I'd rather keep it all on the same partition, and just image or restore the
whole enchilada - which still only takes me about 15 minutes. Why keep
data on a separate partition? That means there's two things to backup (and
or restore). (The only "data" I keep on separate partitions is audio and
video, since it is so large; not really any personal stuff.)
Not really. And where are you guys getting off on 20 minutes ... I
start getting hot under the collar when a C: restore imaging routine
takes longer than 2 minutes!
Keeping data on [the singular instance] separate partition(s):
Nooo...not really. Most CVV, Common Variety Vomit, perpetuating
itself over the Internet occurs at the C: OS level. Programs most of
all directly associated with the Internet are integral within the OS
laying, by means, ipso facto, therein and thereby prima facie to
permit Internet access;-- Although, to including anything, regardless
where it's physically located, whether attempting to "Call Home,"
within better reason, may be FireWalled with Extreme Prejudice.
Similarly, many, if not most, CVPV, Common Variety Puking Vomits, will
attach themselves by dint of their extreme stupidity, lacking any
other purpose, or reason, conceptually not to slit their own throat
and end their silly selfsame, miserable existence.
Lastly, many programs (excluding those with an aforementioned clause,
within observance and propensity to expand upon themselves, so to
"Check Home," for bigger, better, newer reasons, ostensibly, involving
checking directly otherwise for your Credit Card account balance),
simply, may no real need for actually working on the Internet. A gist
and implication that infection to an adequately, already "Hardened
Software Build," is a factor of greater remoteness once and
additionally physically removed. Consequently, the need to restore
the Data/Program/Binary, insular partition is one of a respective
lower-order imperative. In practise, a need perhaps as often directly
related to an enduser's ineptitude, malfeasance being by chance a
migrating Vomit Clause off the Internet is within improper identity
techniques or outright piss-poor "surfing" habits.
What a separate DATA partition does however involve, is manually
having to keep in sync Binary Data program revisions, updates and
omissions, in-program changes to settings and functions linked to the
OS, or anything generally not already logged and incorporated into the
OS images and any subsequent layering of compounded, redundant
iterations over further OS images.
Personally, I keep a three-layered backlog of the OS, proper, one of
the DATA, even should the latter seldom come to play. (Backups,
really, especially in the DATA sense are becoming increasingly
abstractions of their own right when considering an increased
bandwidth and permissible storage facilities.)