Moving Program Files Folder

[Samuel]

Hi

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

Is it possible do move and keep all the programs running?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Only during setup. You use an answer file to define the "ProgramDir" (see
'ref.chm' in 'Deploy.cab' in the setup media)

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[Samuel]

The parrtition is full because it is abou 11gb and the OS takes 8-9 what can
be done?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

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.

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.

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.

Is it possible do move and keep all the programs running?

Basically, no. All those registry entries and pointers will be
pointing to the wrong places and the programs will fail to run. There
is third-party software which purports to seek out all these entries
and change them, but my experience with such programs has been less
than satisfactory. The safest and best way to move a program is to
uninstall it and reinstall it where you want it.

 

[Mike]

One thing you could try is to move the swap file to another drive or
partition.
Next run the disk clean tool and see what that does for you.
Also remove all but the last restore point.
11gb is not enough for the C drive, it should have been 20GB for a
decent install

Mike

 

[Nonny]

The parrtition is full because it is abou 11gb and the OS takes 8-9 what can
be done?

How big is the drive?? Why is that partition so small?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

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


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.

 

[Mick Murphy]

Are you sure that you have not confused which Partition is which?

The Recovery Parttion(usualy D, installed by computer manufacturer to
recover your system in case of system failure back to factory condition, is
about 10G!

If the above is correct, leave it alone!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

You have some valid points. But:

- wasting space isn't an issue. I have more disk space than I know what to
do with, with 1.25TB on my desktop machine, and 600GB on a backup file
server.

My point is a general one, not addressed to you, or any individual, in
particular. Wasting space may not be an issue for you, but it is for
most people.

Yes - probably would make more sense the other way round, but want
the newer, faster drives RAIDed in desktop. The space will be wasted
somewhere.

- putting everything onto C just defragments the drive like crazy.

You mean "fragments," not "defragments."

Sure, I
know Vista 'takes care' of that for us. But it's not that clever that it
moves all program files back next to one another again, is it? So if you
aren't a space waster, and hence have program files all over your drive,
then your disk head is clattering around just as much as if it had to go to
seperate partitions.

As far as I'm concerned, fragmentation is simply a non-issue. In
Vista, defragmentation happens in the background automatically, and I
don't even run a defragmenter anymore.

- using split partitions means that only certain areas of the disk will
suffer from bad fragmentation. Meaning that defragmenting becomes a much
smaller task.

- My Windows folder and 'Windows type stuff' Program Files reside on a
seperate physical drive to the other Program File folders. This is faster
than one disk drive going backwards and forwards between Windows and other
applications.

Yes. But that's a completely different issue than the one we were
discussing, which had to do with partitions on a single drive, not
multiple physical drives. Yes, separating things on different physical
drives can make things faster. But again, that's irrelevant to the
topic under discussion.

- Too much folder navigation is a nightmare.

Irrelevant. Navigating from folder to folder on one drive is easier
and faster than navigating to different drives.

Perhaps I'm just too comfortable with working with drive letters. I've done
it for too long at work.

I certainly understand that what has worked for you in the past
provides comfort and it can be difficult to change from it. But the
issue here is not just what *you* are comfortable with, but what is
best for the others that we make recommendations to here.

I possibly do have a few too many partitions,

In my view, you have *far* too many partitions. But again, I'm not
trying to persuade you to change, but to give useful advice to the
many others who read here.

but I
could never ever be comfortable having just the one partition that gets all
the crap thrown at it.

Your choice, of course.

By the way, you might be interested in reading my general advice on
partitioning in this article I recently wrote: "Understanding Disk
Partitioning" at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=326