Drive partitioning safety question

[Wiggins]

Hi,
I am interested in making a drive image for a computer with a hdd and a 32 gb ssd cache. I'm not to clear on how that works other than that the end result is things run faster. Is it safe to do the drive partitioning on such a computer?
Thanks!

[Anupam]

Hi Wiggins, welcome to the forum .

Things are a bit unclear in the query... please clear them up.

Do you want to make an image of the drive, or do partition? Because, both are different things.
Or, do you want to do both?

Also, neither partitioning, nor the drive imaging, makes the computer run faster.

Partitioning divides the hard disk into logical partitions... whereas imaging is used to make an image of the hard disk, which can be put on another hard disk to put the exact contents of first hard disk on second, without going through the actual process of having to reinstall everything from scratch. So, it saves a lot of time.

[Wiggins]

Thanks! Sry for the confusion. I meant that the ssd cache makes things run faster than with the hdd drive alone. I understand that imaging won't make things run faster, but I want the drive image for security and convenience.

I want to make a partition to make the image as Advised in gizmo's Never re-install windows again guides. So I want to do both eventually.

I guess I'm worried that partitioning the hard drive will somehow make the ssd cache technology which comes withmy laptop not work... Is it safe to just follow the guide as is?

[Anupam]

Thanks for explaining. It's clear now .

I was not aware of SSD Caching, and I had to read up on that.

On reading about it, I don't think partitioning the drive will have any adverse effect on the SSD caching. It will continue to function without any trouble.

SSD Caching uses another smaller SSD hard disk, and this is used for storing the frequently accessed data on it temporarily as cache, so that repeated access of that data is faster.

This concept is also used normally, but that area is on the hard disk itself. But, since SSD hard disks are faster, having this data on these hard disks makes the process faster. As it's a separate hard disk, partitioning your main hard disk wont have adverse effect on the caching process.

I will however caution on the process of partitioning a drive, which is running on system, and already has data on it. Partitioning an empty hard disk is a safe process, but partitioning a hard disk with data on it, can sometimes have the risk of data loss, in case of any problems during partitioning process. So, make sure that you properly backup your important data first, before partitioning a hard disk with data on it.

Also, you can use different software from the ones mentioned in the guide. Here are other partitioning software which you can use :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...on-manager.htm

There are other drive imaging software too. The one I like personally is Paragon Backup and Restore. Review here :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ng-program.htm

[Wiggins]

Thanks! One other quick question. In his guide, Gizmo recommends making a bootcd. I found a boot cd which I can just download and burn called falconfour's ultimate boot cd. Will that work just as well for me? I just want one for emergencies.

[Anupam]

I never heard about Falconfour's ultimate bootcd before. I had to look it up on Google. I would not recommend it... because, first, its site is rated red by WOT. Secondly, the CD itself is based on Hiren's boot cd. So, if you want to download, go for Hiren's boot cd, which is quite popular.

But, a word of advice about Hiren's boot cd too. Although the CD is quite popular on the internet, but on many of the site and forums, it's banned. Reason being, there are some shareware stuff on that CD, for which licenses might be a problem. Although, a few months ago, we had a comment from maybe one of the team of that CD makers, and they said that most of stuff on there is freeware. I checked it out, and indeed it is so, but still, there are a few shareware on the CD, about which license might be a problem. I am not sure, and I don't know what the current status regarding that CD is. So, caution is advised.

What Gizmo recommends in his article, UBCD4Win, is however, a great CD, with no such issues as above. And that CD is also quite popular. Also, earlier, I think the CD needed to be built, but now, its available as a whole single download. So, it should not be a problem.

Another one that Gizmo recommended in this article is :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/crea...-rescue-cd.htm

Ultimate Boot CD, which can also be considered as a great tool to have in case of emergencies.