Partitioning - Why?

Hello guys, just wanted to say why you partition your harddrive. Security and effeciency. Keeping the OS seperate from the rest of your stuff should be a given for any system.
Being that in theory the OS being the gateway to alot of your problems...virus, worms, malicious code etc. Not to mention its very fast to Ghost or image & Restore an operating system thats only 1.5 GB - 7 GB, as opposed to restoring an entire C: partition 7GB++++. For me its just 1min 3sec and my C: is restored. While the rest of my goods is nice and safe in other partitions. Partioning in my opinion helps minimize molestation of your important stuff, programs, files, etc, especially if the OS gets breached with a virus or worm; anything thats in the same partition as the OS is More susceptible to corruption. I didnt mean to go off the subject if I did I'm sorry but I wanted to put my 2 cents in seeing the earlier posts above>

 

But what if your data partition contains a downloaded infected file that was never detected by your scanners? It might infect your system partition again and again.

 

The answer to your ? is I have my image backups original taken after my set up was completed and not being connected to the internet, on Disc. Besides my partitions are write protected thus no changes can be truly made to it. How ever being partitioned in my opinion is alot safer than having everything reside with the OS which is the main gateway to your problems.

 

Ok Peter sounds like you had some good fortune and good security set up to be connected to the internet at all times? I wouldnt know however just a bit curious on the times you beta tested the programs were you at all connected to the internet? And also when your system did crash, how long did it take you to restore your system back to snuff. Having my system partitioned definitely speeds up my restore process and since I rather overwrite my OS files using a complete back up of my original setup OS. Time to restore OS to my original tweaked settings = 1min 3 sec

 

There are very good reasons to partition a drive. Here's how my crate is set up: 2 x 80 GB hard drives. On one I have a 10GB C partition for the OS and applications. The rest is for data. I have the documents directory, favourites, address book, music files and email directories all on this D partition. On the second hard drive I have backups of these directories (using SyncToy, which is excellent) plus Ghost images of C. Assuming the C partition with Windows gets hosed, all I have to do is restore it with a Ghost image and all of my documents, email, favourites, address book, etc. are still there, independent of when I backed them up the last time. You hardly want to back up all of your data after every single change, so this is a practical system.
As an additional benefit, smaller partitions defrag faster, assuming it has sufficient free space.
One thing that I consider pointless, however, is making a separate partition for applications. This is often recommended, but if you have to re-install Windows you will have to re-install the apps anyway, so it doesn't really matter where they're installed, you'll be re-installing them anyway.

 

I have the same thing.
I'm curious HOW you moved all your personal data to partition [D:]

 

I do the same with everything except Favorites. My Favorites are kinda linked to the icons in my "FavOrg" data directory, so I leave it. Besides I have my Favorites synchronized (except for deletions) on a total of 6 machines so the potential losses are slim to none.

 

I'm also working OFF-LINE on a system partition to get a very clean system partition, that I can restore over and over again, if needed and that will be also the base for my very first snapshot.

 

One of the easiest ways of moving these is to make the appropriate directories and then use TweakUI to make them the default. The Address Book is a bit different, move it to where you want it and then look for this key in the registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name After you find that, change the path to the new location and then re-boot. Moving the email directory is simple in Lookout Distress, there's an option where to save emails, so it's just browse and click. For Thunderbird I've seen a tutorial somewhere on how to do it, but I've forgotten how it was done. It isn't difficult, just different than the way it's done with OE.

 

Well, I'm glad I'm not alone with all these one-partition[C:]-people here.

 

I do something similar wihout partitioning - I just have a little 40 gig C drive that I don't use for anything but the OS. I install apps on a 120 gig drive and keep all other files on a second 120 gig. I scan 'em all all periodically and haven't had a problem yet.

When I did have to reinstall Windows once under this setup, I found that maybe (guesstimate here) 30% of my applications actually needed reinstalled (registry entries to run I suppose) but most still ran fine using shortcuts.

The price of a 40 gig drive these days just made it seem the easy way to go for me.

 

Hello,
Safer? Maybe. From what? Virus-like damage? No. Physical / System-wide damages? Yes.
If it's another partition, if the system gets screwed, you do not lose your data.
If it's another hdd, and the first one fails, you do not lose your data.
Mrk

 

Well, I'm very glad, I separated my winXPproSP2 from personal data and not just because of safety.
It makes everything much easier, better organized and my backup/restore procedure is always the same for both partitions, without any exceptions.

It's not a good idea IMO to separate winXPproSP2 from MS Applications + Third Party Applications.
I consider winXPproSP2 + MS Applications as ONE software, because "Windows Update" does that too.
As long M$ doesn't provide an installation CD of winXPproSP2 without all these mediocre MS Applications, I will keep it that way and add Third Party Applications to replace these poor MS Applications.

- MS Internet Explorer = Mozilla Firefox
- MS Outlook = Mozilla Thunderbird
- MS Add/Remove Programs = Total Uninstall
- MS Disk Defragmenter = PerfectDisk
- MS Backup = Acronis True Image
- MS System Restore comes next.
- SnagIt (I couldn't find a MS Application, that does that job)
- etc. etc. etc.

 

No question you did the partitioning right. Oh, the Microsoft equivalent of SnagIt is "print screen." Not as powerful obviously, but it works.

 

Thanks Peter for your response and input. I guess if the partitions were write protected it would offer a little protection. I was mainly concerned about some of the programs that resided on the OS partition as being MORE prone to getting messed with if a virus or code etc. did breach the OS thus making the program unreliable as far as restores go. Example: system restore thats built into the OS, I dont think I would rely on it but thats a whole different set up from other restore programs so I shouldnt even compare it. But hearing from your experience Peter sounds like its all good.