Noob's HDD Partitioning Questions

1.   What are the pros and cons of partitioning a drive ?

     Partitioning is generally done because you are trying to address a problem. If you want to run multiple operating systems, that would be a reason to partition (ie. vista and W7 or Linux and Win7. Partitioning is done if you want to segregate data. This could be data you want to share vs data you don't want to share or it could be OS data vs application data.

2.   Is there a tutorial ?

     Partitioning is done within the disk management menu item.   Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management

There is a help facility though it is not particularly useful.

If you want to partition a volume, simply right click the partition and request to shrink it (assuming all disks are already formatted). Tell it how much to shrink the volume (the amount you shrink will be the size of the new partition). Once the volume has been shrunk, you can format the newly unallocated space and assign a drive letter.

3. I have no experience with Acronis.

on-line banking has nothing to do with your os.

it has to do with your browser and browsing habits.

if you know your banks address and bookmark it and use the bookmark to go there you will be ok. otherwise if you get phished, your os won't matter.

whatever that is used the most on the net has the most security problems, cause that is what the hackers go after.

for example Internet explorer for the longest time was the most used browser and also the least secure browser.

Now firefox has just passed IE and now its the most used browser, now you wanna guess what browser is now the least secure browser? thats right firefox.

now does this mean that IE and opera and other browsers are safe? no, they are just not as bad as firefox.

the same goes for os, windows is the most used so windows has the most security issues, but that does not mean that apple or linux are safe, they are just not as bad, but that will change as they get more popular.

your on-line banking has nothing to do with your os. the only way you gonna have problems banking on-line, is if you get phished and think you are at the banks site when you are not, and enter your info which is then grabbed by the hackers.

you can be phished no matter what os or browser you use, specially if its being done on the server/dns level.

as for partitioning, the more simple you keep your setup the less headache you will have, so don't partition unless you have to.

Edited by DST4ME - 17 Nov 2009 at 4:45pm

My pleasure

when going to banks, credit card website and etc.

always make sure you are at the correct address of the site by checking the url in the address box, once you are a 100% sure you are at the right website, bookmark it and use that bookmark to go that website from now on, that will filter many of the tactics hackers use.

lot of people just search for the name of the bank and then go there from search results,

what hackers do is get a address that is close to the address of the bank, something you won't notice unless you paid careful attention, and then they name it the same exact as your bank, so most people don't realize and use that search link to go to their bank, the fake website is setup exactly as the bank so you would never notice you are not really at your banks website, you enter your info and bam, they got your sign in info and its all downhill from there.

Edited by DST4ME - 18 Nov 2009 at 4:32pm