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

adri123 · 19 Jan 2015

whs said:

Btw - I am not sure why that was not clear from my previous posting.

Because I think you're confusing two different things in what I'm saying.

Default system folder, let's say My Music (on C). It's the default system folder because it's the one with the special music icon, it's the one you can right click>Location>Move.
That's one thing.

ANOTHER THING, is the default save location of the Music library, let's say Music-Adri123 (on D).

So my Music Library would look like that:

Music Library:
--- Music-Adri123 (D:) * default save location
--- My Music (C:) * default system folder, since it's still this folder that has the special music icon, is movable etc. even though it's not the default save location of the library.

Hence my question that i was trying to ask you. Do the programs store their settings in the default system folder or in the default save location ?

adri123 · 19 Jan 2015

If they save their settings in the default system folder, then it's ok to set the default save location on D.
But if they save them in the the default save location, that would be dangerous since I would have set it to be on D.

Slartybart · 19 Jan 2015

adri123 said:

Slartybart thank you very much that's the kind of answer i was expecting. It's clear now:

Program settings are not part of the default save location.

Question 7: But they could right ?
If a program is programmed so that it stores its settings to the default save location, instead of the default folder.

Question 8: The whole thread is about how can I back up C (os+progs) without omitting the program settings AND by avoiding libraries if possible. Do you think that's possible ?

Sure, you can tell a program to store the settings or even data in a different location.
Not all programs have this capability though.

Two examples:
GIMP, a graphics editor: I can tell it to store the settings in one place and the different tool options (gradients, brushes, fonts...) in another place. There has to be a known config file (small text file that says look over there for this) that points at the other location information.

Window Essential Mail: The configuration is static, but the message store can be moved to a new location defined in the configuration

As I mentioned, not all applications allow you this flexibility.
I should probably read post 1 to better understand what you want to do and why.
I understand why I did store data off of C:\ using various means (environment variables, application configuration, Libraries, Location, etc.

Libraries is the easiest and safest, once you grasp all of it. It took me a while and I'm sure I only know the top layer.

Bill
.

Slartybart · 19 Jan 2015

Question 8? I think that is possible, just don't store any configuration files outside your User Profile.

I'm not positive though

In theory
Image (backup) your C: drive (OS+pgms+User Profile)
the Libraries definition gets carried along from your appdata (I forget the exact location, but it's under there)
the definition only says what folders are included in the Library (pointers to the real folders which are on D:)

What I'm not sure about is if the imaging (or backup) software will follow the pointers and grab your data too

You do plan to backup your data too, right? You're just trying to separate the two.

Slartybart · 19 Jan 2015

This might also help.

The four folders (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos) under your User Profile are special folders, not system folders.

Terminology can confuse the discussion - better to use real names and examples.

Slartybart · 19 Jan 2015

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

adri123 · 19 Jan 2015

Slartybart said:

Question 8? I think that is possible, just don't store any configuration files outside your User Profile.

Actually that's what I'm having here since three years: I "moved" (right click>settings>move) all special folders to D.
So that I have one and only one My Music folder, one and only one My Pictures folder and so on. All of them on D so they're part of the "Data backup".
This allows me to not have to deal with libraries and 2 "My Music" folders and 2 "My Pictures" folders and so on. I find it much more clean. And for me Libraries are just a way to mask a mess. Which I don't have in my configuration. The only exception I made, is for the special folder My Documents. I kept it on C and made another one on D, because I observed that it is mostly in that folder that the programs store their settings, if they do.

Slartybart said:

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

Slartybart said:

I'm not positive though

I haven't had any problem but indeed some programs could use other special folders than My Documents..
And since in my configuration I have moved them to D, that would break the concept of prog/data separation.

Slartybart said:

In theory
Image (backup) your C: drive (OS+pgms+User Profile)
the Libraries definition gets carried along from your appdata (I forget the exact location, but it's under there)
the definition only says what folders are included in the Library (pointers to the real folders which are on D:)

What I'm not sure about is if the imaging (or backup) software will follow the pointers and grab your data too

I think imaging software will include D in the image if the whole User Profile folder has been moved on it, sicne it contains the hidden AppData system folder

Slartybart said:

You do plan to backup your data too, right? You're just trying to separate the two.

Yup.
---
Image appears twice, i don't know why..

whs · 19 Jan 2015

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.

adri123 · 19 Jan 2015

Here how my system looks like for the moment.
Pay attention that it's the D partition. Where I have moved my special folders. Except My Documents which contains program settings and i have kept on C. Only for that one folder I did create a "duplicate" user folder. The others are just nice, special user folders, on my D.

whs · 19 Jan 2015

This is Windows backwards. It must be a pain to maintain that.