Dumb Q re: keeping your data OFF the C: (OS partition)

JimLewandowski said:

Staple Head said:

actually microsour has not yet created an os that does not scan every file on the os drive / partition yet. why do you think a lot of users will create two separate partitions. one for the install of windows and the other one for program files.

You are not making any sense whatsoever. Windows doesn't scan anything. Otherwise we'd be seeing recommendations to move or delete every little from your OS partition to speed up the boot process.

Um, users create a second partition for data so if they restore their OS partition, their data is intact.

windows does scan every file on the os drive / partition during bootup. i'm not the one trying to bs people. two reasons to create that second partition. first to keep windows from scanning those files during bootup, second to protect that data during a reinstall of windows.

Apart from the scanning problem, there are good reasons to have a seperate data partition.
1. It allows you to image those partitions at their own pace and the imaging is faster. Not every system image requires the data to be imaged too and vice versa. You just set them on their own individual schedule.
2. If you use the Win7 imaging facility (in lieu of a proper imaging program like e.g. free Macrium), you have to jump thru an awful lot of hoops in order to mount the image in case you want to recover the files only (or just a few files). Importing the data partition image (in lieu of the whole system image) becomes an attractive alternative then.
3. Even with 2 internal disks, from time to time, you should image to an external disk that you can disconnect. A malware attack can get to anything that is running - but not to an external disk that sits in the drawer.

Staple Head said:

windows does scan every file on the os drive / partition during bootup. i'm not the one trying to bs people. two reasons to create that second partition. first to keep windows from scanning those files during bootup, second to protect that data during a reinstall of windows.

What's the point of scanning every file? It knows what's need at startup and the whole point of the NTFS directory is so you don't have to scan anything.

I don't recall reading anything like this in Russinovich's Windows Internal book. If you could link something up, that would be nice. I just browsed Chapter 5 in his book that explains the boot process in detail. I see no reason nor mention of any scanning of any kind.

Does staple head mean 'Search Indexer'?


"By default, the Search Indexer in Windows 7 indexes the most common locations where your files would be stored, i.e. all libraries, everything in your User folder, and e-mail. If this is not enough, you can add or remove index location really easily.
That means you can tell Windows 7 to index and return results from files and folder on network drives or external hard drives"

Windows 7 File Search Indexing Options

neo101 said:

Does staple head mean 'Search Indexer'?


"By default, the Search Indexer in Windows 7 indexes the most common locations where your files would be stored, i.e. all libraries, everything in your User folder, and e-mail. If this is not enough, you can add or remove index location really easily.
That means you can tell Windows 7 to index and return results from files and folder on network drives or external hard drives"

Windows 7 File Search Indexing Options

I don't see how you can search Internet Explorer History save for takeown/icacls.

indexing options/search - Internet Explorer history

Nothing but OS stuff on the C: partition is something I've always done just from a backup perspective, if the OS goes, I can easily reload without worrying about data loss (barring a complete HW failure). Other than that there is really no reason you can't keep things on the C: partition. That being said, one thing I have always done was to move the Page file off of the C: drive and put it on a separate drive (not a different partition on the same HD); that can speed up HD performance.