Does an application partition need to be active?

I read on the Acronis web-site that it is agood idea to keep C: purely for the OS and use another partition for applications, but does that partition need to be active or will logical suffice?

Thanks.

 

Logical is fine. I assume you mean Does the partition need to be Primary?. There can only be one Active partition and it's usually the OS partition.

Except for very large programs and games, I think keeping the OS and programs/applications on the same partition is the best. Keep in mind also that many programs will still install many files to the OS partition even if you specifiy a different partition.

 

Oddlimbs:

Only one partition (the one that you want to boot) can be active. If you meant using a primary partition vs. a logical partition for your applications, then it really doesn't matter that much assuming that you have the room. The partition table on a disk has room for 4 entries, so you can have up to four primary partitions, or you can have up to three primary partitions and an unlimited number of logical partitions.

I disagree with the recommendation that you quoted. I do not think it is a good idea to separate the operating system from its installed applications. Let's take an example. If you have Windows installed on the C: partition and you set up a D: partition for applications, then many applications will install stuff to the C: partition in addition to their main folder on D:. Also, the registry entries for the application are installed on C:, so having things separated like this can be a nightmare if you lose one partition. Personally, I would install applications to the same partition as the OS.

However, it is a VERY good idea to have a separate partition for your user files and data. This is the stuff that is irreplaceable, so if it is not co-mingled in the operating system's partition then you are free to reinstall Windows whenever you'd like without risk to your data. It also makes the job of backing up your files easier if they are on their own partition. I always set up my disks that way.

 

Thanks for the replies chaps,
Yes you are correct, I meant primary - excuse my mistake, you can probably tell that I'm a bit of a novice! I think what confused me was that whilst playing with DD, in the "Disc Structure" diagrammatic, it showed the partition as Primary regardless of whether I had selected Active or Primary for that partition. Giving this a bit more thought, am I correct to assume that if you have 2 OSs, you would have them on 2 Primary partitions &, dependent on which one you were using, the relevant partition would become Active? What is the significance of selecting to make a partition Active within DD?

The reason that I posted this thread was that because, having installed my first program on a separate Logical partition, I noticed that some files were on C: in addition to D: & I wondered if this was because I hadn't made the partition Primary! Now that I know how it works, I tend agree with your opinions that the applications would be better on the same partition as the OS!

 

Only primary partitions can be made Active. When you boot your PC the active partition is located and the operating system on that partition is booted. You choose operating systems by setting the Active flag on the one that you wanted to use. This can be done manually by DD, or it can be done automatically if using a boot manager program.

 

Thanks Mark, I think I understand now!!