Partitioning my dm1's HDD

[KingRoach]

Hello,

I've just got a dm1-1110sa, which is still under warranty. And I have a few questions.

I'll start with the unrelated, rather very simple ones.

1. Is this external drive LightScribe compatible? It doesn't say LightScribe anywhere! The seller said it is, so I need to make sure he's not lying to me. How do I quickly make sure it is?

2. There's a SIM module under the battery. Can I use it for 3G networking with ANY provider? I didn't find the software to operate it.

As for the main, troublesome question that brings me to this forum. I've never been a fan of how HP parition their HDD's, and I need something different. Here's the info:

The 500GB HDD is, by default, partitioned into:

1. no letter: 199MB (primary, system, active). Invisible, only shows in disk management from administrative tools.

2. C: 431GB (primary, pagefile, crash dump, boot) Windows and everything else.

3. D: 11.79GB (primary) Recovery partition

4. E: 103MB (primary) HP_TOOLS

Okay, as you can see, all partitions are PRIMARY.

First I would like to know what is the function of the first and last, as these are new for me. My last HP had only system and recovery parititions.

Second, I would like to get rid of unnecessary paritions if any, and make a large, humongous parition for my personal files. This helps me use my own means for backup, and this wasy I can organize my stuff better, and even use my own system image methods for fast recovery.

And here's what I need:

1. I don't know what these two partitions do.

2. I cannot just delete them since they are allocated first and last on the HDD. I have a bad feeling about what this is going to do to my MBR.

Besides, the first partition without a letter is active, (I'm guessing that is where HP QuickWeb is!), while the C: partition is bootable. I've been off-tech for quite some time so I'm not familiar with any of this, and definiltey not familiar with anything that has so do with post-Vista MBR's. I just know they're different. So what in the world do I have here?

3. What are HP_TOOLS and do they have to be on a separate parition?

4. Shrinking the system (C partition to create unallocated space sounds like a problem. Last time I did this on my previous HP, recovery stopped working.

5. Why are they all primary? don't we use extended and logical drives anymore?

Goal:

1. having a SMALL system partition, so I can image it to a file for super-quick backup and recovery. Ghost-style.

2. having a separate drive for my personal and work files, so I can log changes and sync backups to an external drive.

3. cut down on clutter. I don't like seeing many drives which have no direct, personal use for me.

all while keeping things clean in case I need to run HDD recovery or DVD recover again and get things back to factory settings.

I'm hoping for a quick reply as I have quite a few things to sort out in short time, but I thank you anyway for any help or advice you can offer.

[HaggisCat]

I will tell you what I know from what I have learned here on the site, rather the to solve your problem.

 If you start changing the partitions on an HP laptop you will loose the ability to recover the laptop from the recovery partition by pushing f11. I recommend making a set of recovery disks using the recovery manager before doing anything with the partitions. Use Sony DVD+R. Not rewritable. Ounce you have created the recovery DVD(s) you can use the recovery manager to delete the recovery partition. Do not delete it in computer management.

 Ounce that is gone you can create your partition.

 Hp tools contains the functions of the recovery manager, so you could delete this, but I am going to caution you here because I deleted this on my dv8 after making recovery disk's and the laptop would not boot.

 So you will have to make use of your recovery disks you just made.

 The other hidden partition (199MB) is absolutely necessary. It is a W7 safety feature, the boot command protocols are in there. On Vista this was not made separate and became easily corrupted in case of a virus attack.

 You can use http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html rather than Windows disk management, it's more versatile.

 If you want your files safe and easily accessible a better way to go is to use an external hard drive. It is away from the heat of the laptop and only runs when it's plugged in. When the hard drive fails in your laptop (stops spinning) you will not be able to access your files on your new partition, but they will be safe and accessible on the external hard drive.

 See this thread to create back up.

 http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operating-systems-and-software/Custom-Recovery-Options/td-p/329260

 In my case W7 also has a set up where you can create back up (on your external hard drive) and you can also create a system repair disk.

 This is very useful when you try to boot up your machine and it won't. W7 will ask "please insert your system repair disk" (lots of people in this boat)

 No body ever seems to create this repair disk and they have to find a retail copy of W7, which will also do the job.

 If you are using this machine for school and you need it for Monday, don't start messing with your partitions. 

[KingRoach]

Thanks a lot. I am likely to keep things the way they are now.

The laptop I have was bought second hand, and the first user has given me what he labeled "rapair disk" and "recovery disks". Is there a way I can verify the integrity of these disks without actually having to use them (run recovery from them and see how it ends up). I know HP only allows you to create that set once.

As for backups, that was pretty much what I do. However, having a very small, system+application only parittion allows me to image the drive in its perfect/preferred state, so it restores to that state (in case of virus, for example) without touching the personal data on another drive. The data parition would be ever-changing with added and edited files, so it cannot go into the image. (in this case, I'm talking about burning the image onto an optical disc; saves space on the HDD, and on the shelf).

So, on to plan B.

My HDD in the laptop is a 500GB one. I have a Transcend external USB HDD that is also 500GB. Transcend has its own backup software, which I haven't tried, and I don't know about its capabilities, but say:

If I use something like, say Norton Ghost, to perform a Disk to Disk image. Does that copy all previous paritions detailed above, with all their system and boot sectors, and in the future, restores them to a working state, to and from the USB HDD?

In other words, is anything up there security-locked so it cannot be "copied" onto another disk?

PS: I was hoping for some software which logs changes to anything within a certain folder and only backs up the changed, added or deleted files. Saves a lot of time with huge archives, doesn't it?

[HaggisCat]

See this to make a new set of recovery disk's.

 http://www.thefakegeek.com/2008/07/tweaks-make-more-then-one-recovery-disc-on-hps/

Here is the thread I got it from.

  http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operating-systems-and-software/Need-to-burn-a-second-set-of-recovery-CD...

Here's another one

 http://www.notebookforums.com/thread219603.html

 I don't know if any of these will work, as i have never tried it.

Here are some screen shots of my factory recovery DVD's, yours should be similar, but probably not as large as there was a huge amount of bloat-ware installed on the dv8's. Other then this, there is no way of verifying if the previous owners set will work, other then to try them.

 

  

 Copying your hard drive with Norton Ghost does not work well when copying recovery partitions. Some have done that very thing and the recovery process simply does not work. HP went out of there way to keep people from doing things like that.

PS: I was hoping for some software which logs changes to anything within a certain folder and only backs up the changed, added or deleted files. Saves a lot of time with huge archives, doesn't it?

 I am not sure if Macrium Reflect will do that automatically, but I do know that it gives you a choice to back up everything, but it takes quite a while.

 I am not sure if this is the answer you are looking for.

 Something else to consider, being a used laptop, there is a chance the hard drive may fail if it's more then a year old. HP laptop's have a tendency to run hot and this shortens the life of the HD considerably.

[KingRoach]

Bummer! HP really likes to make the life of its customers Hard, doesn't it?

I mean, for God's sake, what damage is it for the company if a user can keep using his HP laptop for everything he needs? Last time I asked them about it they said it was binding agreements made with Microsoft that prevents them from allowing HDD partitioning. I'm guessing this for the included OS to set itself up Microsoft-style. Gosh! Those guys at Sillicon Valley! I've always thought they were idiots, but I can't say that in a forum, can I?

By the way, like the title says, my laptop is a dm1-1110sa, and it's 7 months old. I checked the warranty status from the HP assistant thing, and it's still covered by warranty until 12 Feb 2011. Not an old piece, is it? And you're right. I need that for school work. I'm doing MA and then hopefully a PhD, and I can't risk my files anymore.

If I use the Macruim Reflect back-up, I'm gonna have to be backing up, or in fact, imaging a 431GB drive every time! That's quite a lot!

That concludes: NO TO PARTITIONING. But... Alternatives to backup, anybody?

I seriously hate to see my files on a system-drive. A virus attack (though it's never happened to me) and poof!

[HaggisCat]

You van say what ever you like on this forum. If it's inappropriate it will get "bleeped" out, or one of the moderators will just delete it.  Their quite tolerant though.

 Don't use your school computer to download pirated software, stay away from Pirate Bay.com and other torrent sites. Those places are crawling with trojan horses and viruses. Googling is another bad habit, as you may well know.

[KingRoach]

Thanks for the advice.

I've been using the internet for over 10 years, non-stop, and I don't even use anti-virus software on my computer, AND I've never been infected. Haha, I just know the tricks to staying safe.

As for googling. Google is your friend; answers most questions and introduces you to anything you need to know. Just be careful what you click on. Always check the URLs before you click them. You get familiar with fake url style after a while, I guess. e_e

And I'm on a school network, so using torrents is illegal anyway. Gets me banned. So long my dream of a complete media library; but hey, I don't have time for that anyway! (You know what I mean, PhD Student!)

So yeah, I've never really "needed" a backup, but now I'm just not taking any risks. Hardware failure doesn't really need a reason to happen, so I'm staying on the safe side with my studies. I think the software on my Transcend drive does backup specific folders if you want. I'll try it first and come back to you with the outcome.