New Computer Ordered

Recently had lightening run in on my Windows 10 PC. I have ordered but not received a desktop HP. It has two hard drives. A 512 SSD (only the OS will be on this drive) and a 1TB HHD.

What I want to do is put three (3) equal partitions on the HHD and format them NTFS. It has been years since I have done this and I have totally forgotten how. Can someone give me the step by step procedure for doing this?

ONE more dumb question: Can a HDD have more than three partitions?

A MBR drive has more limitations than a GPT drive so I suggest you check if it is initialized as GPT before you make new partitions.

A semi-random suggestion: put programs on the 512GB SSD as well. That'll speed their launching. 512GB is fairly generous for that.

bobkn said:

A semi-random suggestion: put programs on the 512GB SSD as well. That'll speed their launching. 512GB is fairly generous for that.

Yes, use the HDD only for data.

Partitioning the HDD is easy to do. You did not give any reasons for this arrangement, but consider storing image copies of the OS in one of those partitions. The OS by itself should need less than 50GB and the image copy about half of that. Adding apps to the OS drive will normally not require more than another 50GB, so there should be lots of space available on the SSD.

You should also have a plan for backing up all the data, and a removable copy if the image backup of the OS.

Thanks Berton, that was the term I could not remember. I have an 2003 Office but it will not install on Win 10 for some reason.

Megahertz I am not sure what that means. It is just regular HHD.

bobkn, YES of course I will install all software on the 512 SSD.

quandary, I am planning on setting up this way only because it is the system I have been using since second PC over 30 yrs ago. I am 79 yrs old and set in my ways (when my brain is working right).

Thanks everyone, all good recommendations.

I received my new HP PC yesterday. What a can of worms. I had to call HP tech support. That took forever since the phone number I had used to order the PC would NOT let me talk to anyone. I finally got a phone number in Canada to answer and they gave me a number that I could talk to a person.

While trying to set up the PC, it was asking questions that I had NO idea what the setup needed. When I got to where it needed me to signin to my Microsoft account (which I did NOT have), the techie said it was best to reset the PC to factory conditions. Damn that took about 5 hours.

During the setup again, it said "We are giving you Windows 11 (it supposedly came with Windows 10). I saw no way to stop this. It started the install of Win 11 immediately (that took another hour).

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally had a desktop that I somewhat recognized. The first thing I notice was there was NO search bar. I have no idea if this is by design or a glitch in the system..

I then went to "This PC" in Windows Explorer (yeah I know, not the right term) and low and behold I could only see the C and D drives. It was supposed to have an SSD with Windows installed and a 1 TB HHD for data. The HHD was no where to be seen.

By then it was after HP's work hours. I think today is going to be one heck of a day. LOL

Y'all have a great day.