Seriously.... necessary to create partition or not?

[unruledboy]

I did a forum search and google search, no answer....

we all have some personal data that we don't want to lose, we can use SD card or even onedrive to store those data, but.... sometimes the data just don't fit: either too big or you just want to acces anytime you need...like a SQL Server database...

so, just in case, we need a system refresh / reset / format, it's better to have an individual partition for all personal data, right?

ok, I know normally 256GB after all those system and big apps there might not be too much space left, and if we still create a separate parition, it will complicate the further app installation space hunger....

 

[ctitanic]

Everything you are saying makes sense and can be done. As far as I remember you can split an existent partition without destroying the data on it. Now, if you are not too paranoiac about your data being in the cloud that's the way and the best way to have high availability of your data. For few dollars a year you can get 1 terabyte in OneDrive. I doubt that you will need more than that.

 

[guymalloc]

I ALWAYS use a separate storage device for personal data I do not want to lose. The problem with a separate partition is that if the main partition table or boot record on the drive is corrupted, your data partition is bye bye, you lose it anyway. I prefer an external hard drive for my portable devices, and every desktop I own has a separate, secondary hard drive that has my personal data. The way to really insure no loss of private data is to burn it on a single or dual-layer data dvd for archiving, and date it. Even if you lose all your hard drives, a data dvd will last 10 years at least....

 

[unruledboy]

Everything you are saying makes sense and can be done. As far as I remember you can split an existent partition without destroying the data on it. Now, if you are not too paranoiac about your data being in the cloud that's the way and the best way to have high availability of your data. For few dollars a year you can get 1 terabyte in OneDrive. I doubt that you will need more than that.

for onedrive, I will buy office 365 which comes with onedrive, that's like a failsafe backup.

 

[unruledboy]

I ALWAYS use a separate storage device for personal data I do not want to lose. The problem with a separate partition is that if the main partition table or boot record on the drive is corrupted, your data partition is bye bye, you lose it anyway. I prefer an external hard drive for my portable devices, and every desktop I own has a separate, secondary hard drive that has my personal data. The way to really insure no loss of private data is to burn it on a single or dual-layer data dvd for archiving, and date it. Even if you lose all your hard drives, a data dvd will last 10 years at least....

the problem with surface pro 3 there is only SD card, and sticking out USB is not that fancy...

I have a desktop machine, which has 4TB space, I can hold all the data there, but still, an isolated storage like cloud will be a perfect last resort.

the ultimate goal is: large safe space that can access anytime:
1. cloud can't access if there is no network and mobile internet data limit is always a big problem.
2. local disk has high availability, but can't access anywhere

 

[WorldIRC]

I use Dropbox for my backups.

 

[ctitanic]

for onedrive, I will buy office 365 which comes with onedrive, that's like a failsafe backup.

Exactly, you will get more for your money.

 

[ctitanic]

the problem with surface pro 3 there is only SD card, and sticking out USB is not that fancy...

I have a desktop machine, which has 4TB space, I can hold all the data there, but still, an isolated storage like cloud will be a perfect last resort.

the ultimate goal is: large safe space that can access anytime:
1. cloud can't access if there is no network and mobile internet data limit is always a big problem.
2. local disk has high availability, but can't access anywhere

This is the thing with the cloud, the time when you were not able to connect at anytime is gone. My phone acts as AP. So I'm virtually connected at any time I want.

 

[scfoster]

There are lots of potential solutions, each with its own drawbacks. By far the best is to use a cloud based solution like Google or OneDrive. Google is WAAAAAAY cheaper so that's my preference. With Google docs (OneDrive, Sugarsync, Dropbox, etc.) you can access the data/docs from your cell phone, tablet or remote computer.
Not sure about your specific needs so I can't speak to your need for instant access if you have internet access problems. From a risk perspective, you would have to have a system failure AND the internet down at the same time, including cell phone access. That would be a serious disaster situation which would probably mean you have bigger issues (like personal survival) so I'm not so sure you would be worried about accessing docs/data.
You can also set up CrashPlan to do a backup online AND to another physical remote storage device (I have this for hosting two servers) that can be FedEx'd to you or you can go get them if they're in driving distance.

 

[Jeff Au]

I'm interested to find out the answer too - like if it's possible to create a 2nd data partition in the base SSD for SP3. Separating the data from the OS/system means I can easily refresh or reinstall the OS partition without worrying about wiping out my data drive.

I tried using Acronis Disk Director & also Paragon's Partition Manager, both refused to allow me to create a new partition in the SSD. Maybe I'm doing it wrong (though I used the same approach I did for my past laptops - one difference I suspect is all those laptops were on MBR while the SP3 is on GPT).

 

[hughlle]

This is the thing with the cloud, the time when you were not able to connect at anytime is gone. My phone acts as AP. So I'm virtually connected at any time I want.

Speak for yourself, not others ;-) where I live, cloud storage is a highly amusing concept.

Anything of importance, I keep multiple copies of in multiple locations. None of it online.

 

[mcsenerd]

The cloud should be the place to store all of your backups.

Signed - NSA