Multiple Partitions?

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I’ve just gotten a new computer with Win 7 installed. In previous versions of Windows I’d always created a separate partition for a data drive, basically so that I could do simple backups with batch files. I’ve decided that it’s time to grow up and get a real backup program. With a real backup program, is there any reason to keep data in a separate partition? If there’s no reason not to, I’ll just go ahead and put things in the Documents folder. Thanks in advance for your advice.

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Mark Hi and welcome

there is always a good reasont to park data on a different partition. I would suggest you continue. My own strategy is to move data to D: and use acronis to back up to back up oth differently.

Ken

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I feel safer backing up to a separate drive, be it an internal or external one. Backup programs like Acronis (there is a trial version) and Macrium Reflect (there is a free version) will allow for full or incremental images of your drive. You can also elect to backup folders/files only. I suggest experimenting with both and then making a decision about which suits you best.

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I’ve just gotten a new computer with Win 7 installed. In previous versions of Windows I’d always created a separate partition for a data drive, basically so that I could do simple backups with batch files. I’ve decided that it’s time to grow up and get a real backup program. With a real backup program, is there any reason to keep data in a separate partition? If there’s no reason not to, I’ll just go ahead and put things in the Documents folder. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Partitioning is purely a personal decision. Many people feel partitioning is worth the effort so that if you have to reload your operating system you can freely format the OS partition without fear of destroying your data. I don’t feel it is worth the effort as I have a thorough backup system and I’m nervous about missing a file or folder when moving things to a data partition and losing it. If I have to reload my OS then I have to restore my data too. Since more & more of my data, particularly pictures, music, & videos, are stored on a Windows Home Server restoring my other data is no big deal.

The other thing to remember is that if you disk drive goes out all partitions will be lost. You still need to have a complete backup plan.

Joe

--Joe

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As mentioned, personal choice these days, sometimes it still makes sense if less capatious hard drives are in use and I like to keep data on a seperate partition or hard drive in a multi-boot system so I don’t have to point one system drive into another to keep data all in one place.

Check out http://www.clickfree.com and the USB drive transformer which is a smart dongle that goes between system and USB drive and searches everywhere on the system for data and backs it up to the USB drive, no hassles or uncertainty about getting data backed up no matter where it resides.

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Separating your user data will allow you to make less frequent backups of your C: drive since there would be little on it that would change. You could, for example, backup the C: drive monthly while doing a backup of user files weekly or even daily.

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Two drive are better than one as far as backups go. I’d definately get another drive.
I’m all for partitioning, it’s certainly alot better than letting your os crash with all your data… at least you’ll have the partition to restore from.
If you have another drive with your backups on it, the chances of losing data go down quite a bit more than just a partition on the same drive.

whatever works for you, even backing up folders to CD/DVDs are enough for some folks.

If your data is simple and not painfull enough for you to lose when you crash, than your current solution is fine.

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I used to create a seperate data partition. This was during the 95/98/me/xp era when the OS really needed reinstallation once per year. Now, with the stability and security in Win 7, plus the easy ability to back up your data or entire PC as necessary, I have realized, that from my perspective, this seems an un-necessary redundancy. I do not recommend one way or the other, this is just my preference for what it’s worth

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Have 2x HDD in system. All programs installed on system drive.
All media files (Pics, Video, Music) and backups stored on 2nd drive.
Use Acronis for Image backups creating image of system drive, stored on 2nd Drive. Create image every 2 weeks, manually.
Using SyncBackupSE, data files for “My Doc, Thunderbird, and Firefox profiles are auto-backup to 2nd drive daily.
Once a month I data copy ALL of 2nd drive to an external drive (via eSata link) using SyncBackSE.
This give me redundant backup copies for system and data files.

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I use multiple partitions and multiple drives. I separate OS, Programs, Documents and Settings, and different types of data into multiple partitions across multiple drives and use drive images for backup. I turn off System Restore, relying on my images instead.

Prior to installing Windows 7, I was dual-booting XP. This link (no ads) explains my setup then. I’m slowly working on getting my Windows 7/XP dual boot setup into a similar configuration.

I have added a third hard drive which I use as a target for my drive images. From there, I burn DVD’s for “safe” storage. I have a similar setup on my laptop, where I use an external USB drive as a backup target. Magnetic media will eventually fail, so a comprehensive backup system should include safe storage such as DVD’s. If your really paranoid, you can store the DVD’s in a fireproof/waterproof box.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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The direction of this thread has shifted somewhat from partitioning strategy to drive strategy. Several people have mentioned the use of external drives, usually implying USB external drives.

When I was deciding to add external storage, I rejected USB as well as ESATA and 1394 Firewire in favour of NAS storage. The LAN based storage is likely slower but it offers several advantages as follows:
-Storage is always available to all systems on the LAN independent of any one system.
-The typical NAS enclosure provides an FTP server and Print server that operate independent of any one system.
-In the case of the FTP server, the data can be made available from anywhere on the Internet, greatly simplifying travel with a laptop or netbook.
-As a backup location, it provides an additional level of security by totally isolating the NAS drives from any system problems.

I don’t see any reason user directories could not be located on NAS drives but I don’t do so, in part because I think it would be slow, and because I otherwise only infrequently access the drives allowing them to spin down and remain in a standby state most of the time.

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Thanks so much to everyone for the great input. I think I’m going to try going with one big partition/drive; if I feel that doesn’t work well, I can always break it down. Ted Myers hit the nail on the head when he remarked on the need for an annual reformat of the main partition back in the XP days–keeping data on a separate drive made doing that reformat/reinstallation a lot easier. If Windows 7 has advanced to the point where one doesn’t need to clean it out this way from time to time (I kind of thought of it as giving my system a high colonic), that eliminates a lot of the motive for keeping OS and data on separate partitions.

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Ted Myers hit the nail on the head when he remarked on the need for an annual reformat of the main partition back in the XP days–keeping data on a separate drive made doing that reformat/reinstallation a lot easier.

To me, that strategy/religious belief of an at-least-annual reformat/reinstall of Windows is pure bunk.

Keeping a Windows installation lean and responsive is a matter of using fairly simple, routine maintenance and a bit of common sense. I have not done the reformat/reinstall dance since I first installed Windows 95 OSR2 (the PC, a Packard Bell, came with WFWG 3.11. Yeah, they used to sell Packard Bell’s in the US). I have a Windows installation that began life as Windows 95 OSR2, upgraded inplace to Windows 98, upgraded inplace to Windows 2000 Professional, upgraded in place to Windows XP Professional, patched and Service Packed to SP3. The registry has never seen a “registry cleaner”.

The PC that installation lives in has been upgraded in hardware over the years to the extent that there is absolutely nothing left of the original PC, not even the case, yet the XP Pro SP3 still thrives, is still quick and responsive, without a BSOD ever. I have never used System Restore, and in fact I turn it off on all my machines. I rely on BootIt NG drive images for backup. Using multiple drives/partitions makes imaging quick and simple. There are multiple users on this machine, including my 16 year old gamer son. I am now dual-booting Windows 7 on it.

I have a Dell D800 that I ordered with only XP Pro installed back in late 2003. I partitioned that drive, installed my software, and have never done the reformat/reinstall dance with that machine, either. Over time, I’ve replaced the video card and the motherboard, upgraded to a larger drive with my drive images, and it’s just as quick as when it was new. I am now dual-booting Windows 7 on this laptop, also. My daughter has a D600 nearly the same age, and it had a hard drive failure a couple of years ago. Restored the drive image on the replacement drive, and it runs as well as it did when it came out of the box. She recently upgraded to Windows 7. I have a Compaq desktop from the late ’90’s running the original Windows 98 SE, and it hasn’t lost a step, either.

Before I was “downsized” the company I worked for had thousands of Compaq PC’s running 2000 Pro and MS Office as well as other programs. All email stayed on the MS Exchange servers, with user quotas. We would get occaissional reminders to delete old email if we neared the quota. The IT department never did a reformat/reinstall. A couple of my friends worked in IT. They replaced broken hardware on occaission, upgraded and maintained the networking, and pushed software upgrades/patches through the network. Shortly before I left, they had begun upgrading to XP using drive images of an inplace upgrade over Windows 2000 Professional on a standard desktop and a standard laptop, along with phasing over from Compaq to Dell. They transitioned the Dell’s in by imaging the Compaq XP installation, installing the Dell drivers and Dell OEM Enterprise license key, then making that image the default template for the rest of the Dell’s as they came in. When users with special apps/needs were due for replacement laptops/desktops, IT would image their old drive and then restore the image to the new laptop/desktop. If any standard user due for a replacement PC had files they wanted to save, they were given an opportunity to do so, and then transfer to their new PC.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I still like the idea of a separate drive for my Win 7 OS which I keep as small as reasonably possible so as to make my frequent drive images smaller and take less time to create. I don’t want my data including all of my program files on my C drive. I keep it on a separate partition as well as my external drive for backup.

Partition Wizard is free and is easy to use.
http://www.partitionwizard.com/

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Partition Wizard is free and is easy to use.
http://www.partitionwizard.com/

I concur, the home edition of Partition Wizard was wonderful. The Win 7 partitioning app works reasonably well (Disk Management Console under Computer Management) as far as creating partitions, but for stronger recovery of partitions ( I was able to recover that pesky Recovery Partition all manufacturers place at the front of your hard drive instead of giving your a dvd to do this) using Partition Wizard, for FREE!!!

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I’m glad this strategy worked for you. It sounds like you spend considerable time updating and rebuilding your systems and have a great deal of knowledge to do this appropriately. I applaude you for that. I used to have that kind of time. However, the average user has no concept of these things. For those people, who use their PC’s to surf the web, e-mail and play games, and constantly are bombarded by unscrupulous individuals offering god knows what, or web sites that do things to their PCs without their knowledge, or who don’t know not to open e-mails from unknown sources, or who believe all these schemes they are constantly bombarded with, for those people a complete reinstall or return to factory install may be the only way to solve their problems. In place upgrades simply propagate the problems of the old OS to the new OS. Yes this strategy works for you, but will not work for thousands of other less knowledgeable users out there, some of which read these forums to attempt to gain the knowledge to do some of what you do.

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I used to have that kind of time. However, the average user has no concept of these things.

For one thing, it takes surprisingly little time. Secondly, I look at this board, and others on which I am a registered contributor, as a means of putting useful information out there for the people who want to learn how software and hardware work, so that they can indeed solve their own problems.

A reformat/reinstall teaches one how to reformat/reinstall, and even that is sometimes frought with problems and calls for help. Finding out what is going wrong and how to fix it, one learns many things and builds up a knowledge base of what to do/not do in order to keep a system responsive and functioning reasonably well.

Just read my signature…

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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However, the average user has no concept of these things

Well, probably has a concept or wouldn’t be using a computer but we do forget how easy it is for some of us who haven’t been infected by anything in the last decade and are running nimble systems almost six years out from the last install (XP SP2). I would probably be a terrrible sample of the population as a whole since my hardware failure rate far exceeds my software failure or corruption rate.

Its still hard to let the “need for an annual reformat” comment remain unremarked upon but I try to zip it (as in my literary tongue) for the good of the royal we. I wouldn’t take one step without System Restore though, its been saving my bacon since the days of ME. I image many of my systems as well and find system restore and imaging in no way mutually exclusive or redundant and hardly even relatable to one another.

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Well, probably has a concept or wouldn’t be using a computer

How often does one of your family members ask you for help with their PC because “something happened, and I did not do anything”? This happens to me a lot. From my 80 year old mother who uses her PC to e-mail, print receipies and play Pogo. She has no concept of the ways her PC can become infected or troublesome. To my sister who knows just enough to get into trouble, but does not spend the time to investigate how to use windows or fix her problems, to my adult children and their kids who use dad or grandpa as a resource to solve problems on their PC that just “appeared”. There are more people that have no concept of the problems that are created than most of us realize. How many of us are there on this and other forums. Then look at the total number of PCs out there. Look at how many of you make a nice living fixing other people’s PCs. It’s pretty obviously that large numbers of users have no concept of these problems.

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Its still hard to let the “need for an annual reformat” comment remain unremarked upon but I try to zip it (as in my literary tongue) for the good of the royal we. I wouldn’t take one step without System Restore though, its been saving my bacon since the days of ME. I image many of my systems as well and find system restore and imaging in no way mutually exclusive or redundant and hardly even relatable to one another.

On this and other boards I have seen many, many pleas for help from folks who tried System Restore to get out of trouble, and it wouldn’t work. I have never had a drive image fail me, except on a failed hard drive, which only requires replacing the drive to make the drive image restoration work.

That’s one of the reasons I use several partitions, sized large enough to suit their intended purpose and no larger. Drive images are quick, simple, and reliable. Imaging of different partitions can follow different schedules; not everything needs to be imaged at the same time. My desktop now has over 760GB total storage, but if I get a little too tweaky in the registry and wind up with a non-booting system, I only have to restore a 10GB drive image and a 20GB drive image to have everything just like it was before.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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