Introduction: The moment the 120GB "large-capacity hard drive" appeared, how to reasonably partition the large hard drive quickly became the focus of heated discussions among users. Especially after Microsoft released the Windows ”, the discussion was very lively. Finally, during the period when Windows XP became popular, everyone seemed to have acquiesced in the statement that "3 to 4 partitions are more reasonable." But now, with the release of Windows 7, the topic of "how to partition" has once again attracted the attention of users.
Why did the controversy that had been settled in the Windows XP era reappear after the release of Windows 7? The author believes that this is related to the rigid requirements of the two generations of operating systems on system format partitions.
With the emergence of NTFS formatted partitions in Windows 2000, users basically did not agree with it at the beginning. This is reflected in the fact that users will habitually choose FAT32 every time they install the system, ignoring the existence of NTFS. Until the release of Windows XP, more and more users were influenced by "NTFS is more secure than FAT32" and slowly began to use NTFS formatted partitions in Windows XP. (Another reason is that the FAT32 format cannot save files larger than 4GB, which is also an important reason why many users enable FAT32 in Windows XP and switch to NTFS.)
It was the improvement of the disk management format that paved the way for users to once again raise the controversy of "how to partition large hard disks reasonably" after the release of Windows 7. Why do you say that?
On the official Microsoft Windows 7 Chinese page, there is this description: "The location where you save your backup depends on the available hardware and the information you want to save in the backup. For maximum flexibility, it is recommended that you save your backup on an external hard drive ”
From this, some computer users understand that Microsoft explains the benefits of backing up files to an "external hard drive" from both positive and negative aspects. In fact, it means that in addition to backing up important files on the external hard drive, the internal hard drive is actually divided into Just one area is enough. The reasons for users who hold this view are as follows:
1. Even if the Windows 7 system crashes and the user overwrites the installation, the user data will not be damaged due to the existence of the "Windows.old" file;
Trivia: What is "Windows.old"?
Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, when the user installs the system by overwriting, the system will automatically generate a "Windows.old" file in the original system hard disk partition. After reinstallation, Windows 7 will transfer the files in the three directories "Windows", "Program Files" and "Users" in the original system to the "Windows.old" folder.
2. No need to temporarily "move space" to copy large files;
3. Facilitates library file management and indexing under Windows 7, and users will not be slowed down by searching for files across partitions;
4. Hard disk space utilization can be maximized.
In addition, users who think that Windows 7 can only be divided into one partition also listed the reasons why:
1. For multi-partition users, when using software such as PQ to repartition the hard disk, it is easy to lose data, even partition table errors may occur, and extremely dangerous problems with hard disk identification may occur.
2. Using Ghost to redo the system is equivalent to completing the formatting and making it completely new and safe. This will cause all the original partition data to be lost. (Due to the existence of the "Windows.old" file during system restore or installation under Windows 7, users will not lose data.)
Users who oppose the use of one partition under Windows 7 still refute it on the grounds that "multi-partition" is easier to manage files, and believe that the "multi-partition" method, after so many years of testing under Windows XP, shows that it is a reasonable method of disk management.
Afterword:
From the perspective of an ordinary user, the author believes that the library file management method introduced by Microsoft for Windows 7 has basically satisfied the need for "a large hard disk with only one partition". Especially for the management and search of library index files, it can completely replace the Windows XP Explorer. But if there are multiple partitions, users still need to index different partitions (or partition files), which is undoubtedly an extra detour for themselves.