Re: partitioning thoughts

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From: Pivert (pivert_at_be.me)
Date: 11/27/04 

Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 16:32:45 +0100

For organisation & backups & restores it is still good to partition, even if
speed would be somehow altered, because with the fast drives we now have it
is less important.
I do have :
- C partition for windows only
- D for swap file
- E for programs, and there to keep overview and not have a root of drive
overwhelmed of data I organisze in subfolders
   ( eg
            Tools -> Disks -> Partitioning ....
            Tools -> Burning -> etc
            Photos ->
            Security -> Antivirus
            Security -> Anti-Spyware ....
            ....
   )
- F temporary data ( so I can easily erase all in one run - just do never
erase after an install : do at least one full reboot before !)
- G some data ( CD images on my PC : for faster access than physical CDs)
- H data

C is on one drive ( small & fast SATA Western Digital Raptor 10.000 RPM ),
with D and F on it as well

- I on another drive : holds my system partition backup images ( separate
hard drive : in case of failure of principal one restoring is fast and easy)
- I have an external 300 GB unit on which I backup my data, my C-images,
registry backups ( with ERUNT), favorityes etc

Using tweakUI for XP, internet->tools->options, program options, ... it is
easy to have almost every data on another partition than C
( I have relocated : cookies/history/temp internet files ; start
menu->program data; favorites; sendto folder; "my documents" folders;
desktop; quicklaunch)

That way if I have to restore C: I never loose my start menu organisation
( program entries installed after last backup simply will perhaps not
function, that's all : it is easy to reinstall only those ( I keep a logbook
of installs / uninstalls / system settings mods I do), nor any favorites (
it's allways a pain to find again that soooo interesting one you got several
weeks ago !), nor sendTo etc

I image my C partition every month, or earlier if I INTEND to do major
program installs ( particularly "experimental" ones, or "system" wide ones
( antivirus, service packs, office suites, new hardware ...)

I backup my data using a two systems : one backup ( compressed then burned
on DVD-RW as backup 1 then as incremental ones ), one folder sync utility
( samedir) to sync my data to their image on the external hard drive ( to
simplify maintenance at that point, my data are organized into categories,
one folder for one category : so easy to image only part of it)

That's my way of doing. I do it that way for more then 12 years : it often
has helped me save enormous amounts of time and data and confort !

Seems heavy to implement : in fact quite easy, particularly if you do it
from teh beginning !

Pivert

"Sal" <erables40@hotmail.com> a écrit dans le message de
news:ccb5111f.0411270616.5f56fe0b@posting.google.com...
> Hi I am about to install a new 160G hard drive and have a few
> questions on partitioning. I have read numerous posts on google but I
> am even more confused.
> I would like to have a partition for winxp, one for programs, one for
> data, and one for music movies downloads etc.
> I would like to make easy backups and images. According to other posts
> it is better to have winxp on one partition and data on other for easy
> restoration. What I don't get is that if I have a partiotion for data,
> my documents and settings can not be moved, except for my documents.
> Therefore is it worth to have a data partition since some data will be
> on it and some will stay in docs & settings. eg my favorites outlook
> and outlook express files etc. Or should I re-route all of these?
> How are your configurations?
> I like to have images that do not span on multiple disks, so I can
> backup unattended. I use DVD.
> Thanks

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