Disc management question for a clean install

saverio · Jul 13, 2009

Hi all, I'm having fun and games at the moment with a backup nightmare on another thread.

I'd like to ask you experts who know the MS OS very well your thoughts on the following:

I am looking to do a clean vanilla install again and use easy transfer to move the two users on the system.

My system has the following drives:

Velociraptor 10K 300gb drives x2
250gb drives x2
500gb drive x1

Currently the 10K volumes are in a raid 0 and hold everything - all users folders, the whole shooting match.

The 2x 250gb drives are sitting idle, I had planned to have each user holding one drive for their files, however I did a test with my own user folder and some files wouldn't move and others deleted etc

(in mac OS we just use location manager to 'point' a folder like 'user saverio' to another volume - and it's that easy.)

The 500gb volume is currently acting as a dump; scratch discs, disc ISO's and music folders backup etc.

If you had these volumes, how would you organise your system? Would you raid or not?

thanks for your thoughts in advance and I look forward to seeing how the experts would do it!

swarfega · Jul 13, 2009

I currently have 6 hard drives connected to this system.

Two raptor drives in RAID0, a raptor 36gb for web browser profiles and OS pagefile., 1 1Tb hard drive has my games on it, another 1Tb drive is used as a dumping ground, download area and user files (this includes my pictures/documents/videos), yet another !tb drive holds all my music. This way there are no important files on the OS drive so it can be formatted at a moments notice.

Before I do format c: I always backup my c:\users\<account>\appdata (which is hidden) folder to another drive. This folder contains all your program configurations and also your emails if your using either WLM or Outlook.

If you have further more specific questions, just ask

saverio · Jul 13, 2009

Swarfega, thanks for the advice!

I've seen this invisible folder, and wondered what was in it! is this what easy transfer uses when it builds it's file?

Could I ask what you mean by browser profiles?

I was looking to do the same thing with the page file myself, where do you keep your applications? i understand that windows really doesn't like the programs folder moved.

One last question, how did you move the user files? I tried it with the move command and it all went very tits up! is it best to do it before you restore all the user data say with easy transfer?

Antman · Jul 13, 2009

saverio said:
Velociraptor 10K 300gb drives x2
250gb drives x2
500gb drive x1

Wow, this is actually a bit tough for me. I prefer smaller drives for the OS/PAGE. Please note that I recommend a customized installation placing the SystemDrive and UserProfiles on separate volumes.

I would RAID0 the 250's for the OS, RAID0 the Raptors with two partitions for the user files, and use the 500 as my archive, but I would add another 500 and mirror the two 500s. There is just so much wasted space on the RAID0 System Volume.

The performance diff between RAID0 2x Raptor and RAID0 2x 7200 rpm drives approaches neglible.

saverio · Jul 13, 2009

Antman, when you say place the system drive and user profiles on different volumes can you do this during installation or is this a post installation op.?

I was thinking of selling the two 7200 250's and getting some smaller (150 or 80) 10K drives instead.

swarfega · Jul 13, 2009

saverio said:
Swarfega, thanks for the advice!

I've seen this invisible folder, and wondered what was in it! is this what easy transfer uses when it builds it's file?

Could I ask what you mean by browser profiles?

I was looking to do the same thing with the page file myself, where do you keep your applications? i understand that windows really doesn't like the programs folder moved.

One last question, how did you move the user files? I tried it with the move command and it all went very tits up! is it best to do it before you restore all the user data say with easy transfer?

Ive not used easy transfer myself so we'd need some one who has to confirm it. I know that backup and restore does backup the appdata folder.

I keep the applications on c:, its not too much bother to reinstall them.

Browser profiles contain things like personal details, cookies, plugins, cache files etc.

Moving account subfolders:

1. open windows explorer
2. go to c:\users\<account>
3. right click on one of the folders you wish to move and select properties
4. go to locate tab and click on move button
5. select a new location for the folder (I create a folder first then select that folder in the mover)

This is the preferred way to move these folders.

Antman · Jul 13, 2009

saverio said:
Antman, when you say place the system drive and user profiles on different volumes can you do this during installation or is this a post installation op.?

I was thinking of selling the two 7200 250's and getting some smaller (150 or 80) 10K drives instead.

I am working on this now. But my baby girl had me up most of the night and I am not quite focused today. Google WAIK 7. I use two Raptor 78s for my OS volume - currently I have 3 OSs loaded.

saverio · Jul 13, 2009

Thanks Swarfega, i'll definitely do it that way next time. I notice that the users account folder itself won't move and that you can only move the folders therein, any idea why that is?

so how do you move the browser profiles is it done from within the internet settings?

Antman, thanks for the advice and I've subbed your link

Antman · Jul 13, 2009

swarfega said:
...This is the preferred way to move these folders.

In the application of SSDs, I disagree completely. For my own preferences using HDDs, I also disagree.

For moving user data files post installation, I agree.

swarfega · Jul 13, 2009

saverio said:
Thanks Swarfega, i'll definitely do it that way next time. I notice that the users account folder itself won't move and that you can only move the folders therein, any idea why that is?

so how do you move the browser profiles is it done from within the internet settings?

Antman, thanks for the advice and I've subbed your link

I would not advice moving the user folder, although you maybe able to do it in regedit.

Antman said:
In the application of SSDs, I disagree completely. For my own preferences using HDDs, I also disagree.

For moving user data files post installation, I agree.

Im not sure I completely understand what your agreeing/disagreeing to here.

7echno7im · Jul 13, 2009

saverio said:
Hi all, I'm having fun and games at the moment with a backup nightmare on another thread.

I'd like to ask you experts who know the MS OS very well your thoughts on the following:

I am looking to do a clean vanilla install again and use easy transfer to move the two users on the system.

My system has the following drives:

Velociraptor 10K 300gb drives x2
250gb drives x2
500gb drive x1

Currently the 10K volumes are in a raid 0 and hold everything - all users folders, the whole shooting match.

The 2x 250gb drives are sitting idle, I had planned to have each user holding one drive for their files, however I did a test with my own user folder and some files wouldn't move and others deleted etc
(in mac OS we just use location manager to 'point' a folder like 'user saverio' to another volume - and it's that easy.)

The 500gb volume is currently acting as a dump; scratch discs, disc ISO's and music folders backup etc.

If you had these volumes, how would you organise your system? Would you raid or not?

thanks for your thoughts in advance and I look forward to seeing how the experts would do it!

Mine is almost identical. I striped my 2 raptor drives and installed Windows 7 on it, and use it for my programs.. Then I striped my 2 500GB drives and used that for my docs/data/music/pics/tv/movies.

I use windows home server for backups so I am not worried about one drive failing and ruining the stripe, but its something to keep in mind.

for yours, I would stripe the 2 300's and install windows and all apps, and use the other 3 for music, docs, movies, tv, etc.... or create a JBOD raid and throw everything on there, giving you roughly 900GB after formatting.

Antman · Jul 13, 2009

swarfega said:
Im not sure I completely understand what your agreeing/disagreeing to here.

swarfega said:
Moving account subfolders:

1. open windows explorer
2. go to c:\users\<account>
3. right click on one of the folders you wish to move and select properties
4. go to locate tab and click on move button
5. select a new location for the folder (I create a folder first then select that folder in the mover)

This is the preferred way to move these folders.

I disagree with your assessment of this being the preferred methodology.

This method leaves your registry files, almost all log files, AppData, temp files, TIF, et cetera on the system drive. Assigning USERPROFILES et al suring installation relocates the lot in one fell swoop. I have yet to identify all of the various log files written to C:\Windows, nor have I prevented other miscellaneous writes to PROGRAMFILES, but I am trying.

Historically, this was important only in that it was my self-appointed goal - an effort to tweak out every last bit of I/O from C: and to distribute that I/O across multiple volumes to the maximum extent possible. Now it is my mission to do so to address the 4 kb/512 kb issue in SSDs. Theory vs. application.

It all started the one and only time that I lost "C:\Documents and Settings" in XP during a re-install.

Disc management question for a clean install

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