Separate Partitions for Win XP, Programs, Data

[jmarsh1000]

Hello. I'm about to clean install full XP Pro. If I create separate
partitions and drive letters for Windows, Programs and Data, will it
all work? Can there be a problem with programs or the OS trying to go
to the wrong drive?

 

[Tod]

Hello. I'm about to clean install full XP Pro. If I create separate
partitions and drive letters for Windows, Programs and Data, will it
all work? Can there be a problem with programs or the OS trying to go
to the wrong drive?

Should work fine, BUT
I would recommend putting OS and programs on your boot partition C:
If you have to wipe the OS partition in the future, you would have to
reload program files anyway.

I usually just do two partitions, C: for OS and programs
and D: for data.

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm about to clean install full XP Pro. If I create separate partitions
and drive letters for Windows, Programs and Data, will it all work?

Usually. The main risk you take is with the free
stuff that might not have been tested that much
with the programs not in the same partition as Win.

There isnt really any point in separating Win and
programs tho, because if you need to reinstall Win,
you normally need to reinstall the programs too.

The main exception is if you regularly image the win partition
before installing anything, so you can recover easily if it all
goes pear shaped, the win partition will be significantly smaller
and so faster to image and that may encourage you to do it
before even the most trivial install. BUT its better to image both
the Win and programs for the best recovery if it goes pear shaped.

Can there be a problem with programs
or the OS trying to go to the wrong drive?

Only with programs that havent been properly tested. Should be rare.

 

[jmarsh1000]

Many thanks guys. You saved my bacon! The current OS is due to expire
in a few hours' time... the man with a page full of numbers was no
good. Lesson learned.

 

[Neil Maxwell]

There isnt really any point in separating Win and
programs tho, because if you need to reinstall Win,
you normally need to reinstall the programs too.

The main exception I find to this is if you're an avid gamer and you
do image backups, in which case it's good to put your games on their
own partition. This avoids needing to backup many gigs of games with
your Win/apps partition, which can really speed things up. I have
separate partitions for Win/apps, games, and data, and don't bother
backing up the games.

 

[Rod Speed]

The main exception I find to this is if you're an avid gamer and you
do image backups, in which case it's good to put your games on
their own partition. This avoids needing to backup many gigs of
games with your Win/apps partition, which can really speed things up.

I already said that in the bit you deleted from the quoting.

I have separate partitions for Win/apps, games,
and data, and don't bother backing up the games.

Sure, but its not going to make all that much
difference to the total backed up if you're backing
up to protect against failure of the hard drive.

And in that particular situation, you can get into quite a
mess if you restore the OS partition and not the games
partition and try installing the games again with the crap
in the registry from the original games installs.

And modern incremental image backup will minimise the volume too.

 

[Frank W.]

Hello. I'm about to clean install full XP Pro. If I create separate

partitions and drive letters for Windows, Programs and Data, will it
all work? Can there be a problem with programs or the OS trying to go
to the wrong drive?

If the program lets you install on anything besides C: let it. But when its installing look to see if
any parts are being installed on C:. If so, you might as well install the whole thing on C:. That way
when you re-install your OS you know which programs are and aren't going to work. It may look like its
installing fine on D: meanwhle may be puttin some files in the registry so if you re-install the OS those
files will be wiped and the program won't work without a re-install. If you're moving large files like
media, try not to have more than one partition since moving those files will take much longer between
partitions. Using C for the OS, D for everything else, and a removeable E drive (or you could use
optical media if the files are small enough) for a backup would complete the picture. Though I guess
with the larger email allotments available these days and better compression utilities coupled with high
speed connections, more and more people are encryptying and backing up files on to their web based email
accounts.

 

[Frank W.]

And modern incremental image backup will minimise the volume too.

Does incremental mean you are only backing up files that have been changed since the last backup? Or
does it mean you are doing complete backups of everything in a specific area at preset times and keeping
them on file so you can go "backwards in time" in case the last backup has the same problems you
presently have?

 

[Rod Speed]

Does incremental mean you are only backing up
files that have been changed since the last backup?
Yep.

Or does it mean you are doing complete backups of everything in a specific
area at preset times and keeping them on file so you can go "backwards in
time" in case the last backup has the same problems you presently have?

Nope.

 

[Neil Maxwell]

I already said that in the bit you deleted from the quoting.

formerly deleted text:

Usually. The main risk you take is with the free
stuff that might not have been tested that much
with the programs not in the same partition as Win.

There isnt really any point in separating Win and
programs tho, because if you need to reinstall Win,
you normally need to reinstall the programs too.

The main exception is if you regularly image the win partition
before installing anything, so you can recover easily if it all
goes pear shaped, the win partition will be significantly smaller
and so faster to image and that may encourage you to do it
before even the most trivial install. BUT its better to image both
the Win and programs for the best recovery if it goes pear shaped.

I didn't see anything in there calling out games separately from other
apps, which is why I added it. On some of the systems I back up, the
games account for a far larger % of the total data than apps, OS, and
data, and most of it is non-critical and easily re-installed.

My preference is to backup the system and non-game apps, for a quick
recovery for the system overall. One of the PCs I back up has maybe
80-100G of games, and it makes a huge difference in both backup time,
restore time, and backup capacity required.

Sure, but its not going to make all that much
difference to the total backed up if you're backing
up to protect against failure of the hard drive.

I don't back up the games at all. They just get re-installed
afterwards (and many of them don't get re-installed at all, IME).

And in that particular situation, you can get into quite a
mess if you restore the OS partition and not the games
partition and try installing the games again with the crap
in the registry from the original games installs.

So far, it's been OK for me, it just overwrites the old stuff, but I
can imagine there are cases where it could cause trouble.

And modern incremental image backup will minimise the volume too.

That's true. Still, works pretty well for me. YMMV.

 

[Rod Speed]

formerly deleted text:

I didn't see anything in there calling out games separately from other apps,

I just said programs instead of your games.

which is why I added it. On some of the systems
I back up, the games account for a far larger %
of the total data than apps, OS, and data,

Unlikely to be true for him tho.

and most of it is non-critical and easily re-installed.

Thats not that certain if you do backup the OS partition and
not the games partition and you have a hard drive failure.

You can end up in quite a mess with the registry entrys
particularly remaining for the now non existent games partition.

My preference is to backup the system and non-game
apps, for a quick recovery for the system overall.

When drive failure is quite rare, its arguable if that is really
worth the potential trouble over say incremental backup instead.

One of the PCs I back up has maybe 80-100G of games,
and it makes a huge difference in both backup time,
restore time, and backup capacity required.

Sure, but it can bite when you replace the drive and restore
the OS and app partition and then try to reload all those games.

With hard drives so cheap now it likely makes more
sense to just backup the whole lot to another drive.

I don't back up the games at all. They just get re-installed
afterwards (and many of them don't get re-installed at all, IME).

That isnt likely to be true for the OP tho.

So far, it's been OK for me, it just overwrites the old stuff,
but I can imagine there are cases where it could cause trouble.

Yep, it definitely can. Some get that result by non uninstalling properly,
by just deleting the game and have a problem with that approach.

That's true. Still, works pretty well for me. YMMV.

And the OP's M may well be very different to yours.

 

[Frank W.]

There isnt really any point in separating Win andShouldn't the backup software know (from your previous input) what its supposed to backup? If you have
told it to ignore the games, its not going to backup the games or anything else deemed unnecessary.
Isn't putting less important files on a seperate partition just admitting that you're not using smart
enough backup software? Or not using its selectable options?

 

[Neil Maxwell]

Shouldn't the backup software know (from your previous input) what its supposed to backup? If you have
told it to ignore the games, its not going to backup the games or anything else deemed unnecessary.
Isn't putting less important files on a seperate partition just admitting that you're not using smart
enough backup software? Or not using its selectable options?

Here's my approach.

If you're using imaging software (which I prefer, due to ease of total
disk fail recovery), it backs up everything on the drive, though some
programs will ignore the swap file and such.

I don't really want my software deciding what to backup or not. Some
people want to backup their games, savefiles, team stats, video rips,
whatever.

By keeping a separate games partition (I also keep an archive
partition with videos, downloaded updates, and other stuff I don't
really need to back up daily or weekly), I can decide which
high-volume apps are low priority for me, in terms of time and space.
For me, it's games I ignore, and I'm able to back up and recover my OS
and critical (to me) apps in 1/4 the time it would take if I backed up
the games as well. Other people will have other priorities.

Yes, it requires a bit of extra management, and if you have enough HD
space and dead time, it's no big deal to dump everything.

There are backup programs that let you choose what to back up, and
some people like those, but I've had problems with critical bits being
in places you don't expect it to be, so I get the whole shebang.

 

[Rod Speed]

Shouldn't the backup software know (from your
previous input) what its supposed to backup? If
you have told it to ignore the games, its not going to
backup the games or anything else deemed unnecessary.

Thats an entirely separate issue to what happens when say
the hard drive dies, you restore the OS partition, but not the
games partition since it wasnt backed up at all, and then
try reinstalling the games with the fragments of the original
installs still in the registry in the OS partition. Sometimes
that works fine, sometimes it doesnt, basically that depends
on how the games install and what the install does about
cleaning up old registry entrys for that particular game.

Some programs get completely confused by the registry
entrys for the program in the registry and refuse to install
because they decide that the program is already installed.
And you cant uninstall, because you cant restore the program
from the backup, because you didnt include it in the backup.

Isn't putting less important files on a seperate partition just
admitting that you're not using smart enough backup software?

Yes, but that is inevitable if you are using an imaging program
for your backup, it has no smarts other than allowing you to
specify which partitions you want imaged, not at the program level.

Or not using its selectable options?

Imaging programs have few of those, mostly just the compression level.

 

[Peter]

Thats an entirely separate issue to what happens when say

the hard drive dies, you restore the OS partition, but not the
games partition since it wasnt backed up at all, and then
try reinstalling the games with the fragments of the original
installs still in the registry in the OS partition. Sometimes
that works fine, sometimes it doesnt, basically that depends
on how the games install and what the install does about
cleaning up old registry entrys for that particular game.

Some programs get completely confused by the registry
entrys for the program in the registry and refuse to install
because they decide that the program is already installed.
And you cant uninstall, because you cant restore the program
from the backup, because you didnt include it in the backup.

For those programs you can remove the relevant registry entries manually
first, then install.

Yes, but that is inevitable if you are using an imaging program
for your backup, it has no smarts other than allowing you to
specify which partitions you want imaged, not at the program level.


Imaging programs have few of those, mostly just the compression level.

Some imaging software (GHOST) allow to skip specified directories during
image save and restore.

 

[Frank W.]

There isnt really any point in separating Win and

I don't really want my software deciding what to backup or not. Some
people want to backup their games, savefiles, team stats, video rips,
whatever.

There are backup programs that let you choose what to back up, and
some people like those, but I've had problems with critical bits being
in places you don't expect it to be, so I get the whole shebang.

If one just puts the critical bits in one area, its no problem. Or puts the non-critical bits in one
area. Then you just backup "around" that area. That's the least on my problems. I just want the
software to remember and only backup changed files. Microsoft Backup didn't work at all for me. When I
restored some files that it had supposedly backed up, it was the original files, not the updated ones.
How can software make such a simple error? Microsoft Backup looks well laid out. Too bad it didn't
work - or worked with errors which is the same. Unless I did something wrong. But it seemed very simple
to set up.

 

[Rod Speed]

If one just puts the critical bits in one area, its no problem.

Thats a lot easier said than done.

And the last thing you need is to think you have done that, need to
do a restore after a hard drive failure, and discover that what you
thought was all the critical bits was not in fact all the critical bits at all.

There's a surprising number of odd bits like
digital certificates etc that are easy to overlook.

Or puts the non-critical bits in one area.
Then you just backup "around" that area.

See above.

That's the least on my problems. I just want the
software to remember and only backup changed
files. Microsoft Backup didn't work at all for me.

Thats likely something you stuffed up since it does handle that.

When I restored some files that it had supposedly
backed up, it was the original files, not the updated ones.

Likely you restored from the wrong backup files.

How can software make such a simple error?

It wasnt the software, it was you.

Microsoft Backup looks well laid out. Too bad it didn't work - or
worked with errors which is the same. Unless I did something wrong.

Thats what happened.

But it seemed very simple to set up.

Yes, but most likely the problem was with which
backup files you restored from, not the setup at all.

 

[Rod Speed]

For those programs you can remove the
relevant registry entries manually first, then install.

That isnt always easy to do and is dangerous
if you dont know what you are doing.

Some imaging software (GHOST) allow to skip
specified directories during image save and restore.

Nope, not with the standard user interface.

 

[jmarsh1000]

Hello again,

Thanks for all the input. I think I've started something here! New,
LEGAL Win XP went in on 2 March; drive C is for OS & programs; D is for
My Documents, Pictures, Music. C currently has 12.5GB free, with most
of the stuff we'll use already on it. (Original size=15GB). D has 9.7GB
free. (Original size=10GB). Unformatted=11.87GB.

Is it possible to just copy files, not entire partitions, to the empty
space after it's been formatted? I also want to copy C and D onto
DVDs. Any tips re. reliable, easy-to-use software to do these 2 things?

 

[jmarsh1000]

C original size 16GB.