Partitions and apps

I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives and
having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating system, and
having user documents on a seperate partition and even applications on
another one.

If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows reinstalled, I
can see the benefit of having user documents on a seperate partition because
they would be safe and not lost in the reformat. What's the point of having
applications on another partition though? Surely they would need to be
reinstalled to windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
something?

John

John wrote:
> I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives
> and having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating
> system, and having user documents on a seperate partition and even
> applications on another one.
>
> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows
> reinstalled, I can see the benefit of having user documents on a
> seperate partition because they would be safe and not lost in the
> reformat. What's the point of having applications on another
> partition though? Surely they would need to be reinstalled to
> windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
> something?

Nope. For most modern windows applications, you have not missed a thing.

If you format your system partition, even if you had your applications
installed on a seperate physical hard disk drive, you will be reinstalling
most of those applications in order to get them to work properly. DLL
files, registry settings, etc.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

John wrote:
> I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives and
> having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating system, and
> having user documents on a seperate partition and even applications on
> another one.
>
> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows reinstalled, I
> can see the benefit of having user documents on a seperate partition because
> they would be safe and not lost in the reformat.


Correct. Placing data files on a partition or physical hard drive
separate from the operating system and applications can greatly simplify
system repairs/recoveries and data back-up.


> What's the point of having
> applications on another partition though?


None, whatsoever.


> Surely they would need to be
> reinstalled to windows so no time is saved in the rebuild?


Exactly. There's virtually no point in having a separate partition for
just applications. Should you ever have to reinstall the OS, you'll
still also have to reinstall each and every application anyway, in order
to recreate the hundreds (possibly thousands) of registry entries and to
replace the dozens (possibly hundreds) of essential system files back
into the appropriate Windows folders and sub-folders.


> Or am I missing
> something?
>
> John
>
>

Not a thing.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

You are right. Putting Word for example in D:\program files and
reloading your OS on C: will do you no good. All the shortcuts are
gone, all the registry entries are gone and all the dll entries in
C:\windows\system32 (or wherever) are gone.

I can only see the benefit of protection from rampant corruption maybe.
And why you would have that is another question.
I do know that putting things like download folders etc on another
partition will prevent you from running your OS out of space. That's a
no no to run your C: drive down to 0 megs free. So having a partition
for your toys prevents you as user from forgetting to babysit your
system and running your OS out of space.

I made a 10 gig partition for my newsreader/robot newsbin, so all the
headers it downloads go to that drive and thus the fragmentation of that
partition does not fragment my C: drive with the OS.

I can't come up with any better ideas off hand.


John wrote:
> I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives and
> having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating system, and
> having user documents on a seperate partition and even applications on
> another one.
>
> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows reinstalled, I
> can see the benefit of having user documents on a seperate partition because
> they would be safe and not lost in the reformat. What's the point of having
> applications on another partition though? Surely they would need to be
> reinstalled to windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
> something?
>
> John
>
>

Dang, you type faster than me!!!! :-)



Shenan Stanley wrote:
> John wrote:
>> I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives
>> and having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating
>> system, and having user documents on a seperate partition and even
>> applications on another one.
>>
>> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows
>> reinstalled, I can see the benefit of having user documents on a
>> seperate partition because they would be safe and not lost in the
>> reformat. What's the point of having applications on another
>> partition though? Surely they would need to be reinstalled to
>> windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
>> something?
>
> Nope. For most modern windows applications, you have not missed a thing.
>
> If you format your system partition, even if you had your applications
> installed on a seperate physical hard disk drive, you will be reinstalling
> most of those applications in order to get them to work properly. DLL
> files, registry settings, etc.)
>

fwiw, there are a few reasons, but they are of limited benefit

a) As noted, it reduces disk fragmentation, but then you can run a
defragmenter and thus negate the advantage

b) A less obvious, but still valid reason--some idiotic programs DO save
data and settings to program files folder. Thus, reinstalling the OS, then
re-installing the program, puts you back to where you were before the OS
reinstall. This is becoming less common now, but there are still some
programs that do this by default.



"Big Al" <BigAl@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:MwIQj.1901$e26.408@trnddc02...
> You are right. Putting Word for example in D:\program files and
> reloading your OS on C: will do you no good. All the shortcuts are gone,
> all the registry entries are gone and all the dll entries in
> C:\windows\system32 (or wherever) are gone.
>
> I can only see the benefit of protection from rampant corruption maybe.
> And why you would have that is another question.
> I do know that putting things like download folders etc on another
> partition will prevent you from running your OS out of space. That's a
> no no to run your C: drive down to 0 megs free. So having a partition
> for your toys prevents you as user from forgetting to babysit your system
> and running your OS out of space.
>
> I made a 10 gig partition for my newsreader/robot newsbin, so all the
> headers it downloads go to that drive and thus the fragmentation of that
> partition does not fragment my C: drive with the OS.
>
> I can't come up with any better ideas off hand.
>
>
> John wrote:
>> I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives and
>> having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating system, and
>> having user documents on a seperate partition and even applications on
>> another one.
>>
>> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows reinstalled,
>> I can see the benefit of having user documents on a seperate partition
>> because they would be safe and not lost in the reformat. What's the point
>> of having applications on another partition though? Surely they would
>> need to be reinstalled to windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or
>> am I missing something?
>>
>> John

I do use C: for Windows, D: for Applications and another drive for data.
Why:
1) Security updates and other reasons cause the Windows partition (C to
require defragmentation most often.
2) Applications (located on D are updated far less often and therefore
rarely require defragmentation.
Also reduces the drive space used on C: as Apps are on D: thus image backups
and defrags take less time.
3) The second drive has the first partition set aside for the pagefile,
which once created is always contiguous and never gets fragmented.

My safety net is Image backups of the C:, D:, and Data partitions.
On the C: (Windows) partition I create an Image backup prior to the monthly
security updates.
On D: (Apps) only prior to and after a new application is installed or an
update is available.

JS

This means I can get back to a stable system with all applications
functioning should any problems occur.
"John" <replyingroup@notemail> wrote in message
news5idnTOCG_0JzY7VnZ2dnUVZ8s-qnZ2d@bt.com...
>I remember reading of various people partitioning their hard drives and
>having the system (C drive purely for that, the operating system, and
>having user documents on a seperate partition and even applications on
>another one.
>
> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows reinstalled, I
> can see the benefit of having user documents on a seperate partition
> because they would be safe and not lost in the reformat. What's the point
> of having applications on another partition though? Surely they would need
> to be reinstalled to windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I
> missing something?
>
> John
>

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:56:19 +0100, "John" <replyingroup@notemail>
wrote:


> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows reinstalled, I
> can see the benefit of having user documents on a seperate partition because
> they would be safe and not lost in the reformat. What's the point of having
> applications on another partition though? Surely they would need to be
> reinstalled to windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
> something?



You're missing nothing. That's exactly why the fairly common practice
of putting applications on a separate partition is essentially
meaningless.

By the way, regarding having documents on a separate partition,
although I don't object to it, every time I read about someone doing
it because "they would be safe and not lost in the reformat," I fear
that that's a person who relies on that partition scheme for safety
and does not have a program of regular backup in place.

If your data is regularly backed up, having had it separated on a
separate partition buys you very little. If it's not backed up and you
think you're safe because it's on a second partition, you're playing
with fire.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:56:19 +0100, "John" <replyingroup@notemail>
> wrote:
>
>
>> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows
>> reinstalled, I can see the benefit of having user documents on a
>> seperate partition because they would be safe and not lost in the
>> reformat. What's the point of having applications on another
>> partition though? Surely they would need to be reinstalled to
>> windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
>> something?
>
>
>
> You're missing nothing. That's exactly why the fairly common practice
> of putting applications on a separate partition is essentially
> meaningless.
>
> By the way, regarding having documents on a separate partition,
> although I don't object to it, every time I read about someone doing
> it because "they would be safe and not lost in the reformat," I fear
> that that's a person who relies on that partition scheme for safety
> and does not have a program of regular backup in place.
>
> If your data is regularly backed up, having had it separated on a
> separate partition buys you very little. If it's not backed up and you
> think you're safe because it's on a second partition, you're playing
> with fire.

Thanks to all for replying and yes, I take your point Ken. I do have user
data on a seperate partition and also backed up to a networked drive in a
different location - belt and braces style )

John

"John" <replyingroup@notemail> wrote in message
news:noKdnQK8SPCL8Y7VRVnyhQA@bt.com...
> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
>> On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:56:19 +0100, "John" <replyingroup@notemail>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> If the system partition needs to be reformatted and windows
>>> reinstalled, I can see the benefit of having user documents on a
>>> seperate partition because they would be safe and not lost in the
>>> reformat. What's the point of having applications on another
>>> partition though? Surely they would need to be reinstalled to
>>> windows so no time is saved in the rebuild? Or am I missing
>>> something?
>>
>>
>>
>> You're missing nothing. That's exactly why the fairly common practice
>> of putting applications on a separate partition is essentially
>> meaningless.
>>
>> By the way, regarding having documents on a separate partition,
>> although I don't object to it, every time I read about someone doing
>> it because "they would be safe and not lost in the reformat," I fear
>> that that's a person who relies on that partition scheme for safety
>> and does not have a program of regular backup in place.
>>
>> If your data is regularly backed up, having had it separated on a
>> separate partition buys you very little. If it's not backed up and you
>> think you're safe because it's on a second partition, you're playing
>> with fire.
>
> Thanks to all for replying and yes, I take your point Ken. I do have user
> data on a seperate partition and also backed up to a networked drive in a
> different location - belt and braces style )
>



The thing is that if your HD fails...having data on a 2nd partition won't do
you much good.
So even though there is nothing wrong with doing so.
There is no substitute for a backup.

I tell all my "clients" to make sure all important data are in *at least*
two places...

such as two physical harddrives...or a harddrive and DVD's etc.

Most of my important stuff is backed up in a minimum of three different
places.