Partitioning

It's also not a requirement to store your data in My Documents. You can leave My Documents as is on C: and store your data on D:\MyStuff for example.

I also keep my OS and programs on C:, but I find it's nice to install portable apps (if available) on D: (data partition).

The hard part of partitioning is determining what size you need and how many partitions. It's really hard to make a plan when it's a new concept.

Here is a good and detailed link that explains all about partitions . http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives.htm

 

I partition for two reasons, one is I format whenever my OS starts signs of slow down and I also dual boot between x64 XP and x64 Ubuntu Intrepid, I have created a common data partition for both since Ubuntu writes to NTFS with ease, I am all set.

 

I partition to be able to put more than 1 OS on the same Puter. I'm using System Commander 9 by Avonquest to do this. Mostly this program has worked for me but I am losing faith with it.
Ex: Recently I had to restore the hard drive and when it came back up the mouse stopped moving
in the System Commander window. Something
disabled the mouse in System Commander. I emailed Avonquest and their response was not forthcoming. In others words their support is terrible. Also I have a copy of the program saved for such an occasion. I uninstalled System Commander 9 and tried to reinstall it. It failed with an error and I had to restore the system with Acronis TI. This does IMHO not speak well for Avonquest. So I am going to be looking around for a partitioning program that does partitioning, resizing, moving and deleting partitions on the fly.

 

Unfortunately you'll never separate programs from os. Hadn't M$ bought and crippled pc relocator the day that a total separation of programs and os could've been something in the near future. Its a crucial tool for whoever wants to come close downing the windows reign.

As for files, unless the total size of your work data / documents are very large. why bother. For programs, again, why bother, if you run into hd failure, os/disk corruption issues your done for either way. With programs on drive Z or X, if you don't have a good image you can only do a repair install or fiddle anyway.

I'm sure everyone has tossed this one in their heads from time to time...

Personally, I have a strutured folder in mydocs where my outlook and any program data/work will be. Backup is a sinch and compact.

I keep an image of the whole drive & just have that 1 folder + favorites that I only frequently backup.

I'd suggest heavy things like iso's, videos or misc files to definitely be put on another partiion or drive to reduce backup size.

You really don't have to backup anything more then your work if you have a good disk image, unless you install new programs. In the software testing is where you need to either have a snapshot or vm. Once your sure your system would agree with a package and you make it a new part of your arsenal, then you install it on your main system and update your drive image.

Quite frankly, unless your continuously installing and uninstalling programs, why even bother with full / disk image backups if you allready have a verified one.

Thats just my opinion. Oh, I almost forgot, for those that house tons of underutilized & installed programs on a computer, ask WHY, like the enron commercial, lol. Seriously, thats what VM's are for, or just dual boot your different megasystems.