Can Hard Drive be All-Extended

[MegalosSkylaki]

that is, without a primary partition, when you put a HDD in one of those External case boxes ?

Why ? In order to be able to use on diferent Computers ?

Otherwise, would it have to have as many Primarary partitions as Computers to be used on ?

How big a HDD could be all=extended (non-primary) drive ?

DOOOOOG

[LeftCoast]

I think so.

That's the point of the external enclosure, I believe. It just gets read like another drive letter, the same as if it was a jump drive.

[sechs]

Each physical drive can have up to four primary partitions. An extended partitions is a special type of primary partition which holds other partitions, and is used to get past the four-partition limit.

Therefore, you can have just of extended partition on a drive.

[zepper]

Yes, but you lose the first track or cylinder as extended partitions can't start in the first track. Up until Win XP where you can change drive letters pretty much at will, you had to do that with any HDs you added or the drive letters would get messed up, assuming you set up your first drive with multiple partitons.
..bh.

[MegalosSkylaki]

So what is my best overall solution:

a Primary drive equal to the whole drive, with the HDDcase set as Slave, not Auto to make sure its inactive.

Would that work across Computers?

Require I change drive letters (able under XP) each time I reposition it to avoid screwing up drive lettering?

Any negotiable limits that need setting in BIOS, or non-negotiable limits: like drive too big (say 120 or 160 G) ?

Drives have come down (due to SATA ?) in price tp the point where a WD 80G 8Mb cache goes OEM for USD$75. But an extra removable drive for each computer might grow confusing to Newbie DOOGie.

[sechs]

I'm sorry zepper, but you have no idea what you're talking about.

Partitioning doesn't matter. All x86 OSes recognize partitioned disks. Yes, when you take a drive from one computer to another, the letters may change, but that's because drive lettering is local to a computer -- not universal. There's nothing that you can do about that.

There are no "negotiable limits" for drives. If your computer and OS do not support 48-bit LBA, you may be limited to ~137GB, but that is easy to overcome.

I would not suggest buying a Western Digital drive.

[zepper]

I am sorry too, sechs...
. I've been doing this stuff for 20+ years and know partitioning pretty well. If you set up your first hard drive with a primary and an extended partition with two logical drives (say the assigned drive letters are: C:, D:, E.
. And sometime later you add a second drive. If you partition the second drive with a primary partition, that will become D:; and if you also have an extended partition with two logical drives, they will start with G: while the original logical drives will become E: and F:.
Here it is in tabular form:
log.Drv.--------- Location
C:----------------Drv.0-Pri.Part
D:----------------Drv.1-Pri.Part
E:----------------Drv.0-Ext.Part
F:----------------Drv.0-Ext.Part
G:---------------Drv.1-Ext.Part
H:---------------Drv.1-Ext.Part

. If you partition your second drive as Extended only, then the drive letters wouldn't get shuffled. This was all pre-XP.

. I always partition my main hard drives with primary and extended partitions with several logical drives in my extended partitions. But if you only do primary partitions on all your hard drives, then this problem wouldn't arise. I consider it lazy and inefficient to set drives up that way...
. It is also true than an extended partiton can't begin in the first track.
. <w,ft>...
.bh.

[sechs]

Baloney. You've simply proven that you don't know of what you type.

Windows 2000's drive letters don't change when you add a drive. It's pre-XP.

An extended partition *is* a primary partition. Although there is no point to it, you can put four extended partitions on a disk.

You can (and I have) partitioned disks with only a single extended partition. Once again, there is pretty much no point to doing this, but it can be done.

[MegalosSkylaki]

No, that's the Indi DVD !

If you don't mind a newbie intruding -and I've encountered this problem also reading about Partitions in the past --is that sometimes disagreements are less substance than semantics.

By that I mean trhat terms are sometimes used inslightly different ways, perhaps one the strict definition, the other the general usage or such.....

Perhaps it would clarify a lot if both you learned Members tried to first establish some basic definations -so we are all on the same page..err, partition

MegalosSkylaki

First of all, is the Primary partition a subset of the Extended Partition ? Or is the Extended Partition what remains, after you subtract the Primary ? Or primaries?

I'm not so much concerned about losing some Drive space, But there are two reasons for using one external drive for several computers.:

I) to be able to Backup all Computers on one storable off-site HDD:
II) to be able to travel if need be to computers in different States --DOOG is bi-coastal again.

I could see using a 120G or 160 G HDD for this purpose.

I also have some Maxtor 80's and 120'G 8Mb cach HDD I'd like to se for both Video and Photo storage and could even 'dedicate' one per Computer --rather than permantly installing them.

However, hoiw would I then cross computers -if I wanted to take say Videos from NY to CA? With computers on both Coasts ?

DVD's are a simple solution, but nothing is better than simply plugging in a HDD. Also, the SW to open some files, may have to be transferred as well and I'm thinking the EULA's on some SW may be problematic.

To install the SW as will, I'd need a primary Partition would I not? Could that be done on a secondary HDD if the OS is on the Primary HDD ?

I still remember when SW could be installed on several Computers, then one computer, then one hard drive --not so ?

Also, because I am still new at this, and not setlled my ways, I need some flexibility about which is the Media Computer, Photo, Internet crossed by which is NY vs. CA.

So I value solutions that aren't difficult to reverse or move between different Computers in same house --or across states, where the SW is elsewhere.

Could I create Four Primaries and then "Ghost" one Computer backup "Image" to each ? So long as Data doesn't exceed Total size?

I've never "ghosted" before, so do I need the SW disks to do it ?

Yes, Gentlemen, any one of these would be of help.

One solution is to build from a Small Form Factor (SFF) 'cubes' like the Shuttle XPC, and be able to carry on airplane...

But still need reliable and convenient backups.

ThanX,

MegalosSkylaki

[jmichna]

aghhh!!!! please ignore... initial post hung up... TechIMO not running very well tonight.