Laptop hard drive partitioning

[luminol]

My laptop's equipped with a 60GB HD which is split into two partitions, C at ~39GB and E at ~35GB.
(I realize this is ~75GB, but I'm assuming it's referred to as a 60GB drive because that's the available space after the WinXP install and system necessities -- am I totally wrong there?)

C is where all of my files and information are stored; E is empty except for one text file that looks like a changelog of sorts.

Here's my question: am I able to use the E drive as storage, just as I am the C drive? Are there any drawbacks to doing so? I've read on various message boards/ help sites that saving files to the unused partition (E, in this case) could help save files and data, should my hard drive crash. Is this true?

Thanks in advance!

 

[sg1]

There will be no problem using the spare partition for your files , and YES it can help save your files if you need to restore/reformat the C drive

However if the reason you need to restore the Cdrive is due to HDD failure- then you would almost certainly aquire data corruption on the other partition because they're part of the same HDD

But In general it can help you to also back up your needed files/documents to an external source such as DVD's/CD's or another HDD

 

[luminol]

There will be no problem using the spare partition for your files , and YES it can help save your files if you need to restore/reformat the C drive

This is exactly what I needed to know! Thank you

And as far as backups, I keep my most important files backed up to CDs and a few extra flash drives I have floating around.

Thanks again!