what are partitions useful for? I know it is used so as to split the harddrive but why are u guys doing that? what is the benefit? Thank you in advance for your help

Partitions are essential, with or without splitting the drive. Even if the whole drive is covered in one lump, there is still at least one partition; every hard disk has one. However, the advantages of having, multiple partitions can be best summed up in the phrase, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Stuart

http://www.harddiskrecovery.net/com... scroll down to partitioning You might also want to web search on the history of personal computers. Partitioning was a way of getting a bit limited OS to address more physical space. As OS's went from 4bit to 8, 16, then 32bit the rules of partitioning changed. History makes for a good read. Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search

Older O/Ss could only address so much external memory at once so as hard drives got bigger, manufacturers had to add software "partitions" to create virtual drives small enough for the computer to recognize. Now partitioning is more of a convenience than a necessity. Many people still create a "backup partition" on the drive to store backups in case the "root" partition crashes but this isn't all that effective as quite often when one partition goes bad they all get corrupted. It's far safer to use an external/portable drive that you can remove and store in a safe place.