Data outside of documents/settings folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter NewbieSupreme
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NewbieSupreme

It just occurred to me that perhaps my habit of organizing data ouside of
the documents/settings folder might be a bad idea. I'm not on a network,
and need no real reason to apply user account permissions, etc., but I don't
know if in terms of recovery from the myriad of possible problems (trojans,
power failure, overall bad practice, etc.), it's better to use XP's user
accounts or not.

Is there any difference or legitimate reason NOT to organize data, etc.
outside of the documents and settings folders (given that I don't need to
use separate accounts, etc.)?

Thanks for any input on this
 
It just occurred to me that perhaps my habit of organizing data ouside of
the documents/settings folder might be a bad idea. I'm not on a network,
and need no real reason to apply user account permissions, etc., but I don't
know if in terms of recovery from the myriad of possible problems (trojans,
power failure, overall bad practice, etc.), it's better to use XP's user
accounts or not.

Is there any difference or legitimate reason NOT to organize data, etc.
outside of the documents and settings folders (given that I don't need to
use separate accounts, etc.)?

Thanks for any input on this
Click to expand...

If you back up your personal files on a regular basis, you can keep these
files wherever it is most convenient for *you.*

Personally, I've used the properties of My Documents to redirect it to
another folder (D:\MyDocs). Reason: I image my Windows partition (C:) on a
weekly basis. I work at keeping that image to a size that will fit on a
single DVD. If I kept My Documents in the default position, the size of
that image would grow considerably and I would need more than one DVD.

Another reason that I do this is that I dual boot. The data partition is
shared by both operating systems and has a separate backup schedule from
the system. Why else? Old habits and I have the room/luxury of other
drives. On my portable PC, there is just one big C: drive. My Documents
hasn't been moved (obviously). But that data still gets backed up.

Bottom line: Your data is the one thing that cannot be replaced or
reinstalled without a backup. Do what works best for you.

But I will recommend keeping it simple/straightforward so that it's an easy
enough job to do on a regular basis. Any backup plan that's too complicated
will not get done. And you'll quickly learn that you're only marginally
better off with a very old outdated backup than no backup.
 
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