Should I keep My Documents on C and Videos, Music etc on D ?

whs said:

Slartybart said:

pot#1 said:

Reason: Some programs tend to save their settings and parameters in that folder. In case of crash, I want to be able to put back my OS and programs, and to have them working exactly like before and not having to reajust all of their settings!, or even worse, having some programs bug because of missing/incoherent settings.

I'm not aware of any programs that save their settings to Documents. I think you either have a wonky program, or a misconception.

Please give me a real world example from your machine. Thanks

Look at page 3 post #25 in this thread. There you have plenty of real world examples.

Thanks, I meant from adri123's machine

As I said, I'm not aware of any programs that save their settings to Documents ... now I'm aware of some. Are they data folders or do those programs store settings in those folders?

I'm not trying to be difficult, but Applications shouldn't store settings in Documents.
Appdata, ProgramData... settings.
Documents ... data

You make an interesting distinction though. OneNote and OneDrive might store some settings or other configuration mechanism connected to the folder.

Help me out a bit more and connect the dots for me on your machine. What file in <pick a folder, any folder> under Documents has the settings for the application associated with the folder?

Or maybe I should read the thread Yes, that's what I'm going to do.

Thanks Wolfgang,

Bill
.

Thanks, I meant from adri123's machine

Does that make a difference - shouldn't.

Are they data folders or do those programs store settings in those folders?

Yes they store setting. E.g. Macrium stores their XML files that are generated each time you define a new image backup. Camtasia stores all kind of files. Format Factory stores it's output files, etc.

Help me out a bit more and connect the dots for me on your machine. What file in <pick a folder, any folder> under Documents has the settings for the application associated with the folder?

Love to help you out. But I don't understand the question. LOL.

Should it make a difference? It might ... I don't have any settings stored in my Documents folder (no special changes made), Adrien might have settings stored in his Documents folder I don't know - that 's why I asked.

I know you have settings stored in your Documents folder :)

Your point is valid - if I don't, and you do, then Adrien might now or at some point in the future.

You did help me out - you answered that the XML file(s) in the Documents\Macrium folder has settings for Macrium Reflect application.

I should really finish reading this thread.

Bill
.

I was just joking about the difference. I hope you did not mind.

The Macrium folder is called 'Reflect" and I sometimes have to go in and delete xml files that are no more applicable because I changed the setting.

The really big folder is 'Virtual System' which is one or several VMware Player virtual machines. Most of the virtual machines I moved outboard to an external SSD because they were over 100GB, but a couple most used I keep in Documents. Then I need not switch my external SSD on. Avoids bending forward and pushing a button. LOL

Brink said:

If you move a user folder (ex: Music, Videos, etc..) to D and try to create a system image, you'll notice that D will be included in the image and cannot be unselected. At least, that's what it does for me.

I'm a bit late to this thread so forgive me if I'm duplicating anything.

I'm guessing you are using Windows imaging. If so, then yes, that is true, However, it isn't true for Macrium Reflect's imaging.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Brink said:

If you move a user folder (ex: Music, Videos, etc..) to D and try to create a system image, you'll notice that D will be included in the image and cannot be unselected. At least, that's what it does for me.

I'm a bit late to this thread so forgive me if I'm duplicating anything.

I'm guessing you are using Windows imaging. If so, then yes, that is true, However, it isn't true for Macrium Reflect's imaging.

Yep, that's with Windows imaging.

whs said:

...You never make an image of a whole drive. Images are done by partition. An 'image' of a whole drive is called a "Clone"...

Hunh? I'm thinking you may have misspoke. It's true you can make images of individual partitions but you can also make images of multiple partitions, including an entire drive. I frequently make a single image of both the system reserved and C: partitions on my notebook drive and do so weekly for the entire boot drive (which has only the system reserved and C: partitions on it) of my desktop rig.

A clone is a completely different beast. A clone is an exact, functional (including bootable if system files are involved) duplicate of an entire drive. While an image is like a photo negative, which can be used to create a print, a clone is the equivalent of the print itself. One can image single partitions, multiple partitions, and entire drives but one can clone only an entire drive.

whs said:

....Btw - it is not a good practice to keep permanent folders on the desktop. I keep only temporary folders there.

I avoid keeping too much data directly on the desktop of my desktop rig to keep the C: partition size down (which reduces time to make images, keeps image size down, and avoids filling up the SSD) and to reduce the number of writes on the SSD. Instead, I keep several temporary folders on my E: drive and put shortcuts to them on my desktop. That way, they are easily accessed from the desktop. I also keep some links on the desktop to permanent folders on my E: drive to also make access to them easier.

When I set my machines up, I simply drag my data folders (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos) from my user folder to the data drive (or partition in the case of my single drive notebooks). Since I use Macrium Reflect for imaging, this has not been a problem for me. I backup my data daily using FreeFileSync so if any of my programs save data in documents (a few do), I don't lose any thing when I restore an image. I also use FreeFileSync to backup my Favorites to my data drive. My post it note program automatically backs up to a folder on my data drive and I can easily manually backup my calendar program to the data drive.

LF, you are splitting hair. Of course you can image a bunch of partitions in one swoop. But that is still by partition. If you make a clone, you get a bare metal copy sector by sector of the whole disk.

Disadvantage with cloning is that it takes a lot longer than an image and the receiving disk must be at least the size of the originating disk. An image you can restore to a smaller disk as long as the data fits.

Btw - why do you worry about the time it takes to write an image. Just 'hide' Macrium and go on using your computer. It will telkl you when it is done. I have never seen an image take longer than 15 minutes - on my system.