How to choose installation directory for 3rd party software?

Usually we create more than one partitions of HDD. Here, we have two opinions; some people say one shouldn't install software in the operating system's drive (mostly C) and the other people oppose this concept.

These are my personal feelings that one shouldn't install software in OS' drive because it will give the 'typical HDD', somehow, a tough task. We will have to put more space for 'C' which will probably increase the seek time and maybe it will increase fragmentation on sectors.

So which is the best option to choose and what is the true concept behind selecting the directories?

Unless you have a really compelling reason to install programs in another partition or another drive (e.g. if you have a small SSD for the OS and want to install large games), there should be no reason to divert the program installation. None of the arguments you listed convince me.

If installer is InstallShield based you can use the following command line options:

Code:

Setup.exe /v"INSTALLDIR=\"D:\My Files\""

Same thing is valid for MSI files.

My guess is that there would not be a big performance difference - if any. But I really have not measured it because all my systems run on SSDs and those are very fast by design. I never put any system files on a spinner.

effect on imaging or other backup strategies

That is a good point. E.g. Win7 imaging will image all partitions where you have system files - even if you only wanted to image C: - no way to stop it to drag all the others along. And that can be a lot of stuff.