so I backup my data on separate drive kept at home but also backup to a 32G SD card that I keep in my wallet. Ahh technology!

 

[Earthling]

Good idea with the SD card numbertea. I can get very small usb sticks, but the even flatter backup SD card in the wallet - I didn't think of that.
I have windows 7 and after last nights windows updates I have had freeze-death problems with my internet explorer, outlook express and word today, the only fix seems to be to close the applications with task manager and start again. MT4 doesn't seem affected. I might have to do a restore to a pre-update version if windows don't update their update.

 

[rsh01]

does everyone back their drives/folders up simply by ctrl + c/p?

or use an app (other than system backup) which does it automatically?

do ppl use clouds? (hopefully not)....or always copy to portable disk?

joe cole for england?

& who tf is jay lakhani?

 

[0007]

Agree separate partition for OS and take an image for restore.
Data is your most valuable asset & should be backed up after every change, to media independent of your main system eg usb stick, mem card, portable hard drive - with an offsite copy. This will guard against loss or destruction (eg fire, theft, mechanical failure) of your primary hardware.
Plenty of good paid-for software to do this. I personally use MS Synctoy which is free, very simple and reliable & does a good job of backing up your latest data-state (but not previous versions). A quick click or two after every data change does the job with no mucking around. If you want hi tech, complicated, expensive systems look elsewhere.

 

[malaguti]

View attachment 168214

A windows update has just done this to my computer. Everything that had a white background is now black. Photos, icons etc still display as per normal.

How do I get my laptop back to normal?

I'm searching the web right now, but not having any luck, and I know there are quite a few tech savvy guys here.

Cheers

I found the same happended when I was running a dodgy copy of windows..once upon a time..cough...so I might check the validation key, it was as simple as that for me

 

[Liquid validity]

does everyone back their drives/folders up simply by ctrl + c/p?

or use an app (other than system backup) which does it automatically?

do ppl use clouds? (hopefully not)....or always copy to portable disk?

Manual backup works but is crude and can miss files.
Cloud, no, firm goes bust, data kaput.
RAID 1 drive rotation increases chance of drive (rebuild array) and connector failure
(RAID is not for backup, just hardware redundancy).
Also all the data is open to infection, accidental delete etc.

Best way is to use one of these:
http://www.symantec.com/en/uk/system-recovery-desktop-edition
http://www.acronis.co.uk/backup-recovery/smallbusiness.html

Schedule backup every couple of hours for instance to HDD caddy.
Has to be said even the backup caddy is still open to infection.
Then again, you don't have to lock the caddy drive - so its not powered up all the time.
Another way would be SSD - dump an image clone periodically (say 3 image rotation - replace oldest).
No harm in using both to be sure.
That covers data.

I use separate image clones for OS partition.
The image is clean and not very old, whereas if you clone OS and data
together you are cloning any OS faults.
No historical image clone library can then make it harder to sort OS faults,
in my experience, the vast majority of problems can be sorted by just wiping the OS.