Installing WinXP one partition, programs another

[arflord]

I was wondering if it were possible to install all my programs on one
partition, and winXP Pro on another. Then, if I have to reinstall
windows I wouldn't have to reinstall all the programs.

The problem is that I would like to reformat the partition where
windows is going to be installed. Couldn't I just export the registry
beforehand, and then import it after install? (I'm assuming I'll have
to re-install any drivers first). Or is this a pipe dream?

Thanks,
Markus

 

[Richard Urban]

Doing as you think will NOT prevent you having to reinstall the programs
again after you do a clean install. Many, and I do mean many, entries are
placed in the C: drive, no matter what partition you install the program to.
These files do not survive a clean install.

Then you have the thousands of registry entries to contend with. The
programs just will not run correctly, or at all, without the proper registry
entries. The registry does not survive a clean install.

So, install the programs on another partition if you must do so to save some
space on the C: drive, keeping the above in mind.

A good example is AutoCAD. Even though I installed it to drive D:, over 100
meg of files were still installed onto drive C: by the installer. This
action can not be changed by the end user.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[DatabaseBen]

Just as a thought, why do you think you "have" to reformat you partition...?

There are several options available to correct a number of issues related to
the file system....

Maybe if you provide the issue you are experiencing that you think will be
cleared up with a clean install, the size and format of that partition and
hd.... would be helpful..

 

[Markus]

Thank you Richard. Since I've already created the two partitions and
have installed stuff I'm wondering if I only made things slower? I
wouldn't think so, but I do have a copy of partition magic. Your
thoughts?

Markus

 

[Richard in AZ]

I was wondering if it were possible to install all my programs on one
partition, and winXP Pro on another. Then, if I have to reinstall
windows I wouldn't have to reinstall all the programs.

The problem is that I would like to reformat the partition where
windows is going to be installed. Couldn't I just export the registry
beforehand, and then import it after install? (I'm assuming I'll have
to re-install any drivers first). Or is this a pipe dream?

Thanks,
Markus

Yes, you can install your programs on a separate partition. However, you have to do this after you
have windows installed on the first partition, or windows will not know where they are.
You can reformat the partition where windows is going to be installed, but you would not want the
same registry as you had. You need a new registry to be formed that knows where you put your
programs. Plus the new registry would not be full of junk.
(Note, make the windows partition large enough to hold all the future windows updates, and system
files that programs use, since these must be kept on the windows partition.)

Recommendation: Backup all of your personal files, documents, address book, favorites, email, etc.,
and make sure you have the drivers for all of the hardware you use. Then format the primary
partition, (10 GB min., 15 GB preferred) do a clean install and setup the hardware. If required,
format the secondary partition and install your software programs. Then copy your personal files
back to the secondary partition. (or even a third partition so that you only have to do regular data
backups on that third partition).

 

[Richard Urban]

Installing programs to another partition will not slow down the computer. If
a program opens slowly, it will do so no matter where it is installed. It is
more a function of the computer horse power and the conglomeration of
programs (including virus's, malware, spyware etc.) installed.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[thecreator]

Hi Markus,

The idea is sound, but not in practice, because the installer program
installs many files from the program you install in sub-folders of \Windows.

However the idea of having several partitions on a large Hard Drive is a
good idea.
One partition for the operating system and programs.
One partition for My Documents folder and sub-folders.
One partition for System_Save containing the Drive Image of the
operating system partition.
One partition for a second copy of the operating system whether it is
the same operating system or a different operating system. What's the
purpose of a second operating system? To allow you to login to a second
operating system with access to files and folders. For Repair of the Main
operating system. For doing Maintenance on the Main operating system where
no files are in use, allowing for removing all files and sub-folders of your
\Temp folders. To Run Chkdsk from within one operating system on another
partition NOT IN USE. To Defragment the other partition.

Make sense on large Hard Drives?

 

[John]

I was wondering if it were possible to install all my programs on one
partition, and winXP Pro on another. Then, if I have to reinstall
windows I wouldn't have to reinstall all the programs.

The problem is that I would like to reformat the partition where
windows is going to be installed. Couldn't I just export the registry
beforehand, and then import it after install? (I'm assuming I'll have
to re-install any drivers first). Or is this a pipe dream?

Thanks,
Markus

You can separate them but but as others have said just reformatting and
reinstalling XP won't do what you want. One good thing about parceling
things to dedicated partitions and/or drives is that once all apps are
installed and running properly making an image of your XP partition
alone produces a smaller image file that will more readily fit onto
available (preferably external) media. Restoring an image *will* do what
you want assuming that you take the time to keep your backup images
reasonably current. One is also more apt to do image backups if the
process is quick and painless.

You really don't need to image the application partition (or the whole
drive for that matter) unless you want to guard against total disk
failure. Maybe I have selected well or more likely have just been lucky
but I haven't had a hard drive go bad for at least 12 years. I have had
the OS go belly up however and restoring the OS partition with an image
has saved my bacon more than once. I also found that the thing I or
malware did to hose the OS is probably not even going to be on at least
one of the images and so it truly does cure the problem. It can take
days to fix an OS but only minutes to re-image.

John

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I was wondering if it were possible to install all my programs on one
partition, and winXP Pro on another. Then, if I have to reinstall
windows I wouldn't have to reinstall all the programs.

Yes, it's possible, but doing so won't help you achieve your stated
goal. There's really very little point in having a separate drive or
partition for just applications. Should you have to reinstall the OS,
you'll still have to reinstall each and every application and game
anyway, in order to recreate the hundreds (possibly thousands) of
registry entries and to replace the dozens (possibly hundreds) of
essential system files back into the appropriate Windows folders and
sub-folders. Installing applications to a separate partition is a
useful solution only if your system partition lacks sufficient space for
all of your applications, and cannot be resized.

However, placing data files on a partition or physical hard drive
separate from the operating system and applications can greatly simplify
system repairs/recoveries and data back-up.

The problem is that I would like to reformat the partition where
windows is going to be installed. Couldn't I just export the registry
beforehand, and then import it after install?

Again, you could do so, but this would result in an unusable operating
system.

Or is this a pipe dream?

Pretty much, yes, it's a pipe dream.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell

 

[DatabaseBen]

yeh, i agree with you too.

For a while I too used a seperate partition only for program files. At
first I thought I was doing myself a favor. But i had forgotten about my
special partition, and accepted the defaulted c drive for the subsequent new
installations. I concluded I wasn't making myself any favors after all.....

 

[Markus]

Again, you could do so, but this would result in an unusable
operating system.

However, placing data files on a partition or physical hard drive
separate from the operating system and applications can greatly
simplify system repairs/recoveries and data back-up.

Understood. And the benifit of that alone has made it worth it. I've
actually got two disks as the only way I'll install two OS's is by
putting them on seperate platters. This is prolly ancedotal from my
days of playing with Redhat 5 with Win98 installed. The two didn't seem
to like sharing a disk (mostly I would continously lose my boot sector,
to this day I dunno why putting them on seperate disks seemed to stop
that problem....maybe I wasn't 'playing' as hard all of a sudden or
something). I also like the second disk for a partition for Virtual
Mem. Again, not real sure how much I save doing that, but I like to
think I've made things at least a tad more efficent

Anyway, thanks everyone for the responses, much appreciated.

-Markus