Partitioning an external drive (USB).

[KillrBuckeye]

This may be a stupid question, but I have never owned an external HDD. Can I make multiple partitions on an external hard drive such that Windows will just assign more than one drive letter when I plug it in? I guess I'm just accustomed to plugging in a USB device and seeing a single drive letter mounted. It makes me wonder if multiple if multiple drive letters could be associated with a single USB device.

But would there be any advantage to having multiple partitions on an external drive that is used solely as storage? I have a WinXP/Ubuntu Linux dual boot machine, and a WinXP-only machine. I use Acronis True Image 8.0 to create images of my Windows partitions. My understanding is that True Image can make images of ext2/ext3 partitions, but I can't recall the format in which these image files are stored. If they are NTFS, then I guess I really wouldn't need more than one large NTFS partition on my external drive, right?

[nikhsub1]

It would be, IMO pointless to partition a drive for storage. It is not like there is a system on there that will go corrupt and need to be reformatted. Anyway, have a look at DriveImage XML, it is FREE imaging software and I find it much better than Acronis and you can make a killer boot CD to restore images etc with network support and all sorts of goodies. http://runtime.org/dixml.htm

[KillrBuckeye]

It would be, IMO pointless to partition a drive for storage. It is not like there is a system on there that will go corrupt and need to be reformatted. Anyway, have a look at DriveImage XML, it is FREE imaging software and I find it much better than Acronis and you can make a killer boot CD to restore images etc with network support and all sorts of goodies. http://runtime.org/dixml.htmYeah, the only reason I was considering multiple partitions is to have different filesystems. For instance, I wouldn't be able to write any data to the drive from Linux if I used a single NTFS partition.

Regarding the DriveImage XML program, I'm just curious as to why you like it better than Acronis. It appears to have several limitations when compared to Acronis (can't restore to a smaller partition, no compression, no ability to mount the image and access individual files), and I have heard that it is much slower than Acronis. That being said, I have experienced the occassional corrupt image while using Acronis, and it's rather annoying. If DriveImage XLM is more reliable, I would give it a shot.

[nikhsub1]

Yeah, the only reason I was considering multiple partitions is to have different filesystems. For instance, I wouldn't be able to write any data to the drive from Linux if I used a single NTFS partition.

Regarding the DriveImage XML program, I'm just curious as to why you like it better than Acronis. It appears to have several limitations when compared to Acronis (can't restore to a smaller partition, no compression, no ability to mount the image and access individual files), and I have heard that it is much slower than Acronis. That being said, I have experienced the occassional corrupt image while using Acronis, and it's rather annoying. If DriveImage XLM is more reliable, I would give it a shot.
You are right, the one thing you can NOT do is restore to a smaller partition, you can restore to a larger partition though. It does have compression and the ability to breakup a large image into multiple pieces, and yes you can mount the image and browse the files. This is right from the page I just linked you to, I have used all these features, and it is NOT slow!

The program allows you to:

* Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
* Browse these images, view and extract files
* Restore these images to the same or a different drive
* Copy directly from drive to drive
* Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler

Anyway, it is free you should download it a play around with it. I use it more than my Acronis :D

[KillrBuckeye]

You are right, the one thing you can NOT do is restore to a smaller partition, you can restore to a larger partition though. It does have compression and the ability to breakup a large image into multiple pieces, and yes you can mount the image and browse the files. This is right from the page I just linked you to, I have used all these features, and it is NOT slow!Ah, sorry. I got confused when reading the FAQ page. It's only the "RAW" format that doesn't allow you to browse through the images. Do you know if this program allows you to image the active (system) partition while running it in Windows?

[nikhsub1]

Do you know if this program allows you to image the active (system) partition while running it in Windows?
Sure does!