Is there a way to disable a drive in Win 7

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 23:50:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2015 15:24:32 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:36:36 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 17:56:59 +0000, Andrew Wilson wrote:

On 01/03/2015 16:09, Bert wrote:
In news wrote:

Have tried to disable using device manager but no way to do it. This
option was available in WinXP.

Any way to do it please?

You can unmount it:

mountvol x:\ /p

remount it:

mountvol x:\ voulume-ID

where x:\ is the drive you're interested in.

Calling mountvol with no arguments will show you the volume-IDs of all
your disks.

The command has to be run with adminstrator privileges.


Thanks everyone for comments.
Could someone please explain simply the difference (pros and cons)
between a clone and an image and as suggested previously would I be
better imaging to a second hard drive rather than cloning?

You can read this article:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/28473...-clone-it.html

Take note of the following paragraphs:

"Imaging makes more sense for backup, because you can put multiple image backups
onto one sufficiently large external hard drive. You can only put one clone on a
drive. In fact, several backup programs, including my current favorite for
imaging and cloning, EaseUS ToDo Backup Free, allow you to make small
incremental image backups, recording how the contents of the drive change day to
day.

There is one advantage to cloning for backups. Should your main drive crash, you
can swap in a cloned drive and be back in action almost immediately. With an
image, you’d have to buy a new internal drive and restore the backup to it.

But if you really need to be up and running that fast, and you’re willing to
dedicate an entire drive for that purpose, you’d be better off putting the two
drives together into a RAID 2 (this should say RAID1). That way, the spare drive
will be completely up to date. "

You talked about belts and suspenders in another post this weekend.

I clone and image.

The image allows for keeping previous versions of files (I have a paid
for version of Macrium that allows incremental images).

The clone can replace the original drive instantly[1] and can also allow
easy refetching the latest backup of a file.

I see no reason for your previous comment that a clone is not a good
backup.

[1] Not really - you have to open the computer to swap the drive in,
unless the close is kept in the same chassis - which is *not* the best
idea, as you know.

Hey, whatever works for you!

A Windows RAID1 mirror, one that is not controller dependent is far easier and
less problematic than cloning. Leave both drives in place and they will be
perfect mirror images right up until the failure of one of the drives. When one
fails, the other takes over without nary a hiccup.

I don't have a dog in the hunt, so if you want to clone, have at it.

Yeah, send in the clones. Ha ha (not).

I prefer that method, you have a different approach, someone else...etc.
And I've never messed with RAID. I could learn, presumably :-)

The main thing is to be responsible and to do whatever you do
religiously, and that's my real failure...RAID or Ghost, anything that
is automatic and frequent, would certainly help me a bit (except that if
you get a bad infection, RAID 1 will have it on the mirror too, right?).

I noticed I wrote 'close' for 'clone' in my previous post above. I hate
it when I make mistakes that my spell checker can't catch :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 02/03/2015 14:36, R. C. White wrote:
Hi, Andrew.

Be sure to remember the distinction between "disks" (Disk 0, Disk 1,
etc.) and "drives" (Drive C:, Drive D:, etc.). While we often say
"drive" when we mean the whole physical disk drive, in Windows-speak, a
"drive" is only a partition (aka a "volume") on a disk. To disable an
entire disk, we can either pull the plug or disable the disk in the
BIOS. I'm not sure that Disk Management can "disable" or "remove" a
disk, but it can put one "Offline".

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro w/Media Center


"Andrew Wilson" wrote in message ...

On 01/03/2015 21:38, Peter Jason wrote:
On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 14:43:46 +0000, Andrew Wilson
wrote:

Booted up today from normal C drive.
Emails/work from the last week had gone missing. MS Office reported that
it wasn't registered when it was. Chrome 'Home' button not there and
Adblock not there. Obviously a major event had happened but I don't know
what it was as machine shut down correctly last night.

Tried system restore. 4 recent restore points wouldn't work as
'corrupt'.

Bit the bullet and booted up from second drive E with a clone that I
made using Acronis 2014 a couple of days ago.

Same thing had occurred on second drive with things missing.

Rebooted using original drive and everything was back including recent
emails/work!

God knows what happened but obviously cloning a waste of time if an
event can corrupt both drives. Need to disable cloned drive to prevent
this happening again.

Have done another clone but need to turn the E drive off without
disconnecting power/data cables to the drive as case difficult to dig
out without moving chairs/furniture.

Have tried to disable using device manager but no way to do it. This
option was available in WinXP.

Any way to do it please?
Thanks
aw56001


I do it by going to "computer Management" then "Disk Management" then
go to the disk and rt-click on 'disable'.

Wouldn't allow me to do it or I would, Peter.
Thanks again everyone.
Will look at images/raids tomorrow.
Regards
aw56001
Thanks for the clarification of the nomenclature R.C.
I assumed that disk and drive were the same thing probably picked up
reading stuff on the internet.
Regards
Andrew

On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 23:14:03 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2015 13:43:47 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 23:50:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2015 15:24:32 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:36:36 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 17:56:59 +0000, Andrew Wilson wrote:

On 01/03/2015 16:09, Bert wrote:
In news wrote:

Have tried to disable using device manager but no way to do it. This
option was available in WinXP.

Any way to do it please?

You can unmount it:

mountvol x:\ /p

remount it:

mountvol x:\ voulume-ID

where x:\ is the drive you're interested in.

Calling mountvol with no arguments will show you the volume-IDs of all
your disks.

The command has to be run with adminstrator privileges.


Thanks everyone for comments.
Could someone please explain simply the difference (pros and cons)
between a clone and an image and as suggested previously would I be
better imaging to a second hard drive rather than cloning?

You can read this article:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/28473...-clone-it.html

Take note of the following paragraphs:

"Imaging makes more sense for backup, because you can put multiple image backups
onto one sufficiently large external hard drive. You can only put one clone on a
drive. In fact, several backup programs, including my current favorite for
imaging and cloning, EaseUS ToDo Backup Free, allow you to make small
incremental image backups, recording how the contents of the drive change day to
day.

There is one advantage to cloning for backups. Should your main drive crash, you
can swap in a cloned drive and be back in action almost immediately. With an
image, you’d have to buy a new internal drive and restore the backup to it.

But if you really need to be up and running that fast, and you’re willing to
dedicate an entire drive for that purpose, you’d be better off putting the two
drives together into a RAID 2 (this should say RAID1). That way, the spare drive
will be completely up to date. "

You talked about belts and suspenders in another post this weekend.

I clone and image.

The image allows for keeping previous versions of files (I have a paid
for version of Macrium that allows incremental images).

The clone can replace the original drive instantly[1] and can also allow
easy refetching the latest backup of a file.

I see no reason for your previous comment that a clone is not a good
backup.

[1] Not really - you have to open the computer to swap the drive in,
unless the close is kept in the same chassis - which is *not* the best
idea, as you know.

Hey, whatever works for you!

A Windows RAID1 mirror, one that is not controller dependent is far easier and
less problematic than cloning. Leave both drives in place and they will be
perfect mirror images right up until the failure of one of the drives. When one
fails, the other takes over without nary a hiccup.

I don't have a dog in the hunt, so if you want to clone, have at it.

Yeah, send in the clones. Ha ha (not).

I prefer that method, you have a different approach, someone else...etc.
And I've never messed with RAID. I could learn, presumably :-)

The main thing is to be responsible and to do whatever you do
religiously, and that's my real failure...RAID or Ghost, anything that
is automatic and frequent, would certainly help me a bit (except that if
you get a bad infection, RAID 1 will have it on the mirror too, right?).

Yes, it is a mirror, everything is the same. This is why automatic incremental
backups are your fall back position.

Very few people really benefit from cloned (for backup) or mirrored drives,
especially if you are creating automatic incremental backups.

I suppose if your time is worth $1000 / hr, the 60 minutes you will lose by
restoring your backup to a new drive would be fairly onerous. Aside from
that.......

I think my time is worth $1000/hr, but nobody agrees.

My best hope is never to need to restore :-)

One advantage of the clone is that it's ready to go as is, whereas to
restore from an image, you need to be able to get the imaging program to
run. That's easy if the target drive runs OK, and if not, it should
still be easy, as long as one has a good bootable CD or DVD of said
program. Or a second computer with the target drive mounted externally.
And probably there are other scenarios I haven't thought of.

In fact, I have a vague memory that some imaging programs use file
formats compatible with some VMs, so there's another possible scenario.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:19:05 +0000, Andrew Wilson wrote:

On 02/03/2015 14:36, R. C. White wrote:
Hi, Andrew.

Be sure to remember the distinction between "disks" (Disk 0, Disk 1,
etc.) and "drives" (Drive C:, Drive D:, etc.). While we often say
"drive" when we mean the whole physical disk drive, in Windows-speak, a
"drive" is only a partition (aka a "volume") on a disk. To disable an
entire disk, we can either pull the plug or disable the disk in the
BIOS. I'm not sure that Disk Management can "disable" or "remove" a
disk, but it can put one "Offline".

RC

Thanks for the clarification of the nomenclature R.C.
I assumed that disk and drive were the same thing probably picked up
reading stuff on the internet.
Regards
Andrew

Or maybe you went to a store and found that they sell hard drives, such
as:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&leaderboard=1

That's just the first thing I found at newegg under hard drives.

While I was on the newegg site, I searched for hard discs (just for fun)
& got nothing; I searched for hard disks & I was sent to hard drives.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Tue, 03 Mar 2015 00:20:46 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2015 15:41:40 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 23:14:03 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2015 13:43:47 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 23:50:17 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 1 Mar 2015 15:24:32 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:36:36 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 17:56:59 +0000, Andrew Wilson wrote:

On 01/03/2015 16:09, Bert wrote:
In news wrote:

Have tried to disable using device manager but no way to do it. This
option was available in WinXP.

Any way to do it please?

You can unmount it:

mountvol x:\ /p

remount it:

mountvol x:\ voulume-ID

where x:\ is the drive you're interested in.

Calling mountvol with no arguments will show you the volume-IDs of all
your disks.

The command has to be run with adminstrator privileges.


Thanks everyone for comments.
Could someone please explain simply the difference (pros and cons)
between a clone and an image and as suggested previously would I be
better imaging to a second hard drive rather than cloning?

You can read this article:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/28473...-clone-it.html

Take note of the following paragraphs:

"Imaging makes more sense for backup, because you can put multiple image backups
onto one sufficiently large external hard drive. You can only put one clone on a
drive. In fact, several backup programs, including my current favorite for
imaging and cloning, EaseUS ToDo Backup Free, allow you to make small
incremental image backups, recording how the contents of the drive change day to
day.

There is one advantage to cloning for backups. Should your main drive crash, you
can swap in a cloned drive and be back in action almost immediately. With an
image, you’d have to buy a new internal drive and restore the backup to it.

But if you really need to be up and running that fast, and you’re willing to
dedicate an entire drive for that purpose, you’d be better off putting the two
drives together into a RAID 2 (this should say RAID1). That way, the spare drive
will be completely up to date. "

You talked about belts and suspenders in another post this weekend.

I clone and image.

The image allows for keeping previous versions of files (I have a paid
for version of Macrium that allows incremental images).

The clone can replace the original drive instantly[1] and can also allow
easy refetching the latest backup of a file.

I see no reason for your previous comment that a clone is not a good
backup.

[1] Not really - you have to open the computer to swap the drive in,
unless the close is kept in the same chassis - which is *not* the best
idea, as you know.

Hey, whatever works for you!

A Windows RAID1 mirror, one that is not controller dependent is far easier and
less problematic than cloning. Leave both drives in place and they will be
perfect mirror images right up until the failure of one of the drives. When one
fails, the other takes over without nary a hiccup.

I don't have a dog in the hunt, so if you want to clone, have at it.

Yeah, send in the clones. Ha ha (not).

I prefer that method, you have a different approach, someone else...etc.
And I've never messed with RAID. I could learn, presumably :-)

The main thing is to be responsible and to do whatever you do
religiously, and that's my real failure...RAID or Ghost, anything that
is automatic and frequent, would certainly help me a bit (except that if
you get a bad infection, RAID 1 will have it on the mirror too, right?).

Yes, it is a mirror, everything is the same. This is why automatic incremental
backups are your fall back position.

Very few people really benefit from cloned (for backup) or mirrored drives,
especially if you are creating automatic incremental backups.

I suppose if your time is worth $1000 / hr, the 60 minutes you will lose by
restoring your backup to a new drive would be fairly onerous. Aside from
that.......

I think my time is worth $1000/hr, but nobody agrees.

My best hope is never to need to restore :-)

One advantage of the clone is that it's ready to go as is, whereas to
restore from an image, you need to be able to get the imaging program to
run. That's easy if the target drive runs OK, and if not, it should
still be easy, as long as one has a good bootable CD or DVD of said
program. Or a second computer with the target drive mounted externally.
And probably there are other scenarios I haven't thought of.

In fact, I have a vague memory that some imaging programs use file
formats compatible with some VMs, so there's another possible scenario.

Hey, whatever floats your boat. As I said, I have no dog in your hunt.

It might be of interest to someone, even if it's not you :-)

To be honest, it's not really of much interest to me.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

| I assumed that disk and drive were the same thing

They usually are. That's probably why Windows
uses "drive". I tend to refer to "C drive", but
otherwise refer to partitions. There really isn't
any rationale for calling a partition a drive. It's
just that most people are not familar with having
multiple partitions on one hard disk. (Which I
guess we should really call a "hard disks drive".

On 3/2/2015 6:20 PM, Stormin' Norman wrote:
On Mon, 2 Mar 2015 15:41:40 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote:

On Mon, 02 Mar 2015 23:14:03 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

SNIP
In fact, I have a vague memory that some imaging programs use file
formats compatible with some VMs, so there's another possible scenario.

Hey, whatever floats your boat. As I said, I have no dog in your hunt.


That dog don't hunt, or no dog in that fight?

Hi, Andrew.

Yeah, we ALL say "drive" when we mean "disk" - at least sometimes. And
usually our meaning is clear and causes no problems. But when we get into
the nitty-gritty in trying to describe a problem - or a solution - then the
distinction becomes important.

For me, the history goes back to my first computer in 1977, the original
TRS-80, which came with no disks at all, just an audio tape recorder for
storage of programs and files. Then floppy disks arrived, and they could
not be divided into partitions with our first DOS (Disk Operating System -
TRSDOS), so each disk was a single drive and the terms were, for all
practical purposes, synonyms. Then we got humongous (5 MB!) hard disks for
our microcomputers (before IBM popularized the term PC, for their new
Personal Computer). I've forgotten just which version of PCDOS/MSDOS
introduced partitions (and I'm too lazy to look it up). Until then, all
hard disks had a single partition; it was called Drive C:, reserving A: and
B: for the still ubiquitous two floppy disks. There was no other
large-enough place to put the OS, Windows, programs, data or anything else,
so almost everything went into Drive C: - and a habit and mindset was
formed. And it has been very hard to break out of that mindset over the
past 20+ years.

Then we got more and bigger hard disks and DOS learned to divide them into
multiple partitions. But, since most users still had computers with only a
single hard disk and few bothered to partition them, we still referred to
THE hard disk as Drive C:. If we got a second physical disk, we might call
that "Drive D:". It was helpful that Windows Setup assigned drive letters
automatically for us during installation, but it hid from us what was
actually happening behind the scenes. We thought that Windows HAD to be on
Drive C: and that it HAD to be the first partition on the first HDD (Hard
Disk Drive - a handy abbreviation that can cut down some of the confusion).
And it hid the distinction between the few "System" files that actually
booted the computer and the many "Boot" files that held the Windows
operating system (The counterintuitive naming of the "boot" and "system"
files added greatly to the confusion!)

Microsoft has stuck to the proper meanings of "disk" and "drive". Even
their own writers often slip up, but "disk" means the physical hardware
(even when it is a non-rotating "disk" like a USB "drive" or an SSD). And a
"drive" (aka "volume") is actually a "partition" - a logically-segregated
portion of a disk. While they seldom are, even a CD/DVD or flash drive can
be partitioned; Disk Management is one built-in tool that can handle this
function. Disks are numbered, starting with Disk 0; drives (partitions) are
assigned letters. In simple terms, a disk is a device; a drive is a
partition.

Sorry, Andrew. I didn't mean to write a book, but so many "simple" terms
have to be disambiguated and that introduces more such ambiguous terms. But
we have to quit somewhere, so... ;}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro w/Media Center


"Andrew Wilson" wrote in message ...

On 02/03/2015 14:36, R. C. White wrote:
Hi, Andrew.

Be sure to remember the distinction between "disks" (Disk 0, Disk 1,
etc.) and "drives" (Drive C:, Drive D:, etc.). While we often say
"drive" when we mean the whole physical disk drive, in Windows-speak, a
"drive" is only a partition (aka a "volume") on a disk. To disable an
entire disk, we can either pull the plug or disable the disk in the
BIOS. I'm not sure that Disk Management can "disable" or "remove" a
disk, but it can put one "Offline".

RC


"Andrew Wilson" wrote in message ...

On 01/03/2015 21:38, Peter Jason wrote:
On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 14:43:46 +0000, Andrew Wilson
wrote:

Booted up today from normal C drive.
Emails/work from the last week had gone missing. MS Office reported that
it wasn't registered when it was. Chrome 'Home' button not there and
Adblock not there. Obviously a major event had happened but I don't know
what it was as machine shut down correctly last night.

Tried system restore. 4 recent restore points wouldn't work as
'corrupt'.

Bit the bullet and booted up from second drive E with a clone that I
made using Acronis 2014 a couple of days ago.

Same thing had occurred on second drive with things missing.

Rebooted using original drive and everything was back including recent
emails/work!

God knows what happened but obviously cloning a waste of time if an
event can corrupt both drives. Need to disable cloned drive to prevent
this happening again.

Have done another clone but need to turn the E drive off without
disconnecting power/data cables to the drive as case difficult to dig
out without moving chairs/furniture.

Have tried to disable using device manager but no way to do it. This
option was available in WinXP.

Any way to do it please?
Thanks
aw56001


I do it by going to "computer Management" then "Disk Management" then
go to the disk and rt-click on 'disable'.

Wouldn't allow me to do it or I would, Peter.
Thanks again everyone.
Will look at images/raids tomorrow.
Regards
aw56001
Thanks for the clarification of the nomenclature R.C.
I assumed that disk and drive were the same thing probably picked up
reading stuff on the internet.
Regards
Andrew

Super! Thanks.

R. C. White wrote on 3/3/2015 11:42 AM:
Hi, Andrew.

Yeah, we ALL say "drive" when we mean "disk" - at least sometimes. And
usually our meaning is clear and causes no problems. But when we get into
the nitty-gritty in trying to describe a problem - or a solution - then the
distinction becomes important.

For me, the history goes back to my first computer in 1977, the original
TRS-80, which came with no disks at all, just an audio tape recorder for
storage of programs and files. Then floppy disks arrived, and they could
not be divided into partitions with our first DOS (Disk Operating System -
TRSDOS), so each disk was a single drive and the terms were, for all
practical purposes, synonyms. Then we got humongous (5 MB!) hard disks for
our microcomputers (before IBM popularized the term PC, for their new
Personal Computer). I've forgotten just which version of PCDOS/MSDOS
introduced partitions (and I'm too lazy to look it up). Until then, all
hard disks had a single partition; it was called Drive C:, reserving A: and
B: for the still ubiquitous two floppy disks. There was no other
large-enough place to put the OS, Windows, programs, data or anything else,
so almost everything went into Drive C: - and a habit and mindset was
formed. And it has been very hard to break out of that mindset over the
past 20+ years.

Then we got more and bigger hard disks and DOS learned to divide them into
multiple partitions. But, since most users still had computers with only a
single hard disk and few bothered to partition them, we still referred to
THE hard disk as Drive C:. If we got a second physical disk, we might call
that "Drive D:". It was helpful that Windows Setup assigned drive letters
automatically for us during installation, but it hid from us what was
actually happening behind the scenes. We thought that Windows HAD to be on
Drive C: and that it HAD to be the first partition on the first HDD (Hard
Disk Drive - a handy abbreviation that can cut down some of the confusion).
And it hid the distinction between the few "System" files that actually
booted the computer and the many "Boot" files that held the Windows
operating system (The counterintuitive naming of the "boot" and "system"
files added greatly to the confusion!)

Microsoft has stuck to the proper meanings of "disk" and "drive". Even
their own writers often slip up, but "disk" means the physical hardware
(even when it is a non-rotating "disk" like a USB "drive" or an SSD). And a
"drive" (aka "volume") is actually a "partition" - a logically-segregated
portion of a disk. While they seldom are, even a CD/DVD or flash drive can
be partitioned; Disk Management is one built-in tool that can handle this
function. Disks are numbered, starting with Disk 0; drives (partitions) are
assigned letters. In simple terms, a disk is a device; a drive is a
partition.

Sorry, Andrew. I didn't mean to write a book, but so many "simple" terms
have to be disambiguated and that introduces more such ambiguous terms. But
we have to quit somewhere, so... ;}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro w/Media Center

On Tue, 3 Mar 2015, "R. C. White" wrote:

Hi, Andrew.

Yeah, we ALL say "drive" when we mean "disk" - at least sometimes. And
usually our meaning is clear and causes no problems. But when we get into
the nitty-gritty in trying to describe a problem - or a solution - then the
distinction becomes important.

For me, the history goes back to my first computer in 1977, the original
TRS-80, which came with no disks at all, just an audio tape recorder for
storage of programs and files. Then floppy disks arrived, and they could
not be divided into partitions with our first DOS (Disk Operating System -
TRSDOS), so each disk was a single drive and the terms were, for all
practical purposes, synonyms. Then we got humongous (5 MB!) hard disks for
our microcomputers (before IBM popularized the term PC, for their new
Personal Computer). I've forgotten just which version of PCDOS/MSDOS
introduced partitions (and I'm too lazy to look it up). Until then, all
hard disks had a single partition; it was called Drive C:, reserving A: and
B: for the still ubiquitous two floppy disks. There was no other
large-enough place to put the OS, Windows, programs, data or anything else,
so almost everything went into Drive C: - and a habit and mindset was
formed. And it has been very hard to break out of that mindset over the
past 20+ years.

Then we got more and bigger hard disks and DOS learned to divide them into
multiple partitions. But, since most users still had computers with only a
single hard disk and few bothered to partition them, we still referred to
THE hard disk as Drive C:. If we got a second physical disk, we might call
that "Drive D:". It was helpful that Windows Setup assigned drive letters
automatically for us during installation, but it hid from us what was
actually happening behind the scenes. We thought that Windows HAD to be on
Drive C: and that it HAD to be the first partition on the first HDD (Hard
Disk Drive - a handy abbreviation that can cut down some of the confusion).
And it hid the distinction between the few "System" files that actually
booted the computer and the many "Boot" files that held the Windows
operating system (The counterintuitive naming of the "boot" and "system"
files added greatly to the confusion!)

Microsoft has stuck to the proper meanings of "disk" and "drive". Even
their own writers often slip up, but "disk" means the physical hardware
(even when it is a non-rotating "disk" like a USB "drive" or an SSD). And a
"drive" (aka "volume") is actually a "partition" - a logically-segregated
portion of a disk. While they seldom are, even a CD/DVD or flash drive can
be partitioned; Disk Management is one built-in tool that can handle this
function. Disks are numbered, starting with Disk 0; drives (partitions) are
assigned letters. In simple terms, a disk is a device; a drive is a
partition.

Sorry, Andrew. I didn't mean to write a book, but so many "simple" terms
have to be disambiguated and that introduces more such ambiguous terms. But
we have to quit somewhere, so... ;}

RC

Jeez, dude. I think I've learned more about disks, devices, drives,
and partitions, than I might've learned from getting a master's degree
in microcomputer college back in the day.

Seriously, thanks for the zero-day crash-course in what all of us
PC users should've, and for those like me who didn't (well, not
exactly, not like you obviously do) know from the beginning, and more
to the point how to articulate it in very succinct and clear terms.

I will never confuse a disk from a drive again. Even the spelling of
"disk" I just found out, after reading your post, doesn't imply the
same meaning as "disc." Learn something new every day.

--
Bub

R. C. White wrote:
Hi, Andrew.

Yeah, we ALL say "drive" when we mean "disk" - at least sometimes. And
usually our meaning is clear and causes no problems. But when we get
into the nitty-gritty in trying to describe a problem - or a solution -
then the distinction becomes important.

For me, the history goes back to my first computer in 1977, the original
TRS-80, which came with no disks at all, just an audio tape recorder for
storage of programs and files. Then floppy disks arrived, and they
could not be divided into partitions with our first DOS (Disk Operating
System - TRSDOS), so each disk was a single drive and the terms were,
for all practical purposes, synonyms. Then we got humongous (5 MB!)
hard disks for our microcomputers (before IBM popularized the term PC,
for their new Personal Computer). I've forgotten just which version of
PCDOS/MSDOS introduced partitions (and I'm too lazy to look it up).
Until then, all hard disks had a single partition; it was called Drive
C:, reserving A: and B: for the still ubiquitous two floppy disks.
There was no other large-enough place to put the OS, Windows, programs,
data or anything else, so almost everything went into Drive C: - and a
habit and mindset was formed. And it has been very hard to break out of
that mindset over the past 20+ years.

Then we got more and bigger hard disks and DOS learned to divide them
into multiple partitions. But, since most users still had computers
with only a single hard disk and few bothered to partition them, we
still referred to THE hard disk as Drive C:. If we got a second
physical disk, we might call that "Drive D:". It was helpful that
Windows Setup assigned drive letters automatically for us during
installation, but it hid from us what was actually happening behind the
scenes. We thought that Windows HAD to be on Drive C: and that it HAD
to be the first partition on the first HDD (Hard Disk Drive - a handy
abbreviation that can cut down some of the confusion). And it hid the
distinction between the few "System" files that actually booted the
computer and the many "Boot" files that held the Windows operating
system (The counterintuitive naming of the "boot" and "system" files
added greatly to the confusion!)

Microsoft has stuck to the proper meanings of "disk" and "drive". Even
their own writers often slip up, but "disk" means the physical hardware
(even when it is a non-rotating "disk" like a USB "drive" or an SSD).
And a "drive" (aka "volume") is actually a "partition" - a
logically-segregated portion of a disk. While they seldom are, even a
CD/DVD or flash drive can be partitioned; Disk Management is one
built-in tool that can handle this function. Disks are numbered,
starting with Disk 0; drives (partitions) are assigned letters. In
simple terms, a disk is a device; a drive is a partition.

Sorry, Andrew. I didn't mean to write a book, but so many "simple"
terms have to be disambiguated and that introduces more such ambiguous
terms. But we have to quit somewhere, so... ;}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro w/Media Center


"Andrew Wilson" wrote in message
...

On 02/03/2015 14:36, R. C. White wrote:
Hi, Andrew.

Be sure to remember the distinction between "disks" (Disk 0, Disk 1,
etc.) and "drives" (Drive C:, Drive D:, etc.). While we often say
"drive" when we mean the whole physical disk drive, in Windows-speak, a
"drive" is only a partition (aka a "volume") on a disk. To disable an
entire disk, we can either pull the plug or disable the disk in the
BIOS. I'm not sure that Disk Management can "disable" or "remove" a
disk, but it can put one "Offline".

RC


"Andrew Wilson" wrote in message
...

On 01/03/2015 21:38, Peter Jason wrote:
On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 14:43:46 +0000, Andrew Wilson
wrote:

Booted up today from normal C drive.
Emails/work from the last week had gone missing. MS Office reported
that
it wasn't registered when it was. Chrome 'Home' button not there and
Adblock not there. Obviously a major event had happened but I don't
know
what it was as machine shut down correctly last night.

Tried system restore. 4 recent restore points wouldn't work as
'corrupt'.

Bit the bullet and booted up from second drive E with a clone that I
made using Acronis 2014 a couple of days ago.

Same thing had occurred on second drive with things missing.

Rebooted using original drive and everything was back including recent
emails/work!

God knows what happened but obviously cloning a waste of time if an
event can corrupt both drives. Need to disable cloned drive to prevent
this happening again.

Have done another clone but need to turn the E drive off without
disconnecting power/data cables to the drive as case difficult to dig
out without moving chairs/furniture.

Have tried to disable using device manager but no way to do it. This
option was available in WinXP.

Any way to do it please?
Thanks
aw56001


I do it by going to "computer Management" then "Disk Management" then
go to the disk and rt-click on 'disable'.

Wouldn't allow me to do it or I would, Peter.
Thanks again everyone.
Will look at images/raids tomorrow.
Regards
aw56001
Thanks for the clarification of the nomenclature R.C.
I assumed that disk and drive were the same thing probably picked up
reading stuff on the internet.
Regards
Andrew
Keep writing those books. Always educational with some real history
included.

Especially when re-clarifying disk vs. drive topics - Lol...it keeps me
on the right path to use the correct nomenclature...at least for awhile
until I mess up again.g

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

It seems that you're describing this a bit backward.
A "hard disk" is actually a physical drive with one or
more disks in it, more accurately called a hard disk
drive. A floppy disk goes into a floppy drive. A CD
goes into a CD drive.
There's no basis for calling a partition a drive. It
doesn't drive anywhere or drive anything. It's just
common usage because hard disk drives have generally
had only one partition, and most people don't know
about partitions, so C drive has been synonymous with
the hard drive.

So.... Hard disk drive might be most accurate. Hard
drive is next in accuracy. Hard disk is not quite
accurate, but it's common usage. C drive, also, is not
really right, but it's also common usage. So maybe the
best advice is just to qualify usage: hard drive or hard
disk or "C drive" rather than just "drive". Then people
won't be confused about what's being referred to.

Now that that's settled... program or application?
It's not an application until it's used for some purpose,
after all. But what the heck is a "program", really? I
think of a program as something that tells me what
performer is coming onstage next.

And another thing... Why's it an icebox? There's no
ice in there. At least not in my frost-free.

Sincerely,
Andy Rooney

Hi, Mayayana.

There's no basis for calling a partition a drive.

Maybe. I don't disagree, but that's what Microsoft calls it. We can argue,
but, even if we win the argument on logic, we still have to use Microsoft's
terminology to understand our disks/drives/partitions, etc. without tying
them in knots.

Since I got the disk/drive and boot/system relationships straight in my
mindset, they have been much less of a problem for me. Whether or not the
terms are theoretically correct, my whole system works much better.

And I miss Andy Rooney, too.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro w/Media Center


"Mayayana" wrote in message ...

It seems that you're describing this a bit backward.
A "hard disk" is actually a physical drive with one or
more disks in it, more accurately called a hard disk
drive. A floppy disk goes into a floppy drive. A CD
goes into a CD drive.
There's no basis for calling a partition a drive. It
doesn't drive anywhere or drive anything. It's just
common usage because hard disk drives have generally
had only one partition, and most people don't know
about partitions, so C drive has been synonymous with
the hard drive.

So.... Hard disk drive might be most accurate. Hard
drive is next in accuracy. Hard disk is not quite
accurate, but it's common usage. C drive, also, is not
really right, but it's also common usage. So maybe the
best advice is just to qualify usage: hard drive or hard
disk or "C drive" rather than just "drive". Then people
won't be confused about what's being referred to.

Now that that's settled... program or application?
It's not an application until it's used for some purpose,
after all. But what the heck is a "program", really? I
think of a program as something that tells me what
performer is coming onstage next.

And another thing... Why's it an icebox? There's no
ice in there. At least not in my frost-free.

Sincerely,
Andy Rooney

Mayayana wrote:
It seems that you're describing this a bit backward.
A "hard disk" is actually a physical drive with one or
more disks in it, more accurately called a hard disk
drive. A floppy disk goes into a floppy drive. A CD
goes into a CD drive.
There's no basis for calling a partition a drive

And another thing... Why's it an icebox? There's no
ice in there. At least not in my frost-free.

Sincerely,
Andy Rooney


I've always referred to floppies (5.25")and the later (3.5") as
diskettes; CD's as disCs.

It also seems logical (no pun intended) that once a device is
partitioned and given a 'drive' letter - it is a drive. Up until that
point it's still a plain old disk waiting for a 'drive' letter assignment.

The last person I recall who referred to a kitchen appliance as an
icebox was my Uncle Tony in the mid 1960's (rest his worthy soul) who
was around when ice was put in the box (silver handle on a wood door,
inside wall was tin, outside wall wood, cork lining between inner and
outer wall).

Just unplug your frost free then all you need is a block of frozen water
for your personal icebox. Better yet with a couple of sheet metal
screws and plastic anchors mount a couple of drive bays and place a few
pickles on them...in a week or so they'll become floppy.

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On 05/03/2015 06:23, "...winston‫" wrote:
Mayayana wrote:
It seems that you're describing this a bit backward.
A "hard disk" is actually a physical drive with one or
more disks in it, more accurately called a hard disk
drive. A floppy disk goes into a floppy drive. A CD
goes into a CD drive.
There's no basis for calling a partition a drive

And another thing... Why's it an icebox? There's no
ice in there. At least not in my frost-free.

Sincerely,
Andy Rooney


I've always referred to floppies (5.25")and the later (3.5") as
diskettes; CD's as disCs.

It also seems logical (no pun intended) that once a device is
partitioned and given a 'drive' letter - it is a drive. Up until that
point it's still a plain old disk waiting for a 'drive' letter assignment.

The last person I recall who referred to a kitchen appliance as an
icebox was my Uncle Tony in the mid 1960's (rest his worthy soul) who
was around when ice was put in the box (silver handle on a wood door,
inside wall was tin, outside wall wood, cork lining between inner and
outer wall).

Just unplug your frost free then all you need is a block of frozen water
for your personal icebox. Better yet with a couple of sheet metal
screws and plastic anchors mount a couple of drive bays and place a few
pickles on them...in a week or so they'll become floppy.

I take it you have tried this method successfully with your dickie!
--
choro
*****