I do it so that I can limit space usage across partitions. I know that I
will not be able to use my programs after reinstall, but it does make it a
cinch to reinstall straight over the top of them and sometimes that means
that your program-related data is preserved.
They are wrong only if they did it for the exact reason you defined. Which I
don't doubt many people do.
Please explain why it is best. I have several "Program Files" folders across
my partitions. Again, purely for space management. So I have:
C:\Program Files - which will contain common Windows stuff and anything
OS-related - like AV etc,
F:\Program Files - which contains all of my normal office-type applications
G:\Program Files - contains any games
S:\Program Files - contains any simulators (flight sim etc)
It is best for three reasons:
1. Having things in fewer partitions puts them closer together on the
drive. Closer together means that the drive heads need to move a
shorter distance to get from file to file. This improves performance.
2. Every time you create another partition, that partition needs to be
larger than your current needs so it has room for expansion. The more
partitions you have, the more such blocks of unused space you need to
keep for expansion. What you are doing is a waste of disk space.
3. Every time you divide something into multiple partitions, you have
to estimate how much space each partition will need in the future.
Your estimate may or may not be accurate. If it's not, that means that
at some point in the future you will not to resize your partitions,
and that will probably require the cost of third-party software, the
trouble of using it, and the risk of something going wrong while you
are doing it. (Or alternatively, instead of resizing the partitions,
you can start putting files on the wrong partition, thereby *hurting*
your organization; that's what many people end up doing).
When you say "space management," I assume that you mean what most of
us would call "organization." Organization of what's on your drive is
fine; no argument from me. But you can organize by partitions as you
do, or you can organize by folders, as most of us do.
From an organizational standpoint, what you do is no different from a
folder structure like this:
C:\Program Files
C:\Program Files\Windows stuff
C:\Program Files\Office apps
C:\Program Files\games
C:\Program Files\simulators
The only real difference is that your partition-based structure is
static and fixed, whereas a folder-based structure would be dynamic
and flexible, automatically changing the sizes of folders as necessary
to meet your changing needs.
, installed by computer manufacturer to