New drive question

Hi guys,

I recently I replaced my HDD 120 > 200 gb. Thanks to Acronis i now have an f: drive.

1. Does a partition afford some protection from malware. If f: gets infected is c: insulated from the havoc going on at f:\

2. What & how do i separate programs? The obvious is uninstall re-install, anything simpler?

3. Thanks to Acronis my drives are now, c:\ HDD, d:\ cd-dvd, e:\ cd-dvd, f:\ hdd, any simple 'goof proof' way to re-assign drive letters?

4. If c & d become HDD should I make an e:\ drive just for 'page file?'

5. I'm used to one big c:\ drive, is it beneficial, beyond the getting used to it phase, to have partitions?

NOTE f: was just made & contains no data & has approx 74 gb free, so I can futz wit it.

Thanks & Take Care
Rico

 

1. Not really, it's more about having your data off the system partition. With all your data on a system partition, you could restore an image to the C: drive and not lose much. It's also just like having multiple containers for organizing a lot of stuff.. it just makes things easier and tidier during general use. If you put all your media files on E:, then when you want them you just go to E: without having to sort through various unrelated directories.

2. Try Application Mover - http://majorgeeks.com/download526.html - apps that require an install, however, will likely still requre a re-install the next time you format C:... I don't know that moving those applications to another partition would do much, with the exception of things like games that might take up space that you'd rather have taken up on another partition.

3. Go into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management, right click on the drives and "Change Drive Letter". Temporarily change them to very high letters like "Q, R, S, and T" and then change them back to what you actually want them to be.

4. If the E: is on a separate physical drive then it could be of some benefit, but I don't know that you'd notice a lot of benefit unless you're doing something really intensive like Photoshop

5. The first time you format you'll be very glad you have at least one other partition, since you won't have to back up those other partitions just to format

 

1. i suppose it depends on teh virus. some may just go after C:\, some search for certain programs, etc.

2. what do u mean?

3. administrative tools > computer management > disk management. right click on the partition and select "Change driver letters and path"

4. using a separate partition doesnt work as well, a separate hard drive is better for the pagefile.

5. depends what u want to accomplish. partitions can help u organize programs or personal data. u can also use a partition for storing backup or disk images.

edit: Notok beat me to it

 

Messrs Notok, Fuser,

It's good to be back! And THANK YOU for the valuable information!!

Take Care & Fold ON
Rico

 

Separating my personal files, emails and email-address-books from WinXPproSP2 is the very best thing I ever did regarding organizing my harddisks.
It feels very reassuring, if you don't have to worry anymore about your personal files, when something very bad happens to your system partition [C:].
I even stored my personal data on another internal harddisk, not just another partition and it gives you total freedom on your system partition [C:], because your personal data is SOMEWHERE else.
Losing everything on your system partition isn't a disaster, but losing your personal data is a disaster.
It also simplifies backup and your data partition needs more backup, than your system partition.
The only disadvantage of this is that not every software allows you to separate your data, but I avoid these softwares. Recent softwares don't have that problem.

I don't see much benefit in separating programs from WinXPproSP2, because Windows itself has already many MS programs. It only complicate things and each of these programs can be recovered easily.

 

Ah, I forgot one thing: portable apps. If you have the choice, get the portable version of any app. You can then just drop it on your 2nd drive/partition and run it, and you won't have to reinstall after you format. Some applications, such as many open source apps, will give you the choice of writing the registry data to an file (usually an XML file) or to the actual registry, so just choose to write to the XML file and drop on the second partition. Many of the open source apps (and a few others) will also have a few choices for download, one of the installer and one of a zip file with just the files (binaries). If you download the binaries zip, you can usually just extract and run.

Should you feel so inclined, this is also where Altiris Software Virtualization comes in handy, especially for system tools or other apps that you don't use often. Install to a "layer" and export the layer to the second drive/partition. Then the next time you format you won't have to install all those apps again, just install Altiris.

 

Hello,
Notok is a fast fellow, his jacket is blue his boots are yellow.
Mrk

 

I disagree completely. I am far more worried about my programs and Windows and all the infinite tweaks I have done to Windows, my browsers, applications, etc than I am about losing a few personal folders. I put my photos on CD and nothing else except a few emails are worth worrying about. I can print out the emails that have information I don't want to lose. I don't keep any personal information that is important on a computer! Gee....I don't get why people do that. What I don't want to have to do is spend weeks tearing my hair out getting Windows and my applications usable again. UGH. That is why a person has True Image. The personal stuff is simple...don't put it on a computer or make copies of it. The hard stuff is all the tweaking that you have to do to make Windows, browsers, etc. enjoyable and usable. That is what you don't want to have to do again.

 

Every user, who doesn't separate his data from his system and never experienced this separation will disagree. Isn't that logical ?
I also had everything on one partition in the past, so I know the difference and I won't go back to one partition.

There are enough members, who have done the same thing like me and I've seen it recommended on several websites as a smart thing to do. But this is an old discussion, just like multi-partitioning.
If you store your data on DVD's, like photos (which belong on DVD's), you already separated your data from Windows. So you do exactly the same thing like me.
It's not only about photos and you can't store everything on DVD's either, like large databases for instance.

 

The tweaks and settings are part of why I recommend using portable apps. Those don't change when you format. For Windows settings there's also the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, which you could use to save those settings to the second drive/partition. As far as which is more important, I would say that's very subjective and depends entirely on what you do and how you do it. Most of the settings I change are easily backed up in one way or another, and most of what I do has to do with software, leaving my personal files and downloads a lot more important. The tweaks that I do that don't involve other software, however, I know how to do quickly enough that it doesn't bother me. If there's something that would really take me forever to get back to the way I want it, I find a solution to consolidate and/or simplify.

My first course of action after formatting, however, is always to get drivers and updates installed, install the most basic software that I need (generally stuff that does not update often), and then make an image with True Image. After long enough, though, all the software has had enough updates and I change the customization that I do so restoring an image doesn't really save much time, which is why I feel it's still imporant to back everything up on a second drive/partition and not rely entirely on disk imaging (even beyond the obvious potential for hardware failure).