I have just installed a new hard disk and gone through the painful process
of restoring the OS and data. I would like to have one partition dedicated
entirely to the OS and another one for all my data. Hopefully, if I ever
needed a fresh install of the OS, I could do that on the C: drive without
disturbing my documents and data. Is that possible?

I would like to find a convenient way to make all the personal folders (My
Documents My Pictures, My Music) go into (by default) the second partition.
At present, my CD is the D: drive so my other partition is now the E: drive.

TIA,

Tom

Sure it is possible. Try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147

Hope this helps.



Tom Brown wrote:

> I have just installed a new hard disk and gone through the painful
> process of restoring the OS and data. I would like to have one
> partition dedicated entirely to the OS and another one for all my
> data. Hopefully, if I ever needed a fresh install of the OS, I could
> do that on the C: drive without disturbing my documents and data. Is
> that possible?
>
> I would like to find a convenient way to make all the personal folders
> (My Documents My Pictures, My Music) go into (by default) the second
> partition. At present, my CD is the D: drive so my other partition is
> now the E: drive.
>
> TIA,
>
> Tom
>
>

Tom Brown wrote:
> I have just installed a new hard disk and gone through the painful
> process of restoring the OS and data. I would like to have one
> partition dedicated entirely to the OS and another one for all my
> data. Hopefully, if I ever needed a fresh install of the OS, I
> could do that on the C: drive without disturbing my documents and
> data. Is that possible?
> I would like to find a convenient way to make all the personal
> folders (My Documents My Pictures, My Music) go into (by default)
> the second partition. At present, my CD is the D: drive so my other
> partition is now the E: drive.

Truthfully - the best way to do it (IMHO) is not with partitions - but
additional physical hard disk drives.

In either case - there is *no* substitute for consistent backups. With a
good backup system in place - you can be back up (exclusing hardware
replacement time) in a matter of minutes instead of hours/days/weeks as you
would be with a clean installation, etc.

For your first paragraph question - yes, that is possible. With two
partitions, you could install your OS and applications on one partition and
store everything (even redirect your My Documents folder and desktop/etc to
the other partition) on the other partition and in case of a fresh install,
your data would stay intact on the second partition given the right steps.

The reason I do not recommend the two-partition thing over two physical hard
drives is if the first hard disk drive physically fails in a two physical
drive situation, your data is safe on the other drive. If the hard disk
drive fails in the two partition situation - both partitions are toast.
Less chance of two drives dying at one time without some outside catastrophe
than one drive. Of course - the same could be said for the second physical
drive in my scenario - thus why backups are ALWAYS important. An external
hard disk drive is inexpensive and easy. Imaging software can even take
perioodic images of entire drive(s) so you can restore it exactly to a point
in time... *However - they should never be complete substitutes for periodic
individual backups as well.

You can change the drive letters in device manager.

Google for "Folder Redirection in Windows XP" for how to point your folders
to other places.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Thanks guys. I'll check out the redirection.

What I guess I failed to mention is that I already have external USB drives
(with multiple partitions) on this laptop and it's getting a little hard to
manage all of of them.

Thanks,

Tom


"Shenan Stanley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:eBeSk$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Tom Brown wrote:
>> I have just installed a new hard disk and gone through the painful
>> process of restoring the OS and data. I would like to have one
>> partition dedicated entirely to the OS and another one for all my
>> data. Hopefully, if I ever needed a fresh install of the OS, I
>> could do that on the C: drive without disturbing my documents and
>> data. Is that possible?
>> I would like to find a convenient way to make all the personal
>> folders (My Documents My Pictures, My Music) go into (by default)
>> the second partition. At present, my CD is the D: drive so my other
>> partition is now the E: drive.
>
> Truthfully - the best way to do it (IMHO) is not with partitions - but
> additional physical hard disk drives.
>
> In either case - there is *no* substitute for consistent backups. With a
> good backup system in place - you can be back up (exclusing hardware
> replacement time) in a matter of minutes instead of hours/days/weeks as
> you would be with a clean installation, etc.
>
> For your first paragraph question - yes, that is possible. With two
> partitions, you could install your OS and applications on one partition
> and store everything (even redirect your My Documents folder and
> desktop/etc to the other partition) on the other partition and in case of
> a fresh install, your data would stay intact on the second partition given
> the right steps.
>
> The reason I do not recommend the two-partition thing over two physical
> hard drives is if the first hard disk drive physically fails in a two
> physical drive situation, your data is safe on the other drive. If the
> hard disk drive fails in the two partition situation - both partitions are
> toast. Less chance of two drives dying at one time without some outside
> catastrophe than one drive. Of course - the same could be said for the
> second physical drive in my scenario - thus why backups are ALWAYS
> important. An external hard disk drive is inexpensive and easy. Imaging
> software can even take perioodic images of entire drive(s) so you can
> restore it exactly to a point in time... *However - they should never be
> complete substitutes for periodic individual backups as well.
>
> You can change the drive letters in device manager.
>
> Google for "Folder Redirection in Windows XP" for how to point your
> folders to other places.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>

Shenan Stanley wrote:

>Tom Brown wrote:
>>I have just installed a new hard disk and gone through the painful
>>process of restoring the OS and data. I would like to have one
>>partition dedicated entirely to the OS and another one for all my
>>data. Hopefully, if I ever needed a fresh install of the OS, I
>>could do that on the C: drive without disturbing my documents and
>>data. Is that possible?
>>I would like to find a convenient way to make all the personal
>>folders (My Documents My Pictures, My Music) go into (by default)
>>the second partition. At present, my CD is the D: drive so my other
>>partition is now the E: drive.
>
>Truthfully - the best way to do it (IMHO) is not with partitions -
>but additional physical hard disk drives.
>
>In either case - there is no substitute for consistent backups. With
>a good backup system in place - you can be back up (exclusing
>hardware replacement time) in a matter of minutes instead of
>hours/days/weeks as you would be with a clean installation, etc.
>
>For your first paragraph question - yes, that is possible. With two
>partitions, you could install your OS and applications on one
>partition and store everything (even redirect your My Documents
>folder and desktop/etc to the other partition) on the other partition
>and in case of a fresh install, your data would stay intact on the
>second partition given the right steps.
>
>The reason I do not recommend the two-partition thing over two
>physical hard drives is if the first hard disk drive physically fails
>in a two physical drive situation, your data is safe on the other
>drive. If the hard disk drive fails in the two partition situation -
>both partitions are toast. Less chance of two drives dying at one
>time without some outside catastrophe than one drive. Of course -
>the same could be said for the second physical drive in my scenario -
>thus why backups are ALWAYS important. An external hard disk drive
>is inexpensive and easy. Imaging software can even take perioodic
>images of entire drive(s) so you can restore it exactly to a point in
>time... *However - they should never be complete substitutes for
>periodic individual backups as well.
>
>You can change the drive letters in device manager.
>
>Google for "Folder Redirection in Windows XP" for how to point your
>folders to other places.

Hi Shehan,

I agree with everything you said. There is though one caveat. if you
are running a laptop with only one hard disk and you don't want to
carry an external hard disk then the OP idea of multiple partitions is
a partial solution.

Of course in the case of a physical hard disk failure the OP would be
out of luck, but if the error is a soft error, then he could still
theoretically save his data. I have actually had cases where the MBR
was wiped out and I had to manually write to the MBR of the effected
drive to point it to the second partition and save the data.

If a second disk is possible than by all means the OP should follow
your idea if a second drive is not an option, then the person should
look at multiple partitions. My dv8100cto does have two physical drives
and I do follow your concept. My old zd7010us didn't so I use multiple
partitions on it.

--

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: (E-Mail Removed)