New Install Setup - Drive Segregation Help

This is really up to User preference, based on whether you want to rely on backup images and want them lean, so that if Win7 becomes irreparable you can reimage C in 20 minutes and have your data set current and ready in its own partition.

However you can achieve this for the most part by keeping everything on C and backing up both image and files regularly via the Win7 Backup Center: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Backup User and System Files

I stopped linking User folders to another partition except for a large video collection when my Downloads refused to install due to permissions issues which I couldn't fix. It wasn't worth the trouble.

I would however keep everything related to Programs on C as it becomes part of the OS until uninstalled.

SHPWin7 said:

Would I be better off keeping the Users and ProgramData folders on the C partition and simply creating folders on a "Data" partition on the HDD and directing defaults to there?

It is a matter of personal, but this is exactly what I already do.

I take regular image backups of the C drive and use SyncToy 2.4 to echo any changes on my internal data drive to an external data backup drive.

It just means that if anything untoward happens to Windows that necessitates a reinstall, my personal data is not affected.

SHPWin7 said:

However, after noting some issues and reading what WHS and Ignatz wrote, I'm trying to decide if I really gain anything by moving those folders to a different partition and drive. Would I be better off keeping the Users and ProgramData folders on the C partition and simply creating folders on a "Data" partition on the HDD and directing defaults to there?

Yet again, I am in agreement with Seavixen.

I completely ignore the entire "Users" folder structure on C--I never save anything there and rarely even look at it. Some programs throw stuff in there, which is fine--I pay no mind to it.

I have a D for data partition and save everything directly to it, using my own folder structure--with backups to E. Three drives in total, with one partition on each.

I can't remember when Microsoft came up with the C:\Users thing, but I knew immediately I wanted nothing to do with it.