Where do you keep your programs and data?

[RogerR]

As an old guy burned too many times by versions of Windows that flew erratically and all too often disintegrated in mid-flight, I have taken to keeping my programs and data in partitions (often on separate physical disks) from the OS.

So when Windows cratered, I didn't have to exhume my collected works, merely endure a reinstall of all my (intact) programs. Since Windows 3.1 I can only remember one HDD that actually committed sepuku without sufficient warning for me to copy off its contents. Windows OTOH ... :devil:

In terms of speed I have imagined that the computer can be fetching and serving at the same time if the OS and the program are being controlled by different heads on different pipelines.

So, what say you all - does it make a difference, or do you just bung them wherever Windows defaults to and call it good?

 

[valtonray]

like you i keep windows and my programs separate. as for data that depends, all media goes to my NAS along with important documents. if it's not that important the downloads folder is usually sufficient. and that gets organized as needed. i'm a freak about organization on my computer so i also keep a disc image of a clean install with my OS set up the way i like. while im not sure if this actually improves computer performance in a test the real world benefits of not having to search out programs or documents and knowing exactly where to find the is extremely beneficial.

 

[iceferret]

I like the belt and braces approach as well. Apps are kept on a separate partition. Any data is kept on a separate drive with a backup copy on NAS. There is also a copy of the most important data on a USB drive. All three copies are kept the same using synching software (not microsofts). The whole lot is imaged onto a sparate drive again with Acronis TI 2010 and just in case I have software that can recover files from damaged HDD's.

It may sound like overkill but we run two businesses as well as personal plus I run our local climbing club so thats a load of stuff I cant afford to lose.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

If I read your post correctly Roger, you mean OS and apps on 2 different partitions with data on a third?

Never done that.

Always had OS and apps on one, and data on another.

But I suspect the choice is mostly habit, obsessiveness about "organization", and delusion.

I can't point to any stats about verified speed advantages doing it your way, my way, or some other way.

For the record--if a person puts OS, programs, and data on C and relies purely on a folder structure to separate data (typically in C Users somewhere), isn't a fresh install of Windows supposed to leave C Users intact unless C was re-formatted?? If that is supposed to happen, who has had that fail??

Maybe the people who isolate data onto a separate partition are secretly the same people who don't back up data. The horror!!

 

[zzz2496]

I'd store any important data over different "Volumes". By volume I mean in another Data Store, it can be another harddisk or an iSCSI disk over SAN cluster, or even something completely different all together. By the way, Windows NT family since NT 5.0 (Windows 2000) has the ability to mount a volume on a folder, you don't need to assign it a drive letter (which is LAME IMHO). I mount my disks in folders, it's a bit more flexible at managing it as folders than drive letters. By the way, I've tried mounting a volume for "Program Files", and IT WORKS, so whenever my Windows installation went belly up, I have my "Program Files" intact (but for today, it's nonsense, since all the data are mostly stored on my Users\[My_Username] folder)...

zzz2496

 

[severedsolo]

i keep my data on my D partition, and windows + apps on C: with a backup of anything important on a USB External HDD

 

[Philgo]

I have three HDD's, O/s and apps on one, data on the second and first backup on the third. I feel that a sindle HDD with O/S and apps on different partitions can only slow things up a little.

 

[RogerR]

But I suspect the choice is mostly habit, obsessiveness about "organization", and delusion.

But if it wasn't for delusion, I wouldn't have any esteem at all!

Maybe the people who isolate data onto a separate partition are secretly the same people who don't back up data. The horror!!

Guilty as charged. Now that Win7 has finally made backup a simple routine, I do backup frequently. OTOH looking back over the years, I have invested in tape drives and external enclosures and various 3rd party software solutions and can't say I have ever really used the output.

As we all turn into data packrats and app junkies, we upgrade long before the half life of our hard drives becomes a liability.

 

[valtonray]

As we all turn into data packrats and app junkies, we upgrade long before the half life of our hard drives becomes a liability.

agreed i dont think i've ever had a hdd fail on me, as the storage space goes up we tend to increase our need for it and when it gets full we upgrade. i can remember when documents and drawings took up most of my hard drive space, now i've got a movie library pushing a tb(all legal) and considering ripping my blu ray movies. i remember when an entire hdd had less room than a blank cd-r now.

 

[Zepher]

Most of my programs are on the C drive in the default location.
My Steam Games are on the D drive.
All my Data is store across the other 10 drives on the system and the critical Data is mirrored on a couple of the drives.

 

[zzz2496]

Most of my programs are on the C drive in the default location.
My Steam Games are on the D drive.
All my Data is store across the other 10 drives on the system and the critical Data is mirrored on a couple of the drives.

Wow, I see my old computer on that picture...

zepher, volumes don't have to be given drive letters, you can mount them to folders to simplify management...

zzz2496