Re: Moving Program Files Folder

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:56:06 +0100, "John Whitworth"
<sexyjw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8amh849ehjk7u78s0ldihl7k8k86j5d9kt@xxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:52:02 +0100, "Samuel"
<samuel.shulman@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I would like to move the Program Files folder to another partition


First of all, why? Most people who do this do it because they think
that if they ever have to reinstall Windows, their installed programs
will be safe and won't have to be reinstalled.

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. Except for an occasional program (usually a small
one), all programs have many entries in the registry and associated
files and pointers to the programs within \Windows. If Windows is
reinstalled, all that is lost, and the programs have to be reinstalled
anyway.

They are wrong only if they did it for the exact reason you defined. Which I
don't doubt many people do.

Unless yours is an unusual special situation, this is not a good idea;
for almost everyone it's best for installed programs to be in the same
partition as Windows.

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.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
.

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