Using one drive for OS and one for DATA

I am using two internal hard drives - one for Windows and all software applications and one purely for data.
The idea is to keep data on the drive that is less likely to die, get corrupted or affected by malware. In addition backups are easier.

One of my programs did not have an easy way to have the data output saved to the data drive. At least nothing that did not involve digging into the registry. So instead I am running the whole program from the data drive -thus breaking my own system

Apart from the fact that this not very tidy, are there any other issues that may cause concern? Can you theoretically run half your programs plus windows on drive A and the remainder on drive B - not that I want to do this, just curious

 

For some programs, you might look into the command subst and assign a drive letter to a data directory in your data hdd. You can then (sometimes) tell a stubborn app to save to a drive letter. It works a charm many times.

However it can backfire. I have seen items like punkbuster refuse to operate properly if the inclusion of a subst drive is present.

Might be worthwhile for your needs though.

Sul.

 

What I do for some of my stubborn programs is to leave them installed on the C: drive and add their data output folder (still on the C: drive) to my D:data backup profile. So I know that my whole D:data hard drive will be backed up plus the data output folders on my C: drive of the programs won't let me change to my D:data drive. This way I keep all programs with my o/s on the C: drive.

 

TIP: That concern goes away (for the most part) if you make frequent image-backups of your C-drive; which in any case is very good practice!

 

I been doing things this way for 5 years now with a usb stick. I just use junction.exe and redirect all data folders to my usb stick. The only program that didn't work with junction.exe is svs juice. Other than that, i've had no problems so far. and the ghosting my app hdd is small and fast.