If you have visited my web page or read my blogs and messages, you'll probably know that I stongly discourage using partitions on a hard drive... mainly because if the partition table gets corrupt you lose EVERYTHING. However, check out this:
Why it may be a GOOD idea to partition a drive.
Simple answer: Because you can HIDE a partition easily and unless you know it's there no one would guess how to bring it back. Here is how to hide the partition: (Assumes you already have a partition.) Don't include quotes.
WARNING: Do not do this to a SYSTEM drive or BOOT partition.
1. Run "Diskpart" from a command prompt. It will take you into the diskpart program.
2. type and enter "list volume"
Suppose you have a partition F, it will show as NTFS format and be labeled PARTITION and is volume 3
3. type and enter "select volume 3"
4. type and enter "remove letter F"
Reboot and you won't see the partition listed.
To recover volume letter F follow the 3 steps above then
Why it may be a GOOD idea to partition a drive.
Simple answer: Because you can HIDE a partition easily and unless you know it's there no one would guess how to bring it back. Here is how to hide the partition: (Assumes you already have a partition.) Don't include quotes.
WARNING: Do not do this to a SYSTEM drive or BOOT partition.
1. Run "Diskpart" from a command prompt. It will take you into the diskpart program.
2. type and enter "list volume"
Suppose you have a partition F, it will show as NTFS format and be labeled PARTITION and is volume 3
3. type and enter "select volume 3"
4. type and enter "remove letter F"
Reboot and you won't see the partition listed.
To recover volume letter F follow the 3 steps above then
It's no different than if you didn't partition the drive and the drive breaks or gets bricked. You still lose everything in that case too.. So why not partition and reap the benefits of it.. 
