With Windows 7's release just around the corner, now's a great time to get your PC ready for the new operating system. First step: separate your data onto a dedicated partition. A partition is what ...

I agree with this recommendation on every operating system you might use, including Windows Vista. As a matter of aesthetics, it's nice to keep your data from mingling with system files, and as a ...

At the heart of every PC is a storage drive, which stores the Microsoft Windows operating system and also contains space for your personal data, documents, photos, and applications. Regardless of ...

Cedric Crawley wants to keep Windows 7 and his applications in one partition, and his data in another. Creating a separate data partition protects both your system and your data. See Reasons to ...

A multiple-partition setup helps organize your data, because you can dedicate blocks of storage to a specific task. As an example, you might have programs on your C: partition and business documents ...

Leo knows that data is safer if you don’t keep it on the same partition as Windows and your programs. Last week I explained fixing this in XP; now I’ll tackle Vista. Restoring Windows to its brand-new ...

Reader Kevin Riley has a splitting dilemma. He writes: I have a 1TB FireWire hard drive that is about a quarter full. I’d like to partition the drive but don’t want to have to back up all my data to ...